Villa Friuli: the making of a farmhouse in Sacile
From a closed-off farmhouse to an open family home: before photos and the process behind Villa Friuli, among the vineyards of Sacile.
Villa Friuli sits in the countryside of Sacile, one hour north of Venice, surrounded by vineyards and orchards. A young family of five asked us to turn two of the three old farm buildings into their home. Here is what the house looked like when we started, and the steps that took it to the finished project.
The farmhouse as we found it
The ground floor was closed off and divided into small rooms, with the main entrance in the wrong place and very little light reaching the centre of the house. Walls had been painted bright yellow and pink, and later changes hid the original stone and brick.
Reading the old walls
As the plaster came off, the walls told us how the house had grown: river stones, old brick, arches that had been filled in. We kept as much as we could and tested mortar colours on site so that every repair would sit quietly next to the original stone.
A new plan for the ground floor
Moving the main entry gave the house a real sense of arrival, with space for a mud room, a cloakroom and a powder room. Behind it, the old divided rooms became one open space for cooking and gathering, with the arched windows restored to bring in light and views of the orchard.
The master wing under the roof
Upstairs, the original pitched roof and its old beams were cleaned and kept in view. Under them we planned an 80 m² parents’ retreat with vineyard and orchard views on three sides. Freestanding volumes hold the walk-in wardrobes, the powder room and the twin bathroom, so the roof can be read from end to end.
Surfaces and finishes
Hand-finished plaster, natural stone and oak bring the rooms together. Many surfaces were tested at full scale before we chose them, from the texture of the plaster to the meeting point between new walls and old stone.
On site, until the last day
We followed the works closely together with the architects of archigeo4 and the craftsmen, with drawings checked on site and details adjusted as the house revealed itself. On the last day, Margherita Bonetti came to photograph the finished rooms.
