Chat & Coffee with… Gerolamo Pungitore and Tenuta Klopè

The architectural recovery of historic structures, Calabria, the South, wood and wood floors as essential elements in a warm, correct and contemporary reinterpretation of the environments and patterns of the past.

About all this, and a little more, we chat with architect Gerolamo “Jerry” Pungitore, starting with one of his recent developments, the splendid Tenuta Klopè in Francavilla Angitola, near Vibo Valentia, for which several Berti wood floors were chosen.

Let’s start with the project. What is it and how was Tenuta Klopè born?

Tenuta Klopè is a wonderful place to set ceremonies, weddings, events in the setting of the Gulf of St. Euphemia, among orange groves and olive groves. It is a 17th-century aristocratic mansion, recovered while maintaining the original structure, without changing its distribution.

It owes its name to the ancient native population who, forced to defend themselves from Saracen raids, found refuge on the plateaus facing the sea. A place of shelter and tranquility, softened by the colors and effluvia of the vegetation, typical of the Mediterranean maquis.

In this place, which overlooks the sea from a strategic position with a wide view of surrounding waters and lands, the project for a multi-purpose receptive-type facility came to life.

Land, sea, Mediterranean bush, tradition to be respected and enhanced by meeting the demands and standards of contemporary luxury hospitality. How did you manage to reconcile nature and operational needs, past and modernity?

We let the place predominate, with its strength and sometimes violent beauty. Hues, impressions, views literally enter the interiors, becoming an integral part of them, modulating and mingling with the almost fortified environments, in which the overbearance of light bursts in and creates ever-changing scenarios.

The project unfolds through two constructional moments. The first involved the renovation of the existing old cottage, and the second created a multipurpose space of the type Wedding & Events Place.

And this is where wood comes in, with the choice to use different Berti floors?

Yes. In support of the old building, almost protected by its bulk, the structure intended for service has risen. A simple and linear building, but embellished with compositional elements that recall the rural architecture of the place. Great use, therefore, of natural materials: wood, iron and clay as the primary components of the construction and tributes to the life and construction technique of the past, in the countryside. Water, itself an essential component of the project, comes from a natural spring. Channeled and transformed into a virtual mirror, it gives the complex its peculiar dreamlike character.

Why was Berti wood flooring selected for Tenuta Klopè?

I personally believe today that wood flooring is as natural as we have available that integrates perfectly with modern architecture. In an architectural language in which less is more, a complex and nuanced concept, often becomes, sadly, “nothing is better,” wood often contributes to healing precarious and content-poor design situations. Within a well-designed space, all the more so, it becomes a palette to best express surfaces, shapes and volumes, without altering the essence of the environments.

In the choice of materials for the renovation of the Estate, therefore, wood was the protagonist in all its declinations, from load-bearing to decorative and constructive element. The choice of a Berti floor matures through a long selection of samples, finishes and color variants. The parquet floor had to convey an unambiguous message, unmistakable what today one is inclined to call “the soul of the past,” but without coming across as posthumous or artificial.

Wood and wood floors, then, fundamental elements in the syntax of correct and appropriate architectural recovery. We finally ask architect Pungitore, who has also been engaged for years in the defense and development of the Ionian Coast, what is his view on the state of the art of this practice in Calabria, in Italy, in the world?

St. Augustine wrote, “I can confidently say that I know that if nothing passed, there would be no past; if nothing surpassed, there would be no future; if nothing existed, there would be no present.” Calabria, like the South and, in general, the whole World, has great opportunities from the point of view of architectural recovery. Drawing on the past is fundamental, almost obligatory, but not only for the purpose of functional and sustainable use of spaces, but also, above all, as an effective lexicon for good building art.

Ideas such as versatility, flexibility, and integration fit perfectly with the concept of sustainable urban rehabilitation: reappropriation and reuse not only of the old but also of degraded and disused spaces.

Rehabilitation and redevelopment of the existing are now high on the agenda of governments. From Latin America to Southeast Asia, cases of planning aimed at reusing and reclaiming the fabric of cities and the countryside are fortunately multiplying.

In this setting, wood can only play, increasingly, a leading role