INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE COMPETITION
Re-enchanting the Villa Medici, Pavilions H & I
CONTEXT
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Call for applications for the renovation of two pavilions at Villa Medici in Rome, intended to accommodate fellows and their companions.
NEED
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Create two distinct spaces capable of supporting creation, well-being and the feeling of being at home. Reveal the unique identity of each pavilion rather than standardizing them. Design an experience that accommodates residents with different needs.
Rome
2x100 m²
Call for projects
2026
A rare and demanding invitation
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Some projects don't come to fruition, yet they still matter. The Villa Medici competition was one of them.
The call for applications invited us to reimagine two pavilions: H and I, to accommodate residents and their companions in spaces that support creation, reflection, and well-being. A rare, demanding invitation, and profoundly aligned with what drives us.
But before drawing anything, we listened to the spaces.
Reading spaces with the Bagua
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Every space speaks. Through its volumes, its light, its position. In feng shui, the bagua reveals what a place is already telling, even before one lays a hand on it. The two pavilions did not tell the same story. They could not accommodate the same souls.
Pavilion I, a space for momentum
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Its straight volumes, its direct connection to the outside, its immediate connection to the garden and the world. Everything here resonates with the energy of a new beginning. In feng shui, this is the area of wood, growth, creative impulse. It calls to those who come seeking external inspiration to nurture a project still in its early stages. A solitary artist, a couple on the cusp of something new, an energy focused on initiation and encounter.
We chose to make very few changes to the existing partitions, whose volumes seemed just right to us. Only one opening, one liberation: that of the kitchen onto the living room so that the space could breathe without losing its structure.
Pavilion H, a very different atmosphere
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Softer, more enveloping volumes, a height that creates a bubble apart from the world. Everything here resonates with the energy of maturation.
This is the space for those who already have something in their hands and need to let it settle, mature, and come to fruition. A family, perhaps, accompanying a creator in this more introspective, gentler phase. The momentum has settled. It becomes a work.
The concept: two states of matter
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Ceramics are the common thread. Because ceramics, better than any other material, tell the story of this transition. From raw earth to crystallized porcelain, from the initial gesture to the finished piece, it simultaneously embodies both states.
At Pavillon H, the crystallized porcelain wall coverings adorn the surfaces with a living, iridescent material that changes with the light. And this is where gold comes in. Not as a decoration, but as an intention. The gold in our pieces mimics the golden hour, that late afternoon light that gilds surfaces and suspends time. It also evokes the blue hour in the workshop. That suspended moment between work and evening, when one looks at what one has done and something settles. This is the light we wanted to install within the walls.
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The competition was unsuccessful. But this project remains, for us, a valuable exploration. That of architecture serving life, sensibility, and the act of creation. Proof that places, when truly listened to, already know to whom they belong.
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YOUR PROJECT
Your space could go much further
Creating a fair place is not a matter of chance. It is the result of listening, vision, and a design thought out in every detail. Perhaps it's time to take a fresh look at it.
