Massimo Adario Revives A Humble Hillside Home Overlooking The Bay Of Naples

Massimo Adario.

Massimo Adario.

A little doesn’t always go a long way. An unadorned white wall or a single chair, positioned just so, can read like an end in itself, rather than an expressive moment or a sharp solution to a design problem. But there are times when a minimalist approach can be mighty pleasing, when restraint can be revelatory.

Overlooking the Bay of Naples with the island of Ischia in the distance, the getaway home of Roman architect Massimo Adario is part of a larger villa that belonged to his great-grandparents. Originally the house of the farmer who maintained the property – including its lemon tree grove – the structure had suffered neglect in recent years. Abandoned, it was crumbling when Adario acquired it. But, expert at residential design and sympathetic to history and context, he did not hesitate to revive it.

“The aspects that most fascinated me about this house, which has the typical structure of the ancient country villas of the Sorrento Peninsula, are the high roof vaults and the thick walls made of local stone,” shares the architect. “I highlighted these two elements, creating a light-blue band – which recalls the color of the sky – that regularizes the thick, irregular walls, while at the same time, enhancing the verticality of the interior spaces.”

The large, unadorned ceiling vaults, painted white, create both spaciousness and the sense of an enveloping canopy. The pervasive roominess of the home stems, too, from an almost sparse arrangement of furniture, which includes bamboo pieces by Tito Agnoli that reminds Adario of childhood vacations by the sea. Lighting pieces – including Achille Castiglioni’s Parentesi lamp and Joe Colombo’s Coupè – provide a more contemporary note.

Adario-designed tiles arrayed around the kitchen and across a bedroom wall (produced by the famed ceramists of Vietri sul Mare on the Amalfi Coast) generate a subtly kinetic effect, like light bouncing off water. The interiors open to a broad terrace lined with two long masonry benches and brass-framed tables topped with local tiles.

The home’s relationship to the outdoors, the surrounding landscape and the sea beyond is central to the impression it makes. Exercising a considered but light touch in these rooms, Adario defers to light and air, to scent and sound. This place, threaded with memory, seems almost elemental itself.

Photography by Laura Fantacuzzi and Maxime Galati-Fourcade.

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