Fienile

A ruinous but beloved hay-barn with patterned airbrick was renovated as a sculpture studio in Tuscany. An addition was allowed to the historic building as new Italian rules encourage saving ruins with regional character. The new pitched and inverted-pitched ensemble of two equal volumes is totally off the energy grid.

The new addition has an inverted-pitched roof, which hides the solar panels. Off the grid and on an isolated vineyard, the two volumes play off one another, with the more modern twin peaking out from the historic one. The pitched roof and the inverted pitch are visible on the interior telling the story of their relationship, as does the position of the waterspout on the walled façade on the west – suggesting something collecting water behind the wall. Glass on two of the four walls at the connection of the existing was to resist touching the fienile with the new stone walls. The fienile is now a sculpture studio for a family deep into the arts where marble is readily available to carve. The sculpture studio has large glass doors to move big art pieces out into the exterior courtyard for final detail work and for loading onto a truck below. The basement under the light-filled sculpture studio is a “messy” clay studio with similar views to the cypress-covered hills through a glass garage door. The historic fienile was fully rebuilt to be entirely earthquake-proof and insulated to today’s energy standards, all while retaining the craft of local building methods.