The "Palazzo Timeless" was inaugurated in Peccioli, a significant redevelopment project by Mario Cucinella crowned by a spectacular terrace overlooking the valley: a promenade suspended in the void that becomes a a kind of square. With murals by Daniel Buren

In the historic center of the medieval village, known throughout the world for having adopted a development agenda that has made it an open-air laboratory of artistic, social, technological and design resilience, now on display in the Italian Pavilion at the Biennale in Venice, a significant recovery and regeneration work was inaugurated by the MC A - Mario Cucinella Architects. studio.

Read here: Peccioli, the medieval Tuscan village that converted the landfill into an engine of creative and (r)innovative energy

The intervention, part of a program of valorization and restitution to the community of the historical heritage of Peccioli undertaken over the years by the municipal administration, took place along the limit of the mighty medieval bastion in the recovery and redevelopment of the fifteenth-century palace in via Carraia and in the transformation of the ruined building below.

The aim of the project, developed between 2016 and 2018 and which involved an area of 2,500 square meters, was to create new multipurpose spaces for meeting, services, events and culture open to the community.

The renovation of the building renamed "Palazzo Timeless", because it is capable of linking the past, present and future together, which has reconfigured the spaces and functions of the floors, culminated in the interventions on the roof and on the façade, with the creation of new points of view of the interiors towards the outside thanks to the inclusion of skylights and bow windows that welcome natural light. The new glass roof, placed over the passage of the historic courtyard, completes the visual permeability of the spaces.

The historic building, formerly owned by the de’ Medici family, was purchased years ago by the Municipality from the last owner, the Gaslini Foundation. "A point of reference that had ended up in decay" says Mayor Renzo Macelloni. "The project is a further intervention of the municipal administration for the historic center, aimed at infusing life blood. The building will host exhibitions, installations but also residential workshops organized with national and international universities for studies related to Peccioli's path as an example of a resilient community, now on display at the Biennale. A study center on the resilience of small Italian villages will also be born".

Able to immediately host a series of temporary and permanent exhibitions, Palazzo Senza Tempo hosts the first work, signed by the Danish artist Jeppe Hein: suspended in the void, it refracts the rays coming from the skylight above, creating a play of reflections.

The street level was connected to the new volume, born from the redevelopment of the dilapidated building below, with a stairwell. The building, set at levels -1 and -2, is now a dynamic architectural element, dominated by a play of transparencies overlooking the panorama of the Valdera.

The redevelopment work looks like a bridge between the historical memory of the buildings and its future, a civic and cultural center for the town, for the entire Valdera and the tourists who visit this extraordinary open-air museum every year.

"The intervention, conducted with courage and kindness" comments Mario Cucinella "makes the buildings part of the contemporary life of the area: the regeneration of a site must be understood as a process capable of interpreting the past in dialogue with the contemporary. This architecture, a bridge between past and future, is meant to be only a frame of this beautiful landscape, a landscape that looks like a painting from the 1500s".

Between the two redeveloped buildings, a majestic suspended terrace of 600 square meters, with an overhang of about 20 meters from the ground, dominates the wonderful landscape punctuated by the Pecciolese hills.

In dialogue with the pre-existing public entrances and a side staircase that leads from the street level to level -2, the terrace, like a large pier, overlooks the valley and becomes a new public square, embellished by the mural curated by the French painter and sculptor Daniel Buren to testify to the combination of architecture and contemporary art, the trademark of the Tuscan village.