Casa Santa Teresa
The Ile de Beauté (the Isle of Beauty) is the second name of Corsica; a land full of contrasts and surprises with stunning landscapes from crystal blue waters to snowy mountain peaks. In Ajaccio, birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte, Amelia Tavella worked on a white home called Casa Santa Teresa.
In the Imperial City of Ajaccio, the Iles Sanguinaires are glowing at sunset… Facing them, on the Route des Sanguinaires, Amelia Tavella has just completed the construction of a white house by the sea.
Initially built in the 1950s, the house had to go under a lot of changes but the architect made her point of not damaging its soul and its spirit.
The white building is built overhanging the Mediterranean sea which unfolds a few metres away and can be reached barefoot on the hot slab.
Amelia believes in the memory of walls, in the way it leaves its mark on a space. Pleasure of baths, invasive nature, close proximity to the beach, rocks, the Mediterranean Sea. The house is as if extracted from the city, which is fading in favour of beauty, of silence.
Pivoting doors, alcoves, no partition prevents the view. She wanted beauty to flow, to be an invitation to the horizon, to the imagination. The railings are made of rope, the striped shutters inspired by the shutters and the frame doors let the light circulate while filtering it when it is intense. The different levels, inside the large living room, its fireplace and the upper rooms connected by a wooden staircase, outside the slab path which descends, are all steps to access the beach which is an offering, a trophy, just behind the Sanguinaires road.
The smooth white facade never hits the sky, the plants, the flowers remain the guardians of the swimming pool and its terrace. It is the quintessential vacation home, the one that haunts her memory of happy childhood evenings, when the night embraces the day and beauty is a celebration. "
Born on the island, Amelia Tavella was recently distinguished by the first Corsican Architecture Awards (for her School A Strega). Working on this house brought a lot of memories: memory of the days blushed by the sun, slow or dancing evenings, clear dawn which opens their arms to the one who finally dozes off - beauty is a celebration. Interior and exterior are never untied, but balanced according to the strength or the softness of the light passed through the sieve of the striped shutters, pivoting doors which invite or protect in the vast living room with secret alcoves leading to the upper rooms, while the plants and flowers escort the swim.
Amelia’s architectural promise is clear: " When I build, I don't defeat. There is no betrayal. I proceed by inclusion. Nature invades my projects. It is neither an obstacle nor a hindrance, Nature is my host whom I celebrate. I adapt to the trees, to the light, to the relief. It’s my way of balancing a modern gesture, architecture, with the tradition of a cliff, a ravine. There is something ancestral with nature. I am moved by it, often. I have so much passion for creating, inventing from an already written history. Each time, it's a gamble : inscribe the building in the original space without shocking anything, moving or mistreating it. It’s an extension, not an amputation ”
Pictures by Thibaut Dini.
