In Sardinia, a display of letter and culture rises from the rubble

This article is part of our design department about the reverence of handmade things.

It took nearly five years to buy Kyre Chenven and Ivano Atzori to buy a group of destroyed homes in southern Sardinia.

Buildings with a single -floor, or rather, the skeletons that remained, were once formed Foridroco, a type of joint agricultural society in the southwestern region of the Italian island. Farmstead, which was likely to be built in the nineteenth century, was home to a sprawling family that has long abandoned the village’s life. However, since 2022, the property has taken a new identity: such as Luxi BIA, a prepared rural refuge where curious visitors can indulge in the local culture and the natural environment.

“I think there are 14 people present when we signed the deal,” said Ms. Chenvin, a 46 -year -old woman with a short crop of blond hair and shock from the red lip stain. She was continuing Mr. Atouri, 48 – whose long gray hair was linked to a pair of French braids that were located on his shoulders – through their garden of olive trees while showing that the complex genetic traditions of Sardinia mean that homes were often divided between the heirs of the room. It took a full year from the spouses and a lot of reports to collect all family members and persuade them to sell.

Mrs. Chenvin and Mr. Atouri moved with their two children from Tuscany to Sardinia in 2014. Although they spent a vacation on the island and Mr. Atouri, there were family roots there, but he was in a state of hiding. Mrs. Chenvin grew up in San Diego and later worked as a specific designer in New York City, and her husband, who is a pre -writing artist drew under the name Dombo nickname, born in Milan.

The spouses were withdrawn to the deep history of Sardinia and the classes. He lives for the first time in the Stone Age.

The first Sardini project, called Pretziada (“The Foot” in Sardinian), is married to contemporary international designers with local craftsmen to produce handmade things and furniture. The groups included a hand-sized fabric depicting the infrastructure of Normuk-prehistoric stone structures that are unique to the island-and modernized by modern marriage vases.

Luxi Bia (Loo-Ze Bee-UH), which translates into “light that was seen”, represents a strange interpretation of local culture. In the simplest, it is a set of holiday homes. But for Mrs. Chenvin and Mr. Atouri, it represents a different approach to tourism – which allows curiosity about Sardinia to experience a world that is often ignored.

Luxi bia sits at the bottom of a shallow dish between the rolling hills, and its slopes full of flexible trees, pomegranate and almonds that are in late winter on the verge of rush to flowers. From the top of the hill, a medium shrapnel from the Mediterranean Sea is shown, which is very far to see pale rosy flaming birds wandering in shallow swamps and rocky beaches that disappear in the virgin turquoise waters 20 minutes by car.

Mrs. Chenvin and Mr. Ezori designed Luxi Bia to closely comply with the traditional Foridruku. White stone houses are sitting in a narrow group, surrounded by several rings of stone walls and a fast -expanded width of the thorny pear aloe vera.

After completing their home in 2017, they renewed a hut to host the visiting designers working with Pretziada. This project, which became the guesthouse called La Residenza, was completed in 2022.

The latest addition to the complex, available for rent on its website, is Casa Corte, consisting of two bedrooms, where Casa Cubo, consisting of one bedroom later this year. The two units sit side by side in the same narrow building, as they occupy a precise imprint for the original stone house.

“The traditional architecture has always been boxes to be added to your family’s growth,” said Ms. Channvin on the long rectangular structure. “We wanted to use this type of concept.”

When rebuilding destroyed homes, Mrs. Chenvin and Mr. Atouri committed to the largest possible number of colloquial features while maintaining the health of contemporary pretziaada aesthetics.

Flooring, for example, was originally cement or destructive ground – materials are not ideal for modern comfort or durability. Instead, the couple used the Terra Kota tiles made of local soil by a company based in the nearby northern Cagliari. Bishop is a traditional texture of The woven cane that was placed in its place by the Junarled Juniper branches, coated with beeswater from a local product to give them a Zanjar hazelnut.

“It is clear that the original houses did not have these large windows,” said Ms. Channvin, referring to the glass wall from the floor to the ceiling that overwhelms a cup of corte with a afternoon light. “For us, it was more than a visual language.”

However, the ceiling is authentic, made of Terra Kuta tiles saved from the current rubble. The couple and the teenagers spent in days removing moss and dirt from each piece by hand. “I think one of the ingredients that keeps this engine is definitely crazy,” said Ms. Chenvon.

Inside the houses there are furniture and things from Pretziada. In the CASA CORTE living room, a side table inspired by the claw -like feet is located from traditional carved wooden boxes, designed with ash wood and Sardini Erossian marble. Created by Ambroise Maggiar, a French product designer cooperating with Karmine Piras, Sardinian Woodwormer, and Stonemasons in CP Basalti, a local company. At the top of the fireplace filled on the other side of the room, there is a group of bright black ships by the daughter of Mr. Piras, Maria Paula Piras, a ceramic.

In the bedroom, Armour stands in the shape of an oval in the chocolate color, with uninterrupted bronze devices inspired by the work of the sculptor Sardini Costino Nifola, next to a huge wooden bed with a wavy front board, saw. Both are designed by Pretziada Studio and fabricated by Pierpaolo Mandis, a third -generation carpenter of Mogoro, a village in the center of the island.

Although both Pretziada and Luxi Bia are derived from the aesthetics of Sardini – and the craftsmanship used to achieve them – Ms. Chenvin and Mr. Atouri said that the value of the project exceeds the surface call.

“We want to create an economy,” said Ms. Chenfin. That is why they often produce elements in the runs instead of limited versions, ensuring that their craftsmen have a fixed source of income, and why they largely have listed luxi bia materials from narrative companies. The couple did not install a swimming pool on the property because they wanted visitors to find their way to one of the numerous local beaches, and in this process they are granted the stores and restaurants surrounding it.

They criticized the increasing trend of popular design projects because many said, they benefited from the attractiveness of traditional crafts without making an effort to understand or preserve those who practice them.

Mr. Atouri said: “We are responsible for being cultural translators,” creating bridges between the island and the rest of the world. “