Italian Gardens Via Vermont: Zillow's House of the Week, a...

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Globe Trotting: Entire Italian Village Hits the Market for Less Than $1M

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Wednesday, April 20, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

It's already been well established that owning an island is better than owning just a house; so it would only make sense that owning a village is also better than owning just a house. Good news! Now the charming Italian village of Valle Piola—all in all 11 stone buildings and a 13th-century church—in Italy's Abruzzo region is up for sale for a very reasonable $789,000, reports the Daily Mail. (The local council put Valle Piola on the market because they can't afford to restore it.) Pros: a setting mountain setting and, naturally, la dolce vita. Cons: Valle Piola has been abandoned for 30 years so many of the buildings are crumbling—"We're not giving an estimate of how much it would cost to make the houses habitable—it will be up to the buyer to come up with a plan," explains the mayor of one of the neighboring towns. Plus, the only access in is via a single dirt road that so happens to turn into a mule track once inside the village. Thankfully, we know exactly where to find a donkey.

· Florida Architect Proves That Man Can, in Fact, Be an Island [Curbed National]
· The entire village that's yours for less than £500,000 [Daily Mail]
· Seth Meyers, on Martha's House [Curbed National]

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Featured Project: Ike Kligerman Barkley's Villa on the Atlantic Finds Italian Inspiration

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Wednesday, February 9, 2011, by Sarah

Today Curbed sits down with John Ike of NYC-based Ike Kligerman Barkley Architects, a firm that currently holds rank on Arch Digest's AD 100 list and recently chronicled its phenomenally diverse portfolio in Houses (Random House 2010). "John Ike, Thomas Kligerman, and Joel Barkley speak architectural languages of the past with a sure command of grammar and syntax and a rich vocabulary of form and detail," writes architect Robert A.M. Stern in his forward. Here, we chat about one of IKBA's newest projects, a family house on the New Jersey coastline.

Photo: Durston Saylor

Curbed National: What was the first thing these clients asked? Was this built as an entertaining house? For family?
John Ike: A great house for entertaining was the first discussion. Of course, the family was key, but the floor plan is very simple and transparent, lending itself to having a great party.
CN: You've said before: "Just as novelists and filmmakers gravitate toward genres that suit the themes they choose to explore, we look for the historic style that represents the best vehicles for the architectural story we wish to tell." Was there a specific historic property that inspired you here?
JI: The great Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio’s Villa Trissino served as the inspiration for this house. The interior is decidedly more modern in keeping with the owner’s taste. The story line we adopted was of a modern intervention within this classic old villa, much as the great modern Italian architect Carlo Scarpa did in alterations to the Museo Castelvecchio in Verona. This combination of the antiques and modern pieces is both visually exciting and functionally illustrative.

Photos: Durston Saylor

CN: So this really does, in fact, illustrate IKBA's signature "old meets new" style.
JI: Yes, and very matter of factly. A stainless steel-and-glass curtain wall separates the conditioned living/dining room from the front and rear loggias. The rustic beamed ceiling marches unobstructed through all three spaces.

CN: Let's re-imagine this as a one-room house. Which room would you hang on to?
JI: The room I just described. It’s a room for all seasons with a great number of daily functions accounted for.

CN: Can you pinpoint a single favorite building material?
JI: Probably wood. Although it’s the juxtaposition of different materials together that heightens their natural qualities.

CN: And what can you add about the overall interior design?
JI: It's predicated on the architecture—the conversation between old and new, interior and exterior, smooth and rough. Although these aren’t exclusively modern themes, the overall tenor is modern. One piece of note, the wood center hall table, is by Italian Sculptor Mario Ceroli and dates from 1970.

CN: If you had to create a soundtrack for the house, what songs would you include?
JI: Gilberto Gil and some classic Brazilian bossa nova from the '60s.

CN: How would you describe the general experience of walking in?
JI: It's totally transparent from the time you turn in the driveway. If it weren’t for the privet hedges surrounding the sunken tennis court in the front of the house, you’d be able to see all the way through to the ocean.

CN: Finally, please describe the finished project in five words or less.
JI: Transparent in intention and execution.

· Ike Kligerman Barkley Architects [official site]

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House of the Day: Surprise! SoCal's "White Stallion" Lacks Authentic Italian Flavor

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Friday, January 7, 2011, by Rob

Have a nomination for a jaw-dropping listing that would make a mighty fine House of the Day? Get thee to the tipline and send us your suggestions. We'd love to see what you've got.

Location: Thousand Oaks, Calif.
Price: $19,999,000
The Skinny: Just when it seems like all the ugliest houses in the world have already been sold, another one rears its head. Today's number—dubbed "White Stallion" in the listing—is pretty sneaky about its less-than-flattering interiors. Hidden at the end of a long driveway, the facade might look like an overgrown, disjointed Italian castello, but the beige color keeps it from being too offensive. Not so for the interior, where those soft tones are met by bold red leather and and some misguided maximalism. The main living spaces are bad enough, but it's the home theater that really takes the cake. There. Are. No. Words. And this is all really a pity, because on paper this hilltop haunt has the goods: 16,000 square feet on 23 acres with views down into the valley. The execution, though, leaves plenty to be desired.
· White Stallion [Sotheby's]

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