Casa Solima, Panarea
I was asked to photograph this delightful house in 2015, on the Aeolian island of Panarea.
Owned by a delightful family from Naples, who were amongst the first tourists to build houses on this beautiful island back in the 1960s, the villa comprises of a series of whitewashed cubes laid out on different levels on a stepped, but steeply sloping site, and surrounded by huge boulders. When the house was laid out, there was no electricity on Panarea, so no power tools were available. As is common with many of the older houses on this island, the houses were built around the existing rocks, many of which form walls within the inteior of the house, as is indeed the case here. Very unusual, but extremely attractive, and very much a style of architecture that is both respectful and rejoices in the natural beauty of the landscape.
Set overlooking the sea, the simple style of cuboid buildings, surrounded by luscious and colourful bougainvilleas and wuth stunning views of the sea, is typical of the vernacular architecture of the Aeolian Islands, a small archipelago located off the coast of Sicily. Panarea is the most glamorous of all of these islands, and the houses are the most beautiful, as is the island itself.
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