Casa Sull'Albero
House beneath a Tree
The owner of a marvellous boutique hotel in Tuscany badly wanted a luxurious hotel room on a tree. As luxury and comfort are hard to provide on a tree without killing the tree we’ve planned the house adjacent to the biggest tree we could find on the property – right on the edge of the Cicolina hill. In order to provide views as if you were in the tree the volume is arranged as generous stairs mounting up next to the tree.
A steel/wood construction is hold by a concrete core that contains all technical facilities and subdivides the monospace into a part that lies on the hill and a larger cantilevered part that flies above the slope towards the lower lying Chiana valley.
The interior space is cladded with textured wood panels to provide an intimate “in the trunk”-feeling. Three large openings provide different landscape views. From bed and Loggia you can see over the entire valley onto the mountain range on the other side. The lateral view from the bed goes into the surrounding olive grove, while when lying in the bath tub you find yourself almost within the crone of the tree. Sanitary objects are arranged on a large mirror wall in front of a pile of firewood making you sit between two wood piles. The interior, the tree and the olive grove alike are lit with clusters of white lampions.
Location: Montepulciano (Si), Italy
Team: Silvia Cipirian, Marc Frederking, Luigi Scapin, Jakob Tigges
Client: Azienda Agricola Angela Barbetti
Photography: Evgeniya Savina
Period: 2011-2019