This article is part of the Design Special Section on Respect for Handmade Objects.
It took Kyle Chenben and Ivano Atzoli to purchase clusters of abandoned houses in southern Sardinia.
The one-storey building, or rather, the remaining skeleton, once constituted the Furriadroxu, a kind of farmland community common to the southwest regions of the Italian island. The farm, built in the 19th century, was the home of a vast family that abandoned it for the life of the old village. However, since 2022, the property has been taking on a new identity. As LuxiBia, it is an active rural shelter that allows curious visitors to immerse themselves in the local culture and natural environment.
“I think 14 people were there when we signed the contract,” said Chen Ben, a 46-year-old woman who was shocked by a short harvest of blonde hair and stains on her red lips. She followed Mr. Atzoli, 48 – whose long gray hair was tied up by a pair of French braids that hung over his shoulders – through the grove of olive trees, Sardinian intricate genetic traditions meant that the house was often divided among the heirs in the room. The couple took a year and needed a lot of cajoling to convince the whole family to gather and sell them.
Chenben and Atzoli moved in 2014 with their two children from Tuscany to Sardinia. On vacation on the island, Mr Atli had family roots there, but fundamentally was Terra Incognita. Chen Ben grew up in San Diego and later worked as a set designer in New York City, and her husband, a former graffiti artist who painted under the alias Dumbo, is from Milan.
The couple was drawn to Sardinia's deep, layered history. Although first inhabited during the Stone Age, it has long been defined by its isolation from the mainland, allowing it to cultivate an independent, changing, resistant culture.
Their first Sardinian venture was called Pretziada (Sardinian “valuable”), and combines modern international designers and local artisans to create handmade objects and furniture. The collection includes a tapestry surrounded by hand depicting abstracted, nourishing architecture (prehistoric stone structures endemic to the island), and modernizes decorative wedding vases.
Luxi Bia (pronounced Loo-Zhee Bee-uh) is converted to “Light seen,” but it also represents an outsider's interpretation of local culture. Most essentially it is a collection of Holiday Homes. But for Chen Ben and Atzoli, it represents a different approach to tourism. It allows those who are curious about Sardinia to experience a world that is often overlooked.
Luxiebier sits at the bottom of a shallow dish in a gentle hill, and in winter, slopes dotted with mastic, pomegranate and almond trees that are blown away in the winter are beginning to bloom. From the top of the hill, a faint Mediterranean sliver appears in view, too far to see a drive down a 20-minute distance across shallow wetlands and stone-like beaches that disappear into shallow wetlands and stone-like turquoise waters.
Chenven and Atzori designed the Luxi Bia to match as closely as possible with the traditional Furriadroxu. The whitewashed stone house is located in a narrow cluster surrounded by several rings of stone walls and a rapidly expanding fence of stimulating pear cactus.
After completing their own home in 2017, they renovated the cottage to host visiting designers who work at Pretziada. The project, which became a guesthouse called La Residenza, ended in 2022.
The latest addition to the complex that can be rented through the website is the two-bedroom Casa Corte, and the one-bedroom Casa Cubo is expected to continue later this year. The two units sit side by side in the same narrow building, occupies the exact footprint of the original stonework.
“Traditional architecture was a box that was always added as your family grew,” Chen Ben said of the long, rectangular structure. “We wanted to use the same kind of concept.”
In reconstructing the ruined home, Chenben and Atzoli remained true to the modern aesthetics of Prepusiada, while still clinging to the characteristics of other slang terms as closely as possible.
For example, the floor would have originally been poured cement or charged soil. This is not ideal for modern comfort or durability. Instead, the couple used terracotta tiles made from local soil by a company based north of nearby Cagliari. The ceiling is a traditional tapestry The fabric, which Gnarled Juniper branches hold in place, is coated with beeswax from local producers. Hazelnut patina.
“Obviously, the original home didn't have these big windows,” Chen Ven said, referring to the floor-to-ceiling glass walls filled with afternoon light. “For us, it was about visual language.”
However, the roof is genuine and is made from terracotta tiles recovered from existing ruins. The couple and their two teenagers spent days hand-cleaning moss and dirt from each piece. “I think one of the materials that keeps this engine running is definitely crazy,” Chen Ben said.
Inside the house is Pretziada furniture and objects. Casa Corte's living room features side tables inspired by traditional carved wooden chest foot-like legs, made from ash wood and Sardinian orosai marble. It was created by Sardinian woodworker Karmine Piras and Ambroise Maggiar, a French product designer who works with Stonemasons of local company CP Basalti. The tiled hearth on the other side of the room is a flock of shiny black containers by the potters of Mr. Pilas, daughter of Mr. Pilas.
In the bedroom, inspired by the work of Sardinian sculptor Costantino Nibola with amorphous sandcast bronze hardware dressed in oval chocolate-colored armor, it is set next to a monumental wooden bed with a wavy sawtooth headboard. Both were designed by Pretziada Studio and manufactured by Pierpaolo Mandis, a third-generation carpenter in Mogoro, a village in the heart of the island.
Both Pretziada and Luxi Bia painted from Sardinian aesthetics, but the craft knowledge used to make them happen was Chenben and Atzoli who said the value of the project exceeded the appeal of the surface.
“We want to create an economy,” Chen Ben said. This is why they produce items primarily on the running rather than on limited editions, she says, ensuring that their artisan colleagues have a consistent source of income. The couple has not set up a pool at the facility as they hope that visitors will reach one of the many local beaches and patronize surrounding shops and restaurants in the process.
They criticized the growth trends of folk-style design projects as many said they exploited the appeal of traditional crafts without making an effort to understand it or maintain those who practice it.
“We feel a responsibility to become a cultural translator,” Atli said, “creating a bridge between the island and the world.”
