A new way of living, in harmony with nature

Reeds, soil, lime, and local timber, all at Km0

An oasis of biodiversity that naturally regulates the microclimate

a In Respect of Traditions
a Thermoregulation
a Raw Material
a Housing Wellbeing
a Gardens and Biodiversity

One Restoration, A Thousand Stories. At Limòlo, bioarchitecture interweaves tradition and innovation, creating spaces that respect and enhance the environment. Gardens-intentionally and skillfully uncultivated-host, protect and enrich biodiversity.

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In May 2021, with the completion of the roof and facade renovation, we let the house guide the restoration, preserving its identity with minimal interventions.Questo processo ha rivelato una nuova dimensione di sostenibilità, offrendo una crescita personale e professionale.Abbiamo riscoperto il valore dell'imperfezione e del non finito, esplorando il confine tra tradizione e innovazione, arte e funzionalità

Here are the main stages:

Facilities

Limolo House combines two traditional Campidanese houses, transforming spaces like the stable and the bread oven into guest rooms that open onto green courtyards, used to mitigate temperatures. By avoiding major demolitions to preserve the original identity, Limolo House offers 6 unique rooms with private bathrooms, all made with natural materials and equipped with distinctive features.

Other rooms, once the barn, sa dom’e forru (the bread oven room) and the oil and wine warehouses, are now used for the accommodation rooms. They overlook the courtyards, once a farmyard, chicken coop, lime pit, vegetable garden and citrus garden, now green gardens with a mitigating function for indoor temperatures and set to irrigation containment.

Protected from the mistral and reserved for each room, today when needed they become places for sharing and celebration.

In order to preserve the character and identity of the house, we studied solutions that would make the needs of residential and receptive use fit with its original structure, avoiding major demolition and disruption of the original floor plan.

That is why today Limolo House 56 Green consists of 6 rooms, all with private bathrooms and all different from each other. All made from natural materials. Each with its own characteristics and peculiarities.

piantina-limolo

The Facade

I enjoy contrasts. The facade of Limolo was the ugliest in Cabras. Now, I shouldn't be the one to say it, but it's the most beautiful. An exercise in "pure bio-architecture" where the top experts of the materials used got their hands dirty without the help of skilled workers. Architect Maura Falchi for the design of the facade, the restoration of dimensions, and the color. Architect Luciano Pia for the texture of the wall and frames. Architect Antonella Manca for the Nicosia Earth color mix and the lime-based paint and lime putty. Green building: Lime on a raw earth structure. Materials. You be the judge of the result…

Raw Earth

Raw earth is at the heart of Limòlo's heating and cooling system, with its original walls preserved to ensure an ideal indoor climate without the use of modern heating systems. Rejecting the use of incompatible materials such as cement or polystyrene, we have opted for sustainable methods that respect the structural integrity and energy efficiency of raw earth.

During the restoration, we ruled out any proposal involving injury or replacement of earthen walls with cementitious materials including those of the 110% ecobonus. Indeed, we assessed that the required installations would unnecessarily and irreparably damage the earthen walls. The raw earth material is incompatible with classical coats proposed in polystyrene or other synthetic materials. In fact, the verified thermal inertia makes the expenditure of such interventions unnecessary, whether towed or trailed, contrary to our philosophy and definitely outdated in concept. We found sustainable solutions to provide heating and cooling without thermal systems, in the manner of the “batiment frugal” described by Sophie Brindel Beth in her essay of the same name.

Heating from a low-consumption cast-iron wood stove located in the large atrium is sufficient for the entire surface area of the main body. Passive shading systems set up in the gardens and ventilation paths created with special strategic holes in the walls opposite the openings create natural ventilation that can lower the indoor temperature by several degrees over the summer period.

Natural Materials

The restoration of Limolo is characterized by a meticulous search for local and/or natural raw materials. A task within a task that allowed us to select small companies and craftsmen sometimes even unwittingly committed to Green Architecture.

Hydraulic Lime and Lime Grass replaced any cement superfetation. Natural pigments and oxides gave color to the walls. Water-based tints to fixtures. Chestnut wood and reeds served for roof floors and many interior structures. We don’t know plastic at Limòlo In this way we have had to restore ancient techniques of construction and where memory has been lost, be guided by experience and more often by the amatter itself.

Living Well-being

The house actively contributes to the well-being of its occupants. It thrives on the Maestrale wind and thus prides itself on not having air conditioning or other electrically powered equipment.

Internal thermohygrometric regulation is carried out naturally and continuously by the masonry masses of clayey earth and lime. Lime-based plasters let rooms and common spaces breathe, giving the environment healthiness and hygiene in a natural way. Strictly wooden windows and doors, often salvaged from previous demolitions and improved by the sole application of thick glass, provide for the appropriate natural air exchange and vapor migration.

In addition, earthen masonry mitigates magnetic waves and radio wave propagation to which we are constantly exposed.

Interior Furnishings

At Limolo, if you ask why it is so, no one knows how to answer. Not even me. There are no explanations for combinations that intertwine, guided by the energy of the place, which has attracted famous architects, photographers, navigators, sailors, explorers, writers, naturalists, etc. (Foto mappe nautiche di Laurent Person)

The interiors are also furnished by riding the merry-go-round of combinations, without a predetermined design, creating relationships that often recall some of the works exhibited at Mona in Hobart.

We saved a lot of furniture and built more by following two rules: we look for or use what we have to say who we are. Let’s give used items one last chance and let them live in a different context and to different uses, it will be up to them to express themselves and win their place other than the Ecocenter. The result must be beautiful and if possible transcend from bioarchitecture to artistic creation. It is neither trivial nor obvious. A master of the subject has made many such accommodations in Limólo. Today we boast a substantial body of achievements in circular economy.

Protected from the mistral and reserved for each room, today when needed they become places for sharing and celebration.

In order to preserve the character and identity of the house, we studied solutions that would make the needs of residential and receptive use fit with its original structure, avoiding major demolition and disruption of the original floor plan.

That is why today Limòlo House 56 Green consists of 6 rooms, all with private bathrooms and all different from each other. All made from natural materials. Each with its own characteristics and peculiarities.

Once Upon a Time, There Was an Oven

In a home privileged by bioarchitecture, a wood-fired oven could not be missing. Strictly made of raw earth, personally crafted by Luciano Pia. Architect, artist, and master of green, here engaged in a trial quite different from that of "his" 25 Verde in Turin, inspired by the currents of organic expressionism and Russian constructivism. (Photos of nautical charts by Laurent Person)

More than a wood-burning oven, it is an art installation that carries an oven inside. The Architect’s signature: an olive tree that surmounts it verdantly in an inexplicable union with the Gaudi-fashioned chimney stack, which likewise spews smoke and flames like a raging dragon when the furnace is in operation.

It is a functional work for the zero-mile cuisine favored by the owner. Thanks to some special arrangements, it has pulls that when properly adjusted allow for different types of cooking but also for practicing the smoking of foods.

All material is strictly natural and mostly recycled.

"The oven suitable for this context had to be alive. Uncontrollable. Tremendously beastly, unsettling, and reassuring at the same time, of organic shapes unknown. Made of raw and baked earth. Full of joy and playfulness because even as adults, one can still return to the land of toys. Unique, like the shape of fire in every moment."

Luciano Pia, Limòlo House's Architect

Gardens

From landscape architects Leo Minniti and Italo Vacca, a fundamental imprint on the gardens of Limolo. Plants with low water consumption that at the same time bring the necessary greenery for a good aesthetic impact, outlined by the simple gravel from the construction site.

* Le Finestre: il Caldo e il Freddo

Citrus trees integrated with other fruit trees ensure fruit production. Most importantly, all of these plants bring passive solar protection to buildings that prevents them from overheating in summer. Solutions that all together contribute to efficient choices that are quite different from the use of plants even though they are powered by renewable energy. In this way, consumption is eliminated or truly minimized without detriment to living comfort

"In the restoration of Limòlo, we have adopted an approach where people find themselves immersed in nature, becoming an integral part of it. We have chosen materials and techniques that reflect this philosophy, prioritizing local and sustainable resources such as reeds, earth, lime, and local timber."

Luciano Pia, Green Architect

Limolo is a place like few others exist, where respect for the territory is perceived through the use of natural materials and where sustainability finds the perfect balance with contemporary art.

Maria Giovanna Carta
April 2023

Every aspect of this B&B in Cabras is geared towards environmental sustainability: from bioarchitecture to energy efficiency, all the way to waste management and recycling.

Simone Quilici
February 2023

We've prepared an entire section on the most frequently asked questions we receive. Because yes, sustainability on vacation is a choice. But we want it to be 100% informed and aware.