Casa nell’agro di Ostuni is a private house in the Apulian countryside that reworks an abandoned rural concrete structure into a restrained domestic architecture, grounded in material continuity, spatial clarity, and a measured relationship with landscape and light.
Casa nell’agro di Ostuni Technical Information
- Architects: Tela Architettura, Giovanni Pianigiani
- Location: Ostuni, Italy
- Gross Area: 150 m2 | 1,615 Sq. Ft.
- Project Years: 2023 – 2025
- Photographs: © Nicolò Panzeri
We treated the existing structure as a given condition, allowing its proportions to guide the project rather than replacing it with a new form.
– Giovanni Pianigiani
Reclaiming an Unfinished Rural Structure
The project originates from an incomplete concrete shell discovered in the countryside surrounding Ostuni, a fragment of rural expansion left unresolved. Rather than approaching the structure as a flaw to be corrected, the design accepts it as a primary framework. Its geometry, proportions, and footprint become the basis for a permanent dwelling shaped through selective preservation.
Interventions operate through subtraction, alignment, and extension, avoiding demolition in favor of measured modification. The original volume is reconfigured internally and extended with controlled precision, allowing the new construction to read as a continuation rather than an override. Old and new are tied together through consistent material treatments and proportional logic, establishing continuity without reliance on contrast.
Spatial Continuity and Domestic Landscape
The interior is conceived as a continuous spatial field, articulated by a sequence of planes that shift rather than terminate. Floors, walls, and ceilings are treated as connected surfaces, enabling furniture and circulation to emerge from the architecture itself. This approach reduces the presence of autonomous objects, reinforcing spatial coherence.
Large glazed openings minimize the threshold between interior rooms and the surrounding olive grove. Living spaces extend visually into the landscape, while built-in elements such as the staircase to the pool, fireplace, seating, and master bed are absorbed into the architectural fabric. These elements act as spatial anchors, guiding movement without introducing enclosure.
Materiality, Light, and Tactile Experience
A limited palette defines the house. Lime plaster and sand-toned microcement form a continuous envelope across floors, walls, and built-in components. These materials reference local construction traditions while maintaining a restrained neutrality that allows form and light to remain legible.
Natural light is carefully modulated. Northern exposure provides soft, even illumination that flattens contrasts and emphasizes surface texture, while eastern openings introduce warmer morning light. Iron window frames trace thin lines against the pale walls, directing views toward olive trunks and distant horizons. Walnut joinery reintroduces warmth, offering tactile depth within an otherwise muted material system.
Landscape Integration and Climatic Mediation
The house settles into the site through a system of dry-stone walls constructed from local stone. These terraces negotiate topographic changes and organize access via ramps and steps, aligning movement with the terrain rather than imposing a new order.
Outdoor spaces operate as climatic buffers. Pergolas and the natural canopy of olive trees filter sunlight and temper heat, particularly along the eastern façade. The infinity pool, finished in dark microcement, extends the architectural language into the landscape, reflecting the tones of soil, vegetation, and sea. Built form and cultivated land remain visually continuous, reinforcing a domestic architecture shaped by context rather than separation.
About Tela Architettura
Tela Architettura is a Florence-based architecture studio led by Giovanni Pianigiani. The practice works across residential and small-scale projects with an approach rooted in restraint, material continuity, and a careful dialogue between existing structures, landscape, and light. Their work emphasizes precise interventions, tactile material palettes, and spatial clarity shaped by context rather than formal contrast.
Credits and Additional Notes
- Structural design: Studio Pomes
- General contractor: Gruppo Convertini Costruzioni
- Electrical systems: Fratelli Palmisano di Palmisano Antonio e Giovanni Snc
- Plumbing systems: Termosud di Francioso Vincenzo
- Dining chairs: Thonet No.14 bentwood chairs, vintage set in natural wood
- Dining table: Custom solid wood design by a local craftsman
- Sofa: Custom upholstered piece in natural linen
- Table lamps: Handcrafted ceramic lamps, Le Icone, Cisternino
- Coffee table: La Mercanteria, Ostuni
- Stools: Vintage wooden stools, anonymous design
- Microcement: Euwork – ResinaCemento system
- Lime plaster finish: Euwork – Ecotonachino
- Windows and doors: Steel frames Ottostumm | Mogs – installation by Tecno Service S.C.P.L.S., Acquaviva delle Fonti
- Faucets and fixtures: Treemme – installed by Calò Lenoci Francesco, Ceglie Messapica
- Pool system: GIS Impianti S.R.L., Monopoli
- Landscape supply and planting: Zizzi Garden Center and Design, Fasano
- Lighting systems: IMIEL, Ceglie Messapica
- Wood carpentry: La Falegnameria Veneta S.r.l.
