LE RIAD Q - "Guide To Puglia Vol.3"

Vogue Living says of us "In this dreamy family home in Puglia, home owner Francesca Tota collaborated with architecture and design studio Acqua di Puglia to craft an interior teeming with Moroccan influences and unique Apulian features."

Like most places in Italy, Puglia is hardly a secret. With its rocky, sun-drenched coastline, quaint seaside towns and acres of olive groves, it’s a picturesque drawcard for visitors and expats alike. And like so many regions across Italy, it boasts a very distinct, very singular aesthetic. Marked by vast stretches of farmland and the charming masserias that accompany them, there are several architectural styles to be found in Puglia all delightful and full of rustic appeal, but perhaps not so easy to renovate. Unless you’re armed with the services of architect Massimo Brambilla, of boutique Apulian design service Acqua di Puglia, that is. Born from a passion and intrinsic understanding of the southern Italy region, Acqua di Puglia was cofounded by father and daughter Massimo and Silvia Brambilla and seeks to renovate, preserve and conserve the unique architectural style found in Puglia. Such a specialist job means the elder Brambilla tends to work very closely with his clients, inferring their needs and anticipating the best course of action. As Acqua di Puglia’s PR and brand manager, Silvia is just as invested in preserving and celebrating the heritage buildings of the Puglia region. Many of the renovation projects are transformed into holiday rentals, although some are private residences. Every job is unique, of course, and its success owes as much to the specificity of each site, as is does to the Brambilla duo’s expertise.

In the case of Le Riad Q, home owner and designer Francesca Tota brought Acqua di Puglia in to create her dream family home in Andria, Puglia. “It was love at first sight” says Silvia Brambilla of her clients’ first impression of the property, which is located in the old part of the township, “along a street overlooking the square with a beautiful Romanesque church in the centre”. Tota was particularly drawn to the outdoor areas and courtyard, and snapped up the three-level home, which she now shares with husband Stefano Giurano, owner of family-run luxury fashion retailer Quaranta.eu and their son, Giulio. Spanning 250 square metres, it features a ground floor and courtyard, a second floor for the main bedroom and an upper floor with more bedrooms. “The house is located right in Andria’s historic centre, which recalls the Kasbah, the ancient castles of Moroccan families in Morocco inside the oases: it is a city within a city, a world in its own right” says Brambilla. “Despite being a city and not a small village, Andria is fortunate to have a busy little historic centre, made of small narrow streets that intersect and emerge in large and magnificent old squares. It is a somewhat irregular city, built with houses that are very different one from each other.” In fact, Le Riad Q was named for of its resemblance to a Moroccan riad, specifically the way the music in the streets and the sounds of people sounded a lot like a medina.

Francesca Tota has a longstanding passion for Arab interiors and funnelled this into the design of the project. Many of the furnishing and materials, such as the tiles, were sourced directly from Fez. For Tota, Morocco represents a place where she first “found her essence”, says Brambilla. Tota is drawn to the impressive craftsmanship found in Morocco, where things are handmade and imprecise “done well, but with the imperfection that makes them perfect.” You can see this ethos filtering through Le Riad Q’s design. First built in the 1800s, the original dwelling was typically Apulian in style “dressed in plaster and wallpaper,” by its previous owners, explains Brambilla. “The goal was to bring back into view the so-called ‘igloos’ (pust in Apulian dialect), which are sort of terracotta piggy banks that used to be placed in attics to lighten the vaults. This is how the undressing of the ceiling was done everything was removed to find out what was underneath and that’s how they discovered the splendid tuff.” Tuff, a porous rock made from volcanic ash, was always the aim of the game. “It is important to emphasise that the house has always been imagined with exposed tuff and scaly walls,” confirms Brambilla. During the renovation, the plaster was removed from the walls to expose the original tuff, and treated with lime mortar and local sand, in a style that is typical of Apulian houses. The charming and rustic effect works well with the architecture of the home, which features a distinct layout, designed to withstand Puglia’s climate. “The cool, dark rooms of the house are set around an inner courtyard overlooked by the living room terrace, which is covered with lush vegetation that makes it cool in summer,” explains Brambilla.

Furnishings were deliberately left sparse and stripped back. “The idea was that of a Mediterranean house with Moroccan influence, with furniture reduced to the bone: chairs and tables are present, as well as bedside tables, but the rest was imagined in the Mediterranean look represented by concrete benches.” While the house isn’t heavy with furniture, most of the pieces are handmade by local craftsmen in recycled timber, and deliberately designed to look a bit irregular. The rest of the furnishings as purely North African “even all the vintage dishes in the kitchen come from past trips to Tunisia and Morocco, which mix with Apulian and Sicilian ceramics.”Brambilla describes the overall design as “unique and not a classic house”. The colour palette reflects the types of materials used during the renovation lime, tuff and micro cement. “It ranges from creamy white to various shades of beige to reflect the colours of the earth and the colours of the tuff,” says Brambilla. She is also quick to emphasise that the beige colour of Andria’s tuff is unique to the area, and differs from the tuff of Lecce, a more southern Apulian town, which is yellow.

Mentre gli interni di Le Riad Q sono stati rinnovati, la struttura, la scala d'ingresso e la facciata sono state lasciate intatte. "La facciata è ancora tutta sbiadita e consumata dal tempo", dice Brambilla. "La scala è ancora quella di una volta, ha le ringhiere arrugginite perché è storica e non volevamo toccarla". È questo rispetto per il patrimonio e la bellezza fatiscente che conferisce a Le Riad Q il suo carattere unico, e sia Brambilla che Tota si meravigliano del modo in cui riflette il Marocco e la Puglia allo stesso tempo. "La sensazione più assurda che provo è quella di entrare in una casa del mio paese italiano e di sentirmi allo stesso tempo nella Medina di Marrakech", dice Tota. E Brambilla fa eco a questo sentimento. "Le Riad Q rappresenta una casa in continua evoluzione di idee e sogni, un contenitore di ricordi di un viaggio: è proprio l'idea di avere una casa che sembra fuori dal tempo che ha fatto innamorare Francesca di questo luogo".