Determined by location – Sardinia

Set within the elements of the Sardinian landscape and rugged terrain of countless rocks and the wild inlet the original house took advantage of only one orientation. Architect Stefania Stera set her goal to create a house whose volumes would not alter the site but would serve to magnify it, in the finest tradition of Porto Cervo.
Porto Cervo, begun in the sixties by the Aga Khan with the Costa Smeralda consortium. To design and build this house, the architect wanted it to be embedded in the site, exploiting all its features. The house is designed to inscribe itself in its whole setting, with a heart that can be inhabited in any season.
So the site and the habitat nurture each other. Materials and craft skills come together and endow the whole with a dimension of durability and humanity. The founding gesture of the project, the one that determines its location, is the plotting of two axes: one projected towards the sea, the other soaring towards the rocky cliffs. Their crossing allows for the articulation of different places important in the site and the layout across both levels.
The ground-floor level was hollowed out of the site. It creates a closer relationship with the sea and better use of the garden. A green terrace, “the flying carpet”, will overlook the sea. A ledge path running along the sea reveals and enhances the waterfront of the site.