Balancing memory and design

There is a moment, climbing along the road that crosses the hills of Tuscany Metallifera, when the landscape opens up like a curtain. The hills stretch out, the air smells of resin and salty wind, and among the maritime pines, this beautiful villa emerges. A nineteenth-century residence suspended between land and sea, ancient yet surprisingly alive.

The villa, built by a family from Livorno next to the existing farmhouses, was created with a clear intention: to look out over the sea. It is a primordial, instinctive gesture that still defines its identity today. From this vantage point, the horizon opens up wide, while the geometry of the cultivated fields accompanies the gaze like a natural, orderly, and reassuring pattern.

It is at this point in the visit that one understands that one is entering a place that lives in balance between memory and design. And it is precisely in this balance that the design sensibility of AND Studio and architect Silvia Petri comes into play, capable of listening and dialoguing with the visionary co-designer, designer, and internationally renowned artist Gabriela Brunner. Not a neutral restoration, but a shared gesture: an intertwining of architectural restoration, modern design, and creative imagination.

Inside, the spaces tell a new story. The project transforms them into an artist's residence, where every room invites creation and contemplation. The walls dialogue through delicate shades of green, bright and soft, while natural materials and tactile surfaces evoke Mediterranean simplicity. Contemporary design, with retro nuances, accompanies the rooms like a familiar melody, discreet but indispensable.

Here, light is not just illumination: it is scenic writing. The lighting design emphasizes heights, niches, and ancient geometries; it slides along the walls, caresses the furnishings, frames the windows, transforming each room into a microcosm that changes with the hours of the day.

Just beyond the threshold, a silent but powerful surprise: a specially designed floor, an original pattern that reinterprets historical motifs in a contemporary key. A texture that unites interior and exterior, stitching together the past and the desire for the future.

Thus, step by step, the villa reveals its deepest essence: a place that chooses to be reborn through time, preserving its soul and opening itself up to a new interpretation. A poetic refuge in the most intimate part of Tuscany, where history is not only preserved—but shared, reinvented, and lived.