Minimal water
The beauty of the Italian natural travertine for the pool
Photographs by Mario Carbone
A sixteenth-century palace, situated in the historical center of a town in the Neapolitan hinterland, accommodates this suggestive pool: it’s a realization of great value, strict formal linearity where white, blends of nuances and materials dominate the scene, livened by a skillful play of lights inside and outside of the water.
Formal rigor, dominated by white, a heart of water: these are the elements that give life to this living complex of great value, fruit of a researched renovation of the Neapolitan hinterland.
In continuous alternation between open and closed spaces, arches and large windows function as communicative doors with the outside, the palace opens to the sunlight developing around a central court where the pool is located. Rectangular, of unusual proportions slightly extended, the pool is the fulcrum of the habitation, a heart of water in movement that reinforces the image of a complex isolated from daily stress. Travertine is the material chosen for lining the entire courtyard, the stairs and even the pool, to create visual and formal continuity. The effect that follows is absolutely beautiful, the soft grains of travertine in white and grey tones, give the water a delicate color that is in harmony with the aesthetic of the entire complex.
Particular attention deserved a technical lighting project, assigned to the company Viabizzuno, who paid attention to the natural light and relationship between the illumination of the interior and central courtyard.
The formal rigor of the environment is supported by the choice to realize a pool with an overflow circulation system adopting the water gathering grids in travertine, a linearity contrasted only by a fountain of water with a curvilinear form. The illuminated bodies used in the internal environment diffuse a soft lighting that reflects on the walls, the same pool of water functions as a reflecting mirror and contributes to amplifying the whiteness that dominates the home. Traditional materials like volcanic tuff, marble dust, wood and travertine are combined with aluminum in a play of contrasts where the natural and artificial light create composition solutions of elevated charm.
A jet of water breaks up the formal rigor of the pool and the mirror of internal water.
Technical Card
Design: keller architettura; Martiniello/Vincenzi
Director of work: Antonio Giuseppe Martiniello
Pool: rectangular form, decreasing depth, overflow border
Lining: travertine
Accessories: neck massage waterfall, underwater illumination lamps
Technical lighting project: upo Viabizzuno
