Imagining yourself in a villa in Arizona

A dream villa, imagined by Alessandro Pasinelli in the mountainous desert, offers a material exploration in which ceramics play a key role in the design of the spaces. Natural material references are combined with high performance and resistance.
A dream villa, an oasis of peace imagined by Alessandro Pasinelli in the Arizona desert, inspired by its earthy tones and surrounding vegetation. This is the ideal home proposed by Marazzi for Cersaie 2021, showcasing, through the design of a context, the expressive and compositional potential of the new porcelain stoneware collections.


The villa is conceived as a faraway place, a buen retiro, anchored to the earth, but set in mountainous terrain. Cacti, spurges, palms and succulents are the stars of this stage. The colour of the land reflects and almost merges with the colours of the interior and is replicated on the exterior of the building. The materials interact with the natural light that enters through the large windows in a continuous interplay between inside and outside, indoors and outdoors. The ceramics permit a dialogue between the different rooms, creating a material continuum, an uninterrupted flow. Light, according to the interior designer, becomes a design tool: modulated with calibrated inlets, it plays with the textures and colours of the floor and wall surfaces. Mystone Travertino and the new Marazzi wood, marble, concrete and resin-effect collections feature in matches with small-size slabs such as Crogiolo Rice, Lume and Zellige and are also used to cover the large forms of the kitchen, washbasins, and magnificent fireplace in the living area.


As soon as you enter, you notice a fluid space connected to the kitchen and living area. The natural shades of the materials conceal the hyper-technical characteristics of the surfaces, which are antibacterial and highly resistant to weathering. The warm rooms are characterised by a modern sensibility. In the living area, furniture with suede, linen and organic hemp upholstery contrasts with the aged metals of the structures. Contrasts between glossy and matt are also reflected in the porcelain stoneware materials: in the large fireplace, the Crogiolo Rice’s Lux brick tiles (15x15 cm size) shine beside the porous surface of the adjacent wall in Mystone Travertino in the 90x180 cm size. The strong character of the stone effect also dominates the kitchen island, which stands out in the room thanks to the colour of the Grande Marble Look Verde Aver slabs. It is a custom environment in which the marble effect, used throughout the operating unit and for the washbasin, dialogues with the walls, which are enlivened by the three-dimensional coverings of the White Deco Mikado white body single-fired slabs. The continuity between the entrance, kitchen and living area is accentuated by the wood-effect floor with 180 cm-long planks from the Oltre Sand collection.


The dining room features exposed beams running across the length of the room and two large bay south-facing bay windows. The Canaletto walnut furniture is juxtaposed with matt British gold metals. The table demonstrates the versatility of the furnishing solutions from the Marazzi The Top collection in the Basaltina 12 mm version with a visible profile. On the floor, the new Chevron size of the Vero wood-effect stoneware collection lends a warm look to the walls, which are covered with Grande Calacatta Extra slabs and the Cementum collection in the Ash colour.


The bedroom and bathroom are designed to be seamless, inviting spaces with a focus on external light. In the master bedroom, the full-height opening is conceived in a way that allows you to enjoy the light of dawn and the small garden. The same wall is covered with 10x10 cm glossy tiles from the Crogiolo Zellige collection in Cammello colour, contrasting with the tactile appeal of Mystone Travertino stoneware chosen for both the floor and the wall, in the latter case in the Scalpello 3D version, which makes it soft and alive when the light changes thanks to the structure of the new Sublime Sync technology. The bathroom features a sculptural Grande Marble Look Calacatta Vena Vecchia stoneware washbasin that spans the entire room and overlooks the green space between the indoor and outdoor areas. A shelf, washbasin and container combined, the bathroom top emphasises the transformability of Grande stoneware slabs. The wall features the Momenti collection (40x120 cm size) in the Tobacco colour with the China Touch decor.


A dream villa has to include areas devoted to the well-being of the body and mind: a spa with a gym and outdoor swimming pool. The practicality and performance required of these types of environments are combined with the aesthetic warmth of the surfaces: the floors and walls in the spa feature the matt, technical surfaces of the Cementum collection in the Olive colour, contrasting with glossy Crogiolo Lume stoneware, while around the swimming pool the same collection, in the 60x120cm size and Cotto colour, offers a non-slip, soft-touch surface thanks to StepWise technology.


Project and styling: Alessandro Pasinelli Studio