Through the Door: Happyland, Canouan Island - Elena Korach enjoys the colourful island home of Antonio Ferrari – no relation to the family of fast automobiles – and delights in the warmth and practicality of its tropical style.
Photography by Julie Webster |
THIS IS THE STORY OF A DOOR.
The Indian door separates the outside world from a secluded familiar space; it defines a border, and invites the guest into a courtyard. Stepping across that doorway means entering into a different world, where life is taken easy, where understatement and friendliness are the governing rules. Here, each door hides the unexpected.
Around the swimming pool, you embrace the stunning views of the Carenage Bay in Canouan: the emerald greens of the golf course, and all the shades of turquoise and blue of the sea, the reef and the Caribbean sky. No architectural statements are needed. No show off. The large spaces are to live better, not to impress. The high ceilings are for breezes, not for show. |
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This is my first encounter with Happyland , the villa of architect and designer Antonio Ferrari, who designed the Carenage Bay Resort on Canouan Island , and decided to make the place his part-time home.
The house concept stemmed from the desire to create two living units for Ferarri's children. But the symmetric concept of two houses, clustered around the pool, melts into an organic sequence of different volumes. No two bedrooms look alike. No two bathrooms are the same. |
Forget about ratio and international style, this house is all about surprise and uniqueness. With its natural growth of spaces and shapes, the building is manifestly against straight lines and perfection – instead, pro-sensuality and texture. Always be cautious about people who fear to touch. Sterility is death; movement is life. Every surface here invites you to touch it, to feel it. Every wall is painted in ever-changing colours. Every door awakens your curiosity.
Everywhere you eye rests are echoes of tropical or Mediterranean memories: the adobe walls, textured in the colours of the sun and earth, of the sea and the sky, roofs that recall Bermuda , but also Mexico and the Greek islands. There are hand-painted Mexican tiles, cotto floors and coloured Mexican sinks. Precious woods abound: the aquari-quari columns of the Amazonas forests, the acapu rails, the ipe windows, the teak pool chairs, the bamboo roofs. The furnishings were collected from all over the tropics, from Mexico to Bali , Morocco to India , but also echoing Provence and Lombardy , so dear to the owners, and their medieval castles. |
The staircases leading to the bedrooms wind around a tropical garden. You look up, and through a hole in the roof you see the sky, a deep blue square against a sunny yellow ceiling. The walls, the mirror frames, the plaster bedheads were painted by the architect. The curtains and the bedspreads were manufactured in India according to Ferrarri's design. On the coral-screed floors, painted virtual caroets mix-match with real coconut and cotton rugs.
The air flows freely through louvered windows and around the cathedral-high ceilings, from the Indian stone grids in the gables of the kitchen roofs to the chimneys of the central square roofs of the living rooms. The house takes advantage of archaic technologies that are as effective as forgotten in our air-conditioned, glazed world.
This is also the story of a dream. A dream that the owner had to invite family and friends to stay under the same roof, in the eight bedrooms of the house or in the mezzanine above the owner's office where a series of mattresses can be laid down for the younger ones. Far away from the frozen seclusion of certain aristocratic villas, the Italian spirit of the owner permeates the place – I am who I am. I don't need to show it off. The area around the pool is lit with torches in Moroccan vases; an invitation for parties. The long monastic table in the kitchen seats 12 people to rustic, loud dinners. |
Objects from all around the world awaken the visitor's curiosity, inviting the telling of stories: a collection of Moroccan coffee cans,; a vase full of oval sacred stones from the River Ganges; a series of copper pots and pans hanging in the kitchen fireplace. A telescope occupies the centre of the terrace; on the floor the constellation of the swan is painted, where the owner's daughter got a star as a birthday present.
“As cozy as a used slipper”, the architect defines his building. And indeed, the roots of this architecture can be found in the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi – use and imperfection give uniqueness and value to the object. So the art of the architect is to create an environment that, like a good friend, you think you have known since forever and feel comfortable with.
Following the same concept, the gardens are not just there for the pleasure of the eye but are an orchard, where tomato and watermelon grow and where the Canouan turtles hide under the lettuce and basil. |
