Wellness · Tuscany, Italy · Concept Study
Villa Serena Spa
Wellness retreat, ~800 m²
Design Question
How does a thousand-year-old stone feel as if it has never aged?
Site & Context
The concept is set among Tuscany's soft hills, converting an old farmhouse buried between olive terraces. The region's logic is clear: buildings follow the contours of the land and never challenge it. Local travertine from the quarries, the shade of olive trees and the low, dusty-gold seasonal light are the site's own data. The project chooses to produce healing from the land's material and the history of water on it, rather than from an imported set of symbols.
In Tuscany the wellness category tends to fall into two clichés: an unrestored, authentic but neglected farmhouse, or a minimalist white spa box that could be anywhere. Villa Serena rejects both. Stone, olive and hillside views all stay, but they are worked with precisely cut, architectural craft, an old age that is curated rather than rough. The result is not a restored farmhouse but a contemporary reading of a historic material.
Materials & Palette
The backbone of Villa Serena is a single material: precisely cut, large-format travertine on walls, floors and pool edges, repeated on purpose so the building speaks in one voice. Deep olive green recurs as the building's signature colour in every main space, one loyal tone at different intensities. The one exception is the treatment layer, where the palette deliberately leaves travertine for dark marble, smoked glass and candlelight, because the moment of treatment asks for a different kind of privacy.
Design Intent
Villa Serena Spa was designed without borrowing from elsewhere: the land's own stone, light and silence, simply cut again with a clearer hand.
