![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ccmagazine.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Pailunga_AtelierVago13.jpg\")
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Pailunga<\/em> is not a hotel, nor a gallery, nor a temple. It is all of these and none of them. It is a place where silence matters, where light transforms the meaning of space, where every architectural decision has been made with a rare combination of restraint, boldness and sensitivity.<\/p>\n This project, commissioned by composer and psychologist Giulio Fagiolini<\/em>, does more than propose a new use for an abandoned structure. It also suggests a new way of inhabiting the spiritual through the everyday. An intimate refuge for creators, artists and thinkers who seek to reconnect with the land \u2014 and with themselves.<\/p>\n From liturgy to creation The chapel is part of the historic Villa di Pailunga<\/em> \u2014formerly Paglialunga<\/em>\u2014, whose name evokes the marshy vegetation and tall grasses of the region. For decades, it belonged to the noble D\u2019Achiardi<\/em> family and formed part of a self-sufficient agricultural estate, with vineyards, wheat, Chianina cattle and ten rural houses.<\/p>\n The church, now transformed, was for years the social and spiritual heart of the community. Every Sunday, mass was celebrated and life spilled out into the shaded garden where neighbours would gather and talk. But over time, the place was forgotten, victim of arbitrary renovations and neglect.<\/p>\n The challenge, then, was not just technical. It was emotional: how do you give a voice back to a place that has been wounded and silenced?<\/p>\n Intervening without invading The intervention, as explained by Atelier Vago<\/em>, is based on a clear premise: enhance what exists without disguising it. Rather than erasing the past or imposing a radical aesthetic, the studio chose to read the space like a broken score, full of pauses, gaps and resonances. And to act, accordingly, with humility and precision.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Giulio showed us the initial interior proposals \u2014including a corten steel spiral staircase\u2014 we realised that a completely different approach was needed if we were to preserve the unique, almost sacred quality of the space.\u201dAtelier Vago<\/em><\/p>\n Although Pailunga<\/em> was originally intended to be Fagiolini<\/em>\u2019s home, the project soon evolved into an open artist residency \u2014 a space where architecture and music, memory and future, could coexist in harmony. A place for gatherings, concerts and creative processes.<\/p>\n \u201cThe space already possessed a deep, almost mineral stillness, and our work aimed to amplify it: surfaces that absorb rather than reflect, layers that shield from noise, carefully calibrated openings. We weren\u2019t seeking an absolute void, but a living silence.\u201d Giulio Fagiolini<\/em><\/p>\n The use of colour in Pailunga<\/em> is not decorative, but narrative.<\/p>\n Vibrant tones \u2014like the electric blue of the iron staircase\u2014 contrast with worn walls, yet also converse with fragments of the past, such as the faded fresco still visible in the apse. During the restoration, a pale blue fresco was discovered beneath the vaulted ceiling. That discovery became the starting point for the entire colour palette. From there, blue evolved into a leitmotif, adding warmth and presence without denying the sacred origin of the space.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted to preserve the historical traces while introducing contemporary interventions that contrasted with them, but remained in dialogue. Colour allowed us to bring the space down to a more human scale.\u201d Atelier Vago<\/em><\/p>\n One of the most powerful decisions in the project was to consecrate the apse to the piano \u2014 a symbolic gesture that transforms the former altar into a stage for artistic creation. Here, architecture and sound intertwine in a new form of transcendence.<\/p>\n The first section of the staircase, made from white iron and designed to be dismantled, can be removed during concerts or gatherings. A flexible architecture that cedes the spotlight to art.<\/p>\n The exterior of the chapel has been left largely untouched. There are no landscaped gardens, no forced interventions. The native oak trees still cast their shadows as they have for centuries.<\/p>\n Architecture simply frames what is already there: the windows act as living postcards, the roof opens to the sky, the openings reveal the countryside as a moving artwork.<\/p>\n The construction was made possible through collaboration with local artisans and builders. This choice not only optimised resources, but also revived traditional techniques and strengthened the bond between architecture and territory.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat began as a limitation \u2014like leaving the floors raw due to budget constraints\u2014 became an opportunity to explore an honest, unadorned aesthetic.\u201d Atelier Vago<\/em><\/p>\n Pailunga<\/em> is not designed as a traditional home. It is a space where slow time, connection with nature and attention to detail can be felt. A place that values both creation and contemplation.<\/p>\n \u201cCreative dynamics will emerge from the dialogue with the space and with those who temporarily inhabit it. Rather than a closed programme, we imagine an ecosystem: fluid, porous, attentive.\u201d Giulio Fagiolini<\/em><\/p>\n Residencies will follow a conceptual line \u2014 the role of emotions in life \u2014 but more than anything, the aim is to offer a living, open, transformative experience.<\/p>\n What Atelier Vago<\/em> offers here is not a typical restoration. It is a sensitive, respectful gesture. A way of giving soul back to a wounded place, of reconciling architecture with emotion.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery image, every constructive decision is shaped by an existential question: how do we want to inhabit silence? How can art take space without imposing?\u201d Atelier Vago<\/em><\/p>\n This project moves us because it reminds us that beauty can be born from emptiness, from a crack, from a minimal gesture. That less is more \u2014 and that when architecture is created with deep listening, it can be more than form: it can be experience, emotion and meaning.<\/p>\n This project deeply moved us\u2014because it reminds us that, most often, less is more. That beauty can emerge from ruin, from a staircase, from a beam of light. That rehabilitation, too, can be an act of poetry.<\/p>\n (*)<\/strong> Photographs: Carlotta Di Sandro.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An emotional intervention in the heart of Tuscany An emotional intervention in the heart of Tuscany In Fauglia, a small village in the Tuscan countryside, a former rural chapel begins to breathe again. It\u2019s called Pailunga and, under the direction of the Atelier Vago studio, it has become more than a restored building: it\u2019s a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":94566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5959,5957,5900],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-architecture","category-design-en","category-art-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ccmagazine.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Pailunga_AtelierVago_portada-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ccmagazine.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Pailunga_AtelierVago9.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\u201cThis project proposes a new way of inhabiting the spiritual through the everyday.\u201d<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ccmagazine.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Pailunga_AtelierVago14.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ccmagazine.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Pailunga_AtelierVago12.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ccmagazine.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Pailunga_AtelierVago5.jpg\")
<\/p>\nColour, memory and contrast<\/h6>\n
The apse: art as altar<\/h6>\n
\u201cSound, rather than liturgy, becomes the medium for transcendence.\u201d<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ccmagazine.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Pailunga_AtelierVago6.jpg\")
<\/p>\nExterior: leaving what already speaks<\/h6>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ccmagazine.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Pailunga_AtelierVago15.jpg\")
<\/p>\nCraft, sustainability and local knowledge<\/h6>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ccmagazine.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Pailunga_AtelierVago3.jpg\")
<\/p>\nArtist residency: inhabiting silence<\/h6>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ccmagazine.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Pailunga_AtelierVago2.jpg\")
<\/p>\nArchitecture as an act of care<\/h6>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ccmagazine.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Pailunga_AtelierVago8.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe beauty of the essential<\/h6>\n
\u201cThe result is a space where the everyday becomes sacred, and the sacred becomes human.\u201d<\/h2>\n