Villa Neviera by Archigemma Studio Restores Authentic Character
Villa Neviera, located in Cellina, Italy, was restored by Archigemma Studio in 2022. Known as “Il Rifugio,” it preserved historic features and sustained a connection with the surrounding landscape and structures. Now a hotel, the building’s authentic character remains intact, promoting local culture and ensuring economic compatibility within the tourism sector. The project focused on preserving its typological elements while adding native vegetation and eco-friendly features. Villa Neviera exemplifies sustainable development and the importance of collective conservation efforts.
The mission of the intervention, highlights a heritage too often denatured, emphasizing the need for far-reaching actions. The objective was to safeguard the relationship with the surrounding landscape, without neglecting or modifying the raison d’être of the main building and other structures present in the area.
Villa Neviera, better known as “The Refuge” because it hosted King Victor Emmanuel III during his stay in Brindisi, is part of an entire real estate complex subject to intervention, immersed in the Brindisi countryside. The project therefore pursues the task of conserving the equality of the place, without planning extensions and/or typological, material, and geometric transformations of the structures; it reaffirms the general principle of considering every maintenance and recovery intervention as part of a collective action aimed at preserving the landscape.
The new use of the area highlights the characteristics of landscape compatibility such as: conservation of the original building typological layout, conservation of the original construction features, increase of autochthonous vegetative elements, project eco-sustainability, and reversibility of modifications.
Recently, the villa has been included in an investment plan by Cantina Due Palme, which aims to preserve its most authentic characteristics, committing to restoring an object of inestimable historical-cultural value for the entire Cellinese community. Promoting local culture and, not least, enhancing economic compatibility related to the tourism sector, is the only guarantee for durable and economically sustainable development.
Photography courtesy of Archigemma Studio
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