NeatStudio’s House in Roccamare, living between the pine forest and the sea

Through the book "Privato Mediterraneo", the architect Giorgio Cerrai, founder of NeatStudio, has collected and recounted the entire genesis of “House in Roccamare”, a residential project built in the province of Grosseto, a few kilometres north of Castiglione della Pescaia.
The villa has been built in a beautiful location, immersed in the greenery of a thick natural pine forest that grows along the seafront and is partly bordered by the Tonfone, a small watercourse whose mouth is right on the beaches of Roccamare.
From the path of immersion and discovery in the natural environment, well documented by images and sketches in the book, the architect draws colours, chiaroscuro and other elements used in the project. The new residence occupies the site of two previous residential buildings built in the 1960s. Throughout the 20th century, Roccamare was the holiday destination of prominent figures from the worlds of culture, politics and entertainment, from Italo Calvino, who set his book Palomar here, to Carlo Fruttero, Sophia Loren, Roger Moore and others. Bearing witness to this important past are the architectural works scattered in the pine forest, including interesting examples of Italian modernism such as Villa Bartolini, designed in the middle of the last century by the architect Ernesto Nathan Rogers, or Villa Settepassi, designed by the architect Pier Niccolò Berardi, who with the Gruppo Toscano created the plan for the Santa Maria Novella station in Florence.
Having demolished the two pre-existing buildings that had been in a state of neglect for many years, the architect made moderation his guiding principle. This simplicity was strongly desired and achieved in the choice of construction solutions, materials, and details and that draws inspiration, as Cerrai himself says, from the “refined minimalism of great masters such as Souto De Moura and Peter Zumthor”. Blue and green, the dominant colours of the surrounding nature, come to life in the interior of the house and blend in with the surroundings through the large windows that surround the building. The house in the middle of the pine forest becomes, as desired by the client, a special vantage point over the horizon and the sea.

(Agnese Bifulco)

Images courtesy of NeatStudio

Project Name: House in Roccamare
Location: Castiglione della Pescaia, Tuscany, Italy
Architectural Design: Giorgio Cerrai, NeatStudio
Collaborators: Debora De Carlo, Francesca Pepe
Administrative coordination and works direction: Pier Francesco Mucci
Structural design: Studio Bellucci
Mechanical systems: Studio di Ingegneria Comper & Associati
Electrical systems: Studio d’ingegneria Menicacci
Construction company: Bruni Giorgio & Ivo srl
Made—to—measure fittings: Busnelli Corporate
Photos: Pietro Savorelli, NeatStudio

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