Segmento meets architect Domenico De Rito to discuss land preservation, hospitality, and tourism-focused accommodation. His mission is focused on enhancing existing structures while protecting the landscape and its environmental heritage.

By Raffaele Caputo

The village of Cirella is located in Calabria, within the municipality of Diamante, a well-known seaside resort on the Riviera dei Cedri along the high Tyrrhenian coast of Cosenza. The restoration of the ancient farmhouse in Cirella is now in its advanced stages. The project involves the reuse of an old farmhouse consisting of multiple sections, with the oldest ones featuring “opus mixtum” masonry (from memory), made from fragments of brick, stone, and mortar, which will be cleaned and treated with sustainable protective products. The parts dating from the late 1800s to early 1900s will be renovated using eco-friendly plasters. The handcrafted Calabrian terracotta, produced by the ancient Pasquale Storino kiln in Santa Caterina Albanese (Cs), has been used for the interior flooring, boundary walls, external stairs, and the roof covering of the ventilated roof. A lithological study has helped determine the stratification of the soil, and the external paving will be made from eco-compatible, recyclable mono-granular, draining materials, with slopes and cuts designed for rainwater collection. The fences and gates, designed specifically, will be made from corten steel, a recyclable material that, by naturally oxidizing, will develop the characteristic rust color.

Architect De Rito, well-known in Italy for his uncontainable passion for the “culture of light,” which for him is a creative and stylistic feature that goes beyond aesthetics and deeply ties into environmental protection, sustainable development, communication, and language, has conceived a lighting design for the farmhouse to create evocative scenes like the natural southern light at dusk. The interior lighting will be soft and welcoming, while outdoor lighting will be warm and energy-efficient with a twilight system. Evocative and fascinating nighttime scenes will be created with recessed lighting fixtures and indirect light, aiming to prevent light pollution, avoid disturbing birds, and allow for stargazing.

Architect De Rito further tells us that the restoration of the Cirella farmhouse was just the beginning of a more ambitious and complex project that aims to recover ruins, even small ones, in the coastal area while respecting their forms, materials, and memory. The ruin becomes a tool for sustainability, the enhancement of existing structures, and the restoration of the balance between nature and human development, which we refer to as landscape reorganization. The ruin becomes a resource that impacts the area and could offer a new proposal for sustainable tourism—a form of investment that aims to counteract the cementification of the land and the reckless use of soil. Research continues with the aim of discovering more rural architectures that allow him to promote and influence the territory with new presences, traditions, and lifestyles.

A new construction site is about to open for a project that will reuse a ruin, with underground spaces to be used as a wine cellar, while the above-ground spaces will host "taste laboratories" to showcase the best products of Calabrian businesses in the wine and agro-food sectors. This project is part of a broader vision, where vine cultivation, research, and successful experimentation with native grape varieties such as Gaglioppo, Zibibbo, Magliocco, and Greco reconnect to the primordial history of ancient Enotria, thus highlighting the wine culture of Calabria.