Maremma House, Tuscany

Studio Ponsi 

On a hill surrounded by olive trees and vineyards, in the small medieval town of Magliano, Tuscany, stands this one-family house designed by the Florence-based Studio Ponsi. The three-story house stretches horizontally along a north-south axis. The partly buried bottom level contains bedrooms and mechanicals. Its single facade is sheathed with blocks of tufa stone, in allusion to the use of this limestone in local building tradition. The communal areas and the kitchen take up the middle floor. On the outside, massive whitewashed stucco walls are inspired in Mediterranean architecture. And the top floor, reserved for the master bedroom, with its outer skin of wooden planks making the house resemble a ship, gives views of the Tuscan archipelago. Studio Ponsi