Fōntego Architettura converts rural Florentine barn into space-efficient home

Italian studio Fōntego Architettura has converted a former barn near Florence into Fienile N, a compact house with geometric window screens and mint-green cabinets.

Renovated for a young couple, the two-storey barn is part of a cluster of buildings built across the 19th and 20th centuries in the countryside west of the city.

With no doors or windows, the barn needed significant repairs.

Fōntego Architettura's overhaul involved adding these alongside new sub-foundations, as well as reinforcing the timber structure and replacing the roof and floors.

The owners wanted to keep the first floor as open as possible, exposing the preserved roof trusses and leaving the outer walls untouched.

This led studio founders Francesco Busi and Francesca Romano to give the 80-square-metre house an upside-down layout, placing a bedroom, bathroom and walk-in wardrobe on the lower level.

Fienile N's first floor houses the living and dining spaces, characterised by tall mint-green joinery. These free-standing cabinets organise the space, providing a kitchen, storage and a toilet.

The staircase slots in behind the cabinets, separating the building entrance from the living spaces.

"The biggest challenge was managing the multiple features of the upper floor," co-founder Francesco Busi told Dezeen.

"In about 40 square metres, the goal was to nicely place six areas: entrance, kitchen, dining area, living room, bathroom and storage space. The green volume made the job by working both as a container and a divider."

According to Busi, they chose the colour to pick up the tones of the surrounding greenery.

"The colour was obtained by mixing all the greens of all trees and plants around the barn, from the greyish shade of olive trees to the dark and brilliant tone of cypress," he said.

For the window screens, Fōntego Architettura reinterpreted the region's traditional mandolato – a type of terracotta-brick wall with a perforated honeycomb pattern, used to provide ventilation in rural Italian architecture.

Instead of perforated brickwork, terracotta tiles frame grids of triangular openings, providing shade and ventilation while maintaining views of the pastoral landscape.

Exterior walls are rendered white, allowing these decorative screens to become a dominant feature.

Fienile N forms part of Fōntego's wider renovation of the former agricultural site. The redevelopment is creating six homes, plus a swimming pool and communal facilities.

"The project stands out for its deceptively simple composition, skillfully reinterpreting elements of traditional rural architecture to redefine domestic life within a building that openly embraces its historical roots," added Busi.

Other barn conversions recently featured on Dezeen include Barnard Barn, a mountainside studio and library in Vermont, and Amassa, a yoga retreat by Bindloss Dawes in a French hamlet.

The photography is by Federico Farinatti.

Project credits

Architect: Fōntego Architettura
Contractor: Noccioli costruzioni
Carpentry: CMM arredamenti
Plumbing: Viviani
Electrical: Ciem
Lighting supply: Marini e Pandolfi
Blacksmith: ditta Modi-Giannelli
Painting: Checcucci

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