How to breathe new life back into a trullo and a lamia

Interior esigner Gian Paolo Guerra has transformed two farm buildings in ostuni into a charming residence

Three summers ago, a professional couple from Rome fell in love with the area around Ostuni and, guided by his Apulian origins, decided to establish his buen ritiro there. So they began to build a lamia (a traditional Apulian building once used as a shelter for peasants) from scratch near a Saracen trullo (a traditional building with a domed roof used as sheds by farmers), on piece of land rich in olive trees. The husband and wife team (an engineer and lawyer respectively) began discussions with the interior designer Gian Paolo Guerra. The result is a blend of basic rural style and contemporary design, with forms and colours that are a continuation of the landscape: a charming residence roughly twenty kilometres from the sea intended for long summer holidays.

The lamia, a stone structure plastered with lime, in the shade of the olive trees and extended by a pergola entrance, features a large living area with adjacent kitchen, two bedrooms and two bathrooms, with the trullo space now transformed into suites, it has a total area of 120 square metres, plus a one hectare garden with a swimming pool. Throughout the lamia, the large windows highlight the dialogue with the exterior solutions, two pergolas with areas for socialising and hosting, and the swimming pool with the annexed hot tub; the indoor/outdoor connection is in balance with the surrounding landscape, characterised by the lushness of the hundred-year old olive trees.

Gian Paolo Guerra tells Ville&Casali that he conceived the layout of the spaces and the furnishing solutions together with the owners: ‘They asked me to incorporate different contemporary elements; I thought about not going too far in this direction, but of harmonising them with classic furnishings and reclaimed objects.’