Casa Materia in Matera

An identity name

Casa Materia, whose name immediately expresses the identity of a house inserted in an urban context permeated by archaic charm del tufo, was born from a specific cultural project, even before an architectural one. The goddess of the house is rooted in the very concept of matter, from which it is born and into which it is grafted.

Living in the Sassi of Matera, with creativity

An ancestral city, Matera was born from a particular form of urbanization and landscape organization, generated by a considerable poverty of means, but supported by a tenacious will to settle.

The complexity of the urban system of the Sassi , the practice of the excavation, the subtraction of rocky material from the façades of the ravine, the stratification of the different stages in the history of the humanity starting from the rock civilization are a heritage that today can find new vitality in a project aimed at hospitality which proposes creative activities deeply linked to territory.

Two brothers, creators and inhabitants of the house/gallery

Facing and transforming the dilapidation and decay in which the building had been pouring for too many years, today a housing proposal is taking shape that clearly and precisely expresses the will of two Apulian brothers, two designers but also artists, who have chosen to live in Matera. Casa Materia is a house that closely resembles its creators and inhabitants: it reflects their personality and characters.

Hospitality as living matter

Casa Materia is therefore the space where they take shape and substance - become living matter - the hospitality, the welcome, friendliness. A place to live in a momentary but intense way, thanks to numerous creative and tasting experiences.

A simple design vocabulary

Casa Materia is a project with an immediate grammar: everything speaks through the simple vocabulary of the pure and foundational materials of the building: tuff, stone, wood, iron and glass. The soft shades of calcarenite that surrounds the entire volume modeled by an imposing barrel vault, are followed by the light color and soft of the wooden surfaces of the walls and furnishings with geometric shapes combined with the slender and graphic lines of the iron structures.

Between the contemporary needs of ’ living and archaic traces

The rooms and the attached services are furnished in a essential yet dynamic way, with an approach that is always attentive to attention to detail. Each environment is designed to welcome and return maximum comfort, in a synthesis between the contemporary needs of living and the traces of a distant world, which, in a city like Matera, they are never lost.

Self-production on site

The entire interior design of the house, including every object that furnishes the space, was designed and made to measure by one of the two hosts, Michele Barberio. It is precisely the self-production that has characterized this particular experience since the beginning the threefold figure of client, designer and executor of the works was concentrated only one person.

Moreover, each element was born directly in the same place for which it was intended, since before being a home, Casa Materia, during the construction phases, was also the laboratory production of all furnishings.

Tastings and bread making

In the plurality of personalities that inhabit Casa Materia, this unusual constructive story is associated with the peculiarities of the ' other landlord, Simone Barberio, who, as a passionate cook and expert selector of tea and herbal teas, offers special occasions for tasting, entertainment and training.

The consumption of ancient drinks to which rites and ceremonies of great symbolic value are connected, is combined with the rich and fruitful tradition of bread making , ancient flours and natural yeasts, in an authentically passionate gastronomic journey.

Design objects for sale

Casa Materia is also a gallery of artworks and design objects , such as paintings, small sculptures, accessories and accessories, which can be purchased.

Opening your own door to beauty

“Casa Materia offers a wide range of experiential paths in the firm belief that beauty can still inhabit our world and that it can, every day, born freely from the mutual willingness to welcome it, on the part of those who arrive in a place and of those who, on the other hand, open the door of their own home in that place” explain Michele and Simone Barberio .