This stunning holiday villa Casa Santa Teresa is located on the French island of Corsica, near the capital, Ajaccio, and is nestled along the Route des Sanguinaires – a rugged strip of coastline with villas and luxurious hotels. The 400m2 house was originally built in the 1950s and before Corsican architect Amelia Tavella renovated the house in 2019 it had been abandoned for several years and overgrown with wild vegetation. The architect did an amazing job and the villa now offers an exclusive setting for amazing vacation gateway by the sea. Both the exterior as the interior are determined by a white base complemented by warm wood finishes. The interiors are bright and airy with cool concrete floors, raw natural materials and handcrafted features. Simple modern furnishings and decorative pieces create stylish spaces that are inviting and elegant. The house accommodates up to 12 guests, and is perfectly suitable for a family or a group of friends. There are five bedrooms with queen size beds, all are designed with both comfort and style, feeling bright and airy with large windows, wood shutters, white linen and natural wood furniture. The house has a private access to a nice and tiny sandy beach, very quiet and with very few visitors. A piece of paradise! Interior and exterior are never untied, but balanced according to the strength or the softness of the light passed through the sieve of the striped shutters, pivoting doors which invite or protect in the vast living room with secret alcoves leading to the upper rooms, while the plants and flowers escort the swim. The white building surrounded by sky is built overhanging the Mediterranean which unfolds a few meters away and which can be reached barefoot on the hot slab: the offering and the promise. The architect about this project: “It is a house from the 1950s that had to be rebuilt without leaving behind vestiges of the past: its soul, its spirit. I believe in the memory of walls, in the way it leaves its mark on a space. This is the story of the fun you had to find here. Pleasure of baths, invasive nature, close proximity to the beach, rocks, the Mediterranean Sea. The house is as if extracted from the city, which is fading in favor of beauty, of silence. Pivoting doors, alcoves, no partition prevents the view. I wanted beauty to flow, to be an invitation to the horizon, to the imagination. The railings are made of rope, the striped shutters inspired by the shutters and the frame doors let the light circulate while filtering it when it is intense. The different levels, inside the large living room, its fireplace and the upper rooms connected by a wooden staircase, outside the slab path which descends, are all steps to access the beach which is an offering, a trophy, just behind the Sanguinaires road. The smooth white facade never hits the sky, the plants, the flowers remain the guardians of the swimming pool and its terrace. It is the quintessential vacation home, the one that haunts my memory of happy childhood evenings, when the night embraces the day and beauty is a celebration.” Visit Casa Santa Teresa’s website for more information about rental options.
Follow The Style Files on Instagram for more (daily) inspiration.
Credits & source: images by Thibaut Dini
