Studio MAB Arquitectura signs the restoration and interior design project of the 19th-century Capofaro lighthouse in Salina, Sicily, creating six suites of essential design and redeveloping a place of great landscape and cultural value.
An architecture that belongs to an uncontaminated landscape, an exemplary project for the protection of the territory that is part of the virtuous transformation of a place of great landscape, historical and cultural value.
MAB Arquitectura – a studio led by the architects Floriana Marotta and Massimo Basile – signs the architectural restoration and interior design project of the ancient Capofaro lighthouse complex, precisely in the evocative interior spaces originally occupied by the keeper’s quarters and long since abandoned.
Thanks to the result of a restoration carried out with a philological approach, capable of reconnecting that place to its authenticity and memory, the studio won a mention in the In/Arch 2023 award for the category Reuse/Restoration.
In the project to redistribute and restyle the interiors, MAB Arquitectura worked with essentiality and sobriety, preserving some distinctive elements such as the barrel-vaulted ceilings and the spiral staircase leading to the Lanterna, formerly located on the roof of the farmer’s quarters.
The 30-square-metre and 50-square-metre suites have private gardens and independent entrances, while the largest, 80-square-metre suite extends over two levels and features a double overlook and a panoramic terrace with a breathtaking view of the sea, vineyards, vegetable gardens and gardens.
The interior is characterised by a colour palette that recalls the surrounding nature: warm, reassuring earth tones such as brown, sand, white and beige are juxtaposed with touches of sea blue.
Micro-cement floors, white lime walls, masonry and wooden furnishings, limestone washbasins, handcrafted cement tiles in the bathrooms made by a historic company in Santa Flavia to the architects’ design: these are all elements that define a concept of cultured, non-artefactual luxury.
The lighthouse, which is still in operation and slightly set back from the main body of the Capofaro Locanda & Malvasia Estate, overlooks the splendour of the Aeolian sea like a natural terrace.
MAB Arquitectura has also developed a project for the outdoor spaces that respects the memory of the place, the result of a restoration carried out with a philological approach that first saw the structural consolidation of the vaults, the recovery of the tufa ashlars on the façade deteriorated by the weather and saltiness, then the restoration of the cornices and thresholds, and the rebuilding of the façade with lime plaster, in accordance with Aeolian tradition.
The architects Floriana Marotta and Massimo Basile also worked on the landscape area pertaining to the lighthouse, and choosing to enhance the genius loci they drew on the island’s richness, giving shape to dry stone walls, paths made of local volcanic gravel, and cannicated paths supported by slender structures that discreetly shade the suites’ private gardens.
The landscape design sees the creation of a small, diffuse botanical museum featuring the main essences of the Mediterranean maquis and native species present on the island of Salina, to offer an emotional and cognitive experience for hotel guests.
For more information visit www.mabarquitectura.com.
CREDITS
Project: Restoration of the Capo Faro Lighthouse
Architectural, interior and landscape design: MAB Arquitectura
Project management: Studio Antonio Podetti
Location: Salina, Aeolian Islands (ME)
Year: 2023
MicroMuseum design: Studio Forward
Photographs and video recordings: Alberto Moncada, Benedetto Tarantino
