The home of time

ON A HILLSIDE NEAR THE CENTER OF FLORENCE, A VILLA FULL OF ERUDITE REFERENCES. WITH AN EYE ON THE 1960S.

Bellosguardo: beautiful view. The neighborhood thus named in Florence lives up to its billing. The project seen here is a total redesign of an existing building, without altering the volumes, in compliance with local architectural dictates. «We love Florence, and we wanted a larger home here», the owner explains. «In 2013 we found this house, which was rather ugly, to be honest… but we fell in love with the location». The nod for the renovation went to Dimorestudio. «They proposed an immediately convincing idea», based on a precise moment in the architectural history of the city: the 1950s and 1960s, a period of courageous, unconventional houses. Other erudite references included Carlo Scarpa and Osvaldo Borsani. The operation has been complex, conserving the original structure (with the exception of the roof, no longer pitched to make room for terraces). Dimorestudio’s first step changed the facade, now in stone and concrete with metal details. «We wanted a link between two different worlds: the rural modernism of the postwar Florentine school and the maniacal detailing of Scarpa», says Giuseppe Porcelli, Art & Design Director at Dimorestudio. The garden has also been redesigned, with the help of Lorenzo Venturini/Dimensione Verde. Inside the 600 m2 on three levels, the central feature is the two-story living area. The furnishings are an eclectic blend of the tastes of the owners and the designers: historic design pieces from the 1940s on, and various items designed by Dimorestudio in their Dimoremilano Progetto Non Finito collection.