Umbria, Perugia, Perugia, Italy

A 450-square-metre stone farmhouse on two levels with outbuildings, nestled in the woods on the Umbrian hills — restoration project REF. PIE366 There are places one does not stumble upon by chance. Il Bosco Lungo farmhouse stands on a wooded ridge in the Umbrian hills on the border with Tuscany, accessible via paths through the countryside and surrounded by woodland in every direction — a seclusion that is not abandonment, but a choice. The main building extends lengthways, following the design principles of rural structures built to last: stone, a tiled roof, solid proportions, and a side portico that connects the building to the landscape. The total area of 450 square metres is divided between the main farmhouse — 204 square metres on the ground floor and 140 square metres on the first floor — and the outbuildings of 60 square metres and 46 square metres. The ground floor, with ceiling heights ranging from 2.50 to 3.90 metres depending on the original layout of the various rooms, formerly housed the farmhouse’s agricultural and service areas; the first floor, accessible via an internal staircase, features more regular-shaped rooms with generous ceiling heights of up to 3.85 metres — the area intended for living. Everything is yet to be finalised in detail: the internal layout, the finishing materials, the relationship between the spaces. This is the nature of a property that offers not a finished product but a project. The woodland surrounding the building provides a constant presence and natural protection. A second stone building — more intimate in scale, requiring partial consolidation — completes the complex a short distance away.