Mental Elemental

Marble meets Minecraftin a Tuscan villa that pays modern homage to its raw materiality

- Cedric Saint Andre Perrin

The scene opens in the Tuscan seaside town of Forte dei Marmi, a quiet resort known for its five-kilometre stretch of beach, flanked by cabins, that exudes a kind of Fellini-esque romance. A two-hour drive from Milan, this sheltered enclave has a chic swagger to it, albeit a low-key one, that’s hard to miss. It was this that served as the starting point for interior designer Vincenzo De Cotiis who, with unfailing vision, reimagined this forty-something-year-old villa in volumes of marble, glass and wood.

‘I wanted to renew it with a strongly mineral aspect that seemed to me to capture the original Art Deco spirit of Forte dei Marmi but this time it would be played out in a minimal, rectilinear design that rid itself of any decorative excess,’ says Vincenzo. ‘Line work is something that has always been a constant in my practice.’