by Sara Costi
The star feature of this private villa is the swimming pool: the work on the construction, originally built around 40 years ago and designed by the renowned Roman architect Carlo Bevilacqua, was carefully planned to maintain the highly distinctive triangular shape of the construction, the materials used and the design of the ground plan.
The Amazzonia collection of porcelain stoneware tiles gave the architect Simone Capozza the opportunity to work on the existing spaces, applying contemporary solutions without drastically altering the property. The Dragon Grey colour, smoothly combined with the coverings of the villa, was chosen to give continuity to the overall project, and used both for the exterior flooring adjacent to the swimming pool and for a small building used as a tool shed.
The star feature of the project is the long, narrow swimming pool that faces south, in a position that allows for the creation of a large area ideal for sunbathing and for organising parties and aperitifs with friends.
The swimming pool was built in poured reinforced concrete and covered with stone-effect porcelain stoneware tiles in two colours that create a contrast between the interior and exterior: Dragon Black and Dragon Grey. The dark colour was used to tile the interior of the pool, with the intention of giving the water the typical colour of a lake bottom, while the lighter colour was used for the flooring adjacent to it, to brighten the setting and avoid overheating.
In addition, to make it easier for rainwater to run off, a number of slopes were incorporated into the large sunbathing area, while for the collection of the rainwater, special porcelain stoneware gratings were created in the colour Dragon Grey, to create a smooth, continuous look right across the flooring.
For the pool edge, special trims in porcelain stoneware from the Amazzonia collection were used to maintain exactly the same level between the pool edge and the surrounding sunbathing area, thus creating an impressive sense of spatial continuity. The form of the swimming pool interior is also rather unusual, because it features a series of porcelain stoneware steps, made to measure in the same shade as the edge, so it is possible to lie down and sunbathe inside the pool itself.
A series of irregular steps, also in porcelain stoneware, in the lighter colour, solved the problem of the differences in level between the sunbathing area and the entrance to the home: instead of building a containing wall, the architect decided to create a series of steps that slot into the existing vegetation.
