“Architecture can create something new only when it respects the past and present of a place.” With these words the architect Massimiliano Fuksas introduces the project done with Doriana Mandrelli for the Is Molas Golf Resort, in southern Sardinia, an exclusive development (of the Immsi group, the holding company of the Colaninno family) skillfully inserted on the coast at a distance of 30 km from Cagliari.

An area of 120 hectares, between the hills and the sea, with expanses of holm oak and myrtle, strawberry trees and cork oaks, with the remains of a Phoenician city, beautiful beaches and crystal-clear bays. This territory is the main element of dialogue for four types of villas (brokered by Italy Sotheby’s International Realty) designed by the Fuksas duo, to be joined in the near future by a 5-star hotel, a beach club, restaurants, boutiques and a spa, to complete the already existing resort immersed in the green setting of a golf course.

Palas, Luxi, Nea, Arenada – the names of the four villa models – adapt to the topography of the site, capturing the best views of the golf course, the sea and the hills. The project takes an experimental approach that decodes the thinking of the client, making the houses like anomalous macro-objects that deploy forms, materials and colors in total harmony with the Sardinian landscape.

“The volumes avoid rigid alignment and the logic of the box,” Fuksas says, “to reinterpret the traditional nuraghi with their different shapes and multiple groupings. Like inhabited sculptures, they have been envisioned as closed, massive, almost wild; fragments of 3D curves eroded by wind, crossed by beams of light that penetrate through small openings or large skylights.

An idea sustained by the coherent choice of materials – lime, cocciopesto, stones, rugged stucco with natural pigments – all locally produced, determining the overall image and blending with the radiant floor panels and wall-mounted dehumidifiers. In terms of climate control, these are true works of bioarchitecture.”

Villa Palas, the largest of the system, shown on these pages, has an area of 680 square meters. It is composed of four volumes with an imposing presence, arranged around an internal patio-garden, the matrix of reference of Mediterranean architecture, and enclosed by a terrace that functions as a connection element.

The latter is joined by the light figure of a pergola (with cane roofing) for comfortable outdoor living, by a large swimming pool. The constant indoor-outdoor dialogue is guaranteed by the openings and windows that face the protected island of the internal patio.

The main volume on the ground floor contains the living and kitchen areas, a bathroom and a service space; the upper level, connected by a staircase with a single ramp, contains two bedrooms with baths. The other volumes offer space on ground level for another bedroom with bath, a guestroom/studio and a fitness room facing the pool; the upper level is set aside for yet another bedroom that shares the view of the terrace with the spaces of the main volume.

“We have tried to simplify and to eliminate anything superfluous, both in the architecture and in the interior design,” the architects continue. The walls are finished in Tadelakt in pastel shades, while the floors are in natural glazed terracotta or Mortex. The furnishings have been conceived according to a flexible, logical system by Doriana Fuksas, and are exclusively produced by Moroso, while the custom lamps are by Venini. The interior design adds elegance and expressive intensity to this oasis in the greenery, like a tribute to its name: Palas (the red costume with gold threads worn by Sardinian women on holidays), synonymous with a dimension of freedom that seeks complete harmony with nature.

Rendering courtesy Italy Sotheby’s International Realty – Text by Antonella Boisi