The Heart of Stone

The hood is the center of this kitchen. It was carved from reclaimed antique blocks with their patina left intact, then set on stone corbels above the range so that it frames the cooking wall rather than hiding it. The countertops are cut by hand from the same material and left raw at the edge, where fossil imprints, natural fissures and iron veins run straight through the working surface. Thinly sliced limestone clads the wall behind the range in fine stacked layers, the way the walls of a Mediterranean countryside estate were built up over time. The stone continues into the living room the kitchen opens onto, where a carved limestone fireplace faces the island and the water beyond. Surface and sculpture at once, in the room a household actually uses.