Blue sky thinking

Italian architect Mario Mazzer tells identity about his award-winning project, Villa Emma - the perfect marriage of location and innovation.

- PENNY McCORMICK

Located in Porto Rotondo, Sardinia, Villa Emma won the Silver prize in the ‘House of the Year’ category 2019 organised by World Architecture News, one of the most important international awards in architecture.

Designed by Mario Mazzer, who has collaborated with the owner on three previous projects, this was conceived as a holiday home on the island of Sardinia. The island is defined by its rocky coastline and luminous seascapes in jewel colours - from which the famous Costa Smeralda gets its name.

Mazzer incorporated the rigour of the indigenous ‘stazzi ’ - or farmhouses - which were traditionally built from blocks of rough granite stone, abundantly available in the surroundings, topped by a double-pitched roof whose main beam was usually made of local juniper or chestnut wood. These ‘stazzi ’ would usually be exposed towards the south-east to get most of the sun. Applying modernist principles to this traditional design, the result is a seamless internal-external relationship.

Says Mazzer, “This house was designed with a priority placed on structural honesty, the use of natural materials in an innovative way, technical perfection and integration into the environment. It is a universe of lines that play poetically with the sky and the earth and is characterised by a strong connection between outdoor and indoor spaces.”