LIVE|WORK

Our lives are often separated into the opposing endeavors of life and work, with some cultures prioritizing one effort over the other: some live to work while others work to live.  The villa, as originally intended, was a relaxing, pastoral respite from urban commerce and production; a place to retire to for recuperation; a return to a simpler relation between the owner and the land.  The villa allowed owners to relocate themselves spatially, temporally and mentally from the degradations of urban living.  In its most romantic and idealistic contexts, the villa was a palliative space for the body and soul that provided a clean and honest counterpoint to the evils of the city.

What is often forgotten is that this bucolic setting was and always remained a center of work for the multitudes that far outnumbered the elite owners.  While the voiceless fieldhands, animal handlers, and artisans that made villas functional centers might have truly loved their environment and had deep ties to the land, they would never have the luxury of relishing the “rustic” life.  The villa was a site of work, sustenance and safety.  It was where they lived and worked in support of the owner’s chosen lifestyle. It was productive and may have been self-sustaining for the owner, but the people working there were dependent upon the food and commerce that came out of these small collectives.  Without privileging one side of this relationship over the other, it is the integration and synthesis of work and relaxation that truly distinguishes a villa from a simple farm or from a domicile. 

We see agritourismo as an inversion of the normative relationship inherent in the conception of villas.  Rather than workers’ production supporting a rustic house of relaxation, the villa provides additional income through luxury accommodation to support traditional occupations. Our proposal aims to emphasize and accentuate the complex relationship between luxury and necessity, between urban and rural, between living and work.  We have created spaces that mediates between recreation and production while also transitioning from urban to rural.  Interventions are not limited to the “Villa” but rather extend across the entirety of the villa complex, integrating living and recreation spaces with production and commerce.  We have looked to establish a wider range of services that reflect the complex and complimentary uses that are co-located on the property.  The project expresses the wide range of living and working programs that synthesize to maintain and update the traditional villa.