Villa Serena

The brief asked for a house that would feel like a retreat in the middle of the city. Our answer was to turn the plan inward: a shaded central courtyard becomes the villa's lung, pulling soft southern light and cross-ventilation through every principal room.

Material choices stay deliberately quiet — hand-troweled lime plaster, honed travertine, and reclaimed Burma teak — so that the changing light does the decorating. Deep verandahs blur the threshold between living room and garden.

Interiors were built around the clients' art collection: gallery-height walls, concealed track lighting and a stair that unfolds like a piece of sculpture in the entry volume.