Lifestyle
In Sardinia, a Showcase for Craft and Culture Rises From Ruins
This article is part of our Design special section about the reverence for handmade objects.
It took nearly five years for Kyre Chenven and Ivano Atzori to buy a cluster of ruined houses in southern Sardinia.
The single-story buildings, or rather, the skeletons that remained, once made up a furriadroxu, a type of agrarian community common in the southwest region of the Italian island. The farmstead, likely constructed in the 19th century, was home to a sprawling family that long ago abandoned it for village life. Since 2022, however, the property has taken on a new identity: as Luxi Bia, a revitalized rural haven where curious visitors can immerse themselves in local culture and the natural environment.
“I think there were 14 people present when we signed the deal,” said Ms. Chenven, a 46-year-old woman with a short crop of blond hair and a shock of red lip stain. She was following Mr. Atzori, 48 — whose long gray hair was tied up in a pair of French braids that rested on his shoulders — through their grove of olive trees while explaining that Sardinia’s complicated hereditary tradition meant that houses were often divided between heirs by room. It took the couple an entire year and much cajoling to gather all the family members and convince them to sell.
Ms. Chenven and Mr. Atzori relocated with their two children from Tuscany to Sardinia in 2014. Though they had vacationed on the island and Mr. Atzori had family roots there, it was fundamentally terra incognita. Ms. Chenven grew up in San Diego and later worked as a set designer in New York City, and her husband, a former graffiti artist who painted under the alias Dumbo, is a native of Milan.
The couple were drawn to Sardinia’s deep and layered history. First inhabited in the Stone Age, it has long been defined by its isolation from the mainland, which allowed it to cultivate an independent and change-resistant culture.
Their first Sardinian venture, called Pretziada (“precious” in Sardinian), pairs contemporary international designers with local artisans to produce handmade objects and furniture. Collections have included hand-knotted tapestries depicting abstracted Nuragic architecture — prehistoric stone structures unique to the island — and modern takes on ornamental nuptial vases.
Luxi Bia (pronounced LOO-zhee BEE-uh), which translates to “light that has been seen,” similarly represents an outsider’s interpretation of local culture. At its most basic, it is a collection of holiday homes. But for Ms. Chenven and Mr. Atzori, it represents a different approach to tourism — one that allows those curious about Sardinia to briefly experience an often overlooked world.
Luxi Bia sits at the bottom of a shallow dish among rolling hills, their slopes dotted with mastic, pomegranate and almond trees that in late winter are just about to burst into bloom. From the crest of a hill, a glimmering sliver of the Mediterranean comes into view, too far to see pale pink flamingos wading through the shallow marshlands and the stony beaches that disappear into pristine turquoise waters a 20-minute drive away.
Ms. Chenven and Mr. Atzori designed Luxi Bia to be as closely aligned with a traditional furriadroxu as possible. The whitewashed stone houses sit in a tight cluster, enclosed by several rings of stone walls and a rapidly expanding fence of prickly pear cactus.
After completing their own home in 2017, they renovated a cottage to host visiting designers working with Pretziada. That project, which became the guesthouse called La Residenza, was finished in 2022.
The latest addition to the complex, available for rent on their website, is the two-bedroom Casa Corte, with the one-bedroom Casa Cubo set to follow later this year. The two units sit side by side in the same narrow building, occupying the precise footprint of the original stone house.
“The traditional architecture was always boxes that would be added on as your family grew,” Ms. Chenven said of the long, rectangular structure. “We wanted to use that same sort of concept.”
In rebuilding the ruined houses, Ms. Chenven and Mr. Atzori adhered as closely as possible to other vernacular features while staying true to Pretziada’s contemporary aesthetics.
The floors, for instance, would originally have been poured cement or rammed earth — materials not ideal for modern comfort or durability. Instead, the couple used terra-cotta tiles made from local soil by a company based north of nearby Cagliari. The ceilings are traditional tapestries of woven reeds held in place by gnarled juniper branches, coated with beeswax from a local producer to give them a hazelnut patina.
“Obviously, the original houses didn’t have these large windows,” Ms. Chenven said, referring to the floor-to-ceiling glass wall that floods Casa Corte with afternoon light. “To us, it was more about a visual language.”
The roof, however, is authentic, made of terra-cotta tiles salvaged from the existing ruins. The couple and their two teenagers spent days removing moss and dirt from each piece by hand. “I think one of the ingredients that keeps this engine running is definitely being crazy,” Ms. Chenven said.
Within the houses are Pretziada’s furniture and objects. In the living room of Casa Corte sits a side table inspired by the paw-like feet of traditional carved wooden chests, fashioned in ash wood and Sardinian Orosei marble. It was created by Ambroise Maggiar, a French product designer collaborating with Karmine Piras, a Sardinian woodworker, and the stonemasons at C.P. Basalti, a local firm. Atop the tiled hearth on the opposite side of the room is a cluster of glossy black vessels by Mr. Piras’s daughter, Maria Paola Piras, a ceramist.
In the bedroom, an oval-shaped, chocolate-colored armoire, with amorphous sand-cast bronze hardware inspired by the work of the Sardinian sculptor Costantino Nivola, stands next to a monumental wooden bed with a wavy, saw-toothed headboard. Both were designed by Pretziada Studio and fabricated by Pierpaolo Mandis, a third-generation carpenter from Mogoro, a village in the center of the island.
Though both Pretziada and Luxi Bia draw from Sardinian aesthetics — and the craft knowledge used to realize them — Ms. Chenven and Mr. Atzori said the project’s value goes beyond surface appeal.
“We want to create an economy,” Ms. Chenven said. This is why they mostly produce items in runs rather than limited editions, she said, ensuring that their artisan-collaborators have a consistent source of income, and why they largely sourced the materials for Luxi Bia from Sardinian firms. The couple have not installed a pool on the property because they want visitors to make their way to one of the many local beaches, and in the process patronize the surrounding shops and restaurants.
They criticized the growing trend of folk-inspired design projects because many, they said, capitalized on the allure of traditional craft without making an effort to understand it or sustain those who practice it.
“We feel the responsibility to be cultural translators,” Mr. Atzori said, “creating bridges between the island and the rest of the world.”
Phil Pritchard of the Hockey Hall of Fame works the 2019 NHL Awards at the Mandalay Bay Events Center on June 19, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
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Paul W. Downs can’t help it that even on the weekends, his life intersects with “Hacks,” the HBO comedy he co-created and co-showruns with his wife, Lucia Aniello, and their friend Jen Statsky. (He also appears on the show as Jimmy LuSaque Jr., the besieged manager of its two stars, played by Emmy winners Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder.) The fifth and final season of “Hacks” premiered last week, but on Downs’ days off, he often finds himself at its previous filming locations or hanging out with cast members who have become like family.
In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.
Downs moved to Los Angeles in 2011, but soon after, he and Aniello were hired to write (and for him to act) on the über-New York show “Broad City,” keeping them away from the West Coast for years. Now the couple live in Los Feliz, which they enjoy with their young son.
“I love Los Feliz because it’s a real neighborhood with restaurants and bars, but also feels close to nature with Griffith Park,” Downs says. “Also it’s very central to my Eastside friends and Westside agents.”
And if he had to live at a local mall, like the character Ava Daniels did in the third season of “Hacks,” which would he choose?
“It would be the Americana, obviously.”
Here’s how he’d spend a perfect day in L.A.
10 a.m.: A late rise and a li’l barista
I’m sleeping in if I can, which I can’t because I have a toddler, but let’s say I can sleep ’til 10. That would be insane.
Then I’m making coffee at home. I’m making it with my 4-year-old because he likes to make my coffee now. He always wanted to help, now he really wants to do it on his own. I’m still there to supervise, but he does do a lot of it.
I do batch brew. I’m doing Verve Coffee that I’m grinding there, and then I’m brewing four cups because I need my coffee. I had a Moccamaster for a long time, but I recently got a Simply Good Coffee. There’s no plastic — it’s all glass and metal.
11 a.m.: Chocolate croissants for everyone
We’re driving to Pasadena and we’re going to [Artisanal Goods by] CAR, which is the place to get the best chocolate croissant, I think, in the world. I don’t just think in L.A., I think they’re better than Paris. I’m going there with my wife and my kid and I’m having another coffee and some pastry. We’re ordering three [chocolate croissants]. We’re not doubling up.
11:45 a.m.: The family business
We’re driving to Fair Oaks in Pasadena. There’s a place called T.L. Gurley. We shot “Hacks” there, actually. Not only in Season 1, but also full circle in Season 5. We’re going to shmay around and look at antiques. My kid is going to want to play a vintage pinball machine. We’re going to find a little piece of art for the house or what have you. It’s not necessarily that I’m on the hunt. It’s to pass the time and to have some fun. If I could do anything and have a leisurely day and take my mind off work, that’s what I’m doing.
People love to interact with my kid when he’s there. We’re really training him to appraise things at a young age. My parents are part-time dealers of antiques. My grandmother bought and sold antiques. It’s kind of a family business.
1:30 pm.: Baguettes and books
We’re driving to Larchmont and we’re getting a sandwich at Larchmont Village Wine, Spirits & Cheese. I’m doing prosciutto-mozzarella-basil on a baguette.
Then we’re going to Chevalier’s Books. What’s sad is that I’m often not looking for leisure material. I’m looking for something that I’m interested in learning more about or writing about, or that they’re turning into a show I want to audition for. But we’re also doing Little Golden Books for my son. He’s obsessed. We’re not huge on screen time, so we really encourage the book-buying.
2:30 p.m.: Cast pool party
We’re having some family fun in the pool and we’re doing that until evening. We invite people over all the time. My sister-in-law is a New Yorker, but she actually wrote last season on “The Rooster” and she’s often writing on shows in L.A., so she’s often here and she’ll have a couple friends come over. I know this sounds like a piece of PR or something, but we’ll really literally have Hannah [Einbinder] and maybe Mark Indelicato from “Hacks” come over to swim. Jen, our co-creator of “Hacks,” will come over.
6:00 p.m.: Family dinner
Sometimes we’ll order Grá to the house, which is a pizza place in Echo Park — excellent sourdough crust pizza. But if we don’t do that, an ideal evening is an early dinner at All Time on Hillhurst in Los Feliz. We’re ordering the ceviche and my son is having all of it and not sharing with anybody at the table.
8:45 p.m.: A thrilling ending to the day
After putting my kid to bed, my wife and I, in an ideal world (full disclosure: we haven’t done this in two years), we’ll watch something together that we’ve been meaning to watch. We have a long list of movies and we either want to revisit or that we haven’t seen that we need to watch.
We don’t watch a lot of comedies. It’s a dream to watch a “Black Bag” or a little espionage thriller. We really like that because it’s so different than the stuff that we’re working on in the day.
Often the things we watch are things that we admire. We like deconstructing it as fans of film and television. We do like talking about the making of it, but it’s less of a critique and more of a listing of the things we appreciated about it.
10:30 p.m.: No work tomorrow
And then it’s lovemaking ’til morning on a perfect Sunday. If it’s a perfect Sunday, there’s also a Monday that’s off.
Jay (not pictured) found himself alone and hopeless in a jail cell when a fellow inmate’s unexpected words of comfort changed his life.
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When Jay was 22 years old, he was a self-described loner. In this story, he is being identified by his nickname to allow himself to speak candidly about the following experience and his mental health. He says the few people he did hang out with at the time had questionable morals.
”I chose my friends poorly, and your friends have a tendency to rub off on you. And so I started making poor decisions,” Jay said.
One evening, when he and his friends were out drinking, someone suggested they should try to break into the chemistry building on his college campus. Most of the group shrugged the suggestion off, deeming it impossible, but Jay was convinced he could pull it off.
“The next night I made a plan of how to do it, and I did it,” Jay remembered. “And I didn’t get caught doing it, [but] I got caught afterwards.”
At around 1 that morning, Jay was placed in the county detention center. Sitting alone in his cell, reality began to sink in.
“I pretty much thought that my life as I knew it was going to be over, and I had decided that the world would be better off without me in it.”
Jay made a plan to end his life. As he prepared himself, he began to cry.
“But just in that moment when I was ready to do it, I heard a voice coming from the top left corner of my cell, from a little vent. And someone called out to me and said, ‘Hey, is this your first time?’”
The man who called out was an inmate in the cell next door.
“I collected myself a little bit, and I said, ‘Yeah.’ And he said, ‘Can I pray for you?’”
Jay had grown up religious, but had stopped going to church years before. In that moment, though, he knew he needed support. He said yes, and listened as the man began to pray.
“I wish I could tell you that I remember the [exact] words that he said to me, but what I remember is that his words landed with me, and instead of wanting my life to be over, suddenly I saw hope,” Jay said.
The interaction happened nearly ten years ago, but it was a pivotal moment in Jay’s life, and one he thinks about all the time.
“[Now], I have a good job. I have a girlfriend who loves me. I have a life. But I have a life because somebody who was in the same situation I was in had the courage to talk to a fellow inmate and be kind.”
Jay says that he wishes he could meet that man again and express his appreciation.
“[I would] shake that guy’s hand, give him a hug, and tell him what his small gesture meant for me, how he changed the course of my life.”
My Unsung Hero is also a podcast — new episodes are released every Tuesday. To share the story of your unsung hero with the Hidden Brain team, record a voice memo on your phone and send it to myunsunghero@hiddenbrain.org.
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