Reclaimed Tile Floors at Casina Trovanza

When restaurateur and sommelier Vincenzo Madaro was redesigning Casina Trovanza, his former family home near the National Parco delle Gravine in Puglia, he wanted to retain as much of the original masseria as possible. The goal was to bring ancient designs and materials back to life but give them a modern twist. One of the key elements he revisited, with the help of Lillo Montemurro of HEIMA Studio, was the flooring.

Vincenzo’s grandfather bought the masseria at the end of the 1970s, and at the same time he closed his brick factory, which had produced traditional Puglian tiles. For the redesign, Vincenzo took the tiles that were already in the house, plus others that he found in the storage room of his grandfather’s factory, and gave the floors a creative makeover.

Traditional Puglian tiled floors, as shown in these samples from his grandfather’s old catalogs, are typically made up of a large central square surrounded by a decorative frame. For the new floors, Vincenzo took the original tiles (with a few neutral grey additions), and rearranged them into bolder, frameless designs. The floor of the main living room is now a vivid work of art, formed by contrasting tiles. Meanwhile, the tiles that formed the original frames now traverse the floors of the bedrooms in ornate and colorful stripes.

“We have changed the design of the floors by playing with the combination of bricks available to us,” Vincenzo explains. “It was a creative work of recovery, like a Tetris game! It was hard but fun work.”

Vincenzo admits that having such dramatic floors removes the need for much adornment throughout the house. Most of the walls are very clean, with few hanging pictures. “It’s like having pictures on the floor,” he laughs.

To discover the reconstructed tile floors created by HEIMA and Vincenzo Madaro, book a stay at Casina Trovanza here.