Villa Menenghetti

About the project

Villa Menenghetti treats agritourism as a working relationship between farming and hospitality, rather than a hotel placed in a rural setting.

Historic stone, timber and lime-plaster buildings are repaired using local craft, while new marble and brushed-metal elements remain clearly of their own time. Mulberry orchards return to the estate in reference to its nineteenth-century silk production, extending the order of the villa into the landscape. Guest rooms sit above working agricultural spaces, while the barn brings together reception, dining and mulberry-wine production. A new pavilion completes the agricultural court. Farming, making and staying are deliberately interwoven, giving the estate a new use without separating it from the work of the land.