Relais Histò is the result of a long and careful recovery of the ancient farmhouse named San Pietro in Mutata, overlooking the Mar Piccolo in Taranto, Puglia.
The Studio supported the artistic direction of CULTI to manage all the phases of architectural design and restoration, including interiors’ design, bespoke furnishings, lighting design, outdoors, green and gardens’ areas, planning a complex synthesis between landscape, historical, typological values and the concept of a refined lifestyle, inspired by essential simplicity and elegance.
The area in which the resort insists is surrounded by nature and history. The original Masseria stands in fact on the structure of a pre-existing rustic Roman villa built along the line of an older underground aqueduct. The construction of the monumental basilica dedicated to Saints Peter and Andrew is dated between the tenth and twelfth, which initiates the transformation of the pre-existing buildings into a convent. Around the XVII, under the control of the Marrese nobles, the farm was further expanded with the integration of an elegant building of classic shapes with a large central courtyard, placed in connection with the large courtyard adjacent to the basilica through an elegant portal.
The original bodies have been restored according to a conservative logic aimed at enhancing the typological and constructive nature of the products and therefore the necessary additions have been made to enhance the value of the shapes and materials recovered through the clear and rigorous contrast with the new functional grafts.
At the same time, in the choices made for the interiors, the furnishing, decorative and lighting equipment promotes an elegant and rarefied atmosphere, built by means of rigorous geometries and warm material palettes, whose fil rouge is always the inspiration for aesthetic and decorative culture Hellenic of the first colonies that inhabited these places and the desire to achieve an experience consistent with the historical-testimonial value of the site and its sacredness.
In the main courtyard, next to the basilica, completely renovated and equipped to host congress and meeting activities, all the public functions of the resort have been collected: the restaurant, the lounge rooms, the cafeteria.
In the eighteenth-century building, the reception, a large hall in the old stable, a meeting room and the office and personnel management areas were built; on the main floor, respecting the original distributions, suggestive suites have been created, some of which are connected to the original terrace which offers a suggestive view towards the lagoon of the Mar Piccolo.
A new cloister has been built alongside the original buildings, to house 36 new suites and the wellness area. The cloister recovers the classic typological characters that characterize the ancient building and is characterized by a green courtyard planted with citrus fruits gathered around a very light steel and glass porch, which connects the different areas of the building with the garden.
The wellness area is built on the perimeter of the ancient walls of the stazzo, a protected barnyard for livestock, and connects to the pre-existing body of the ancient sheepfold through a volume that acts as an entrance and distribution hinge for the SPA. The consists of three adjoining volumes, of different heights and characterized by a pitched roof with exposed trusses. The center of gravity of the wellness center consists of a large volume which houses a large C-shaped tub, which extends along the perimeter of the building, placing itself in direct contact with the external garden, built in an area formerly used as a necropolis and later as an extraction quarry.
The wellness center connects to the outside through a corridor of water that projects towards some external natural pools, made using some depressions of the site.
The gardens and the connecting plates between the different bodies have been specifically designed to keep the genius loci intact and to help create a sense of slow fluidity between the interior and the outdoors. The green is characterized by essences selected from the Mediterranean scrub that characterizes the landscape surrounding the structure, as well as from strawberry trees, mastic, wild rock rose and carob trees.