All the sweet life of the Amalfi Coast. The embrace of the sea with its gentle, incessant rhythm, the breathtaking view of the village full of colour, with its winding alleys and houses clinging to the cliff, its terraces overhanging the sea and the steps set in the rock, suspended in a vivid and majestic landscape. A moving fresco of great Italian beauty in one of its unforgettable places, capable of giving the soul moments of carefree happiness. It is here, in the heart of the Amalfi Coast, that the most recent ‘sea view’ project by architect and interior designer Valentina Autiero is staged. In Positano, the designer has designed the highly scenographic restyling of the Mediterranean bar at Le Tre Sorelle, one of the oldest and most renowned restaurants in the area, directly overlooking the Spiaggia Grande beach that laps against the lively and throbbing heart of the seaside village.
In direct connection with the living and infinite presence of the sea and the strong suggestion of a thought-provoking panorama that captures the eye, Valentina Autiero’s design intervention is to all intents and purposes a homage to the marine element that visually floods the rooms of Le Tre Sorelle, in all its bewitching charm of sounds, light and colours. The architect thus delineates a volumetric box that emerges in all its scenic force in the transition between the dining room and kitchen areas: a space that – in clear and deliberate dissonance with the true mood of the restaurant – is tinged with the vivid colours of the sea as if to reflect and amplify all the breathtaking beauty of a place that touches the soul.
The sea has always proved to be a vital, necessary and indispensable source of inspiration for Valentina Autiero: in the designer’s architectural work, perspective lines, objects, materials and surfaces, lights and shadows, solids and voids play multiform roles, often unexpected and unpredictable, and every day they compose the harmonic plot of the domestic mise-en-scène: no longer mere backdrops, but presences that capture and reflect fragments of life, to recompose them and return them according to ever new and surprising trajectories.
The design intervention reveals a space with a scenographic atmosphere and a lively touch: a cosy, capacious and functional volume, tailor-made for the specific needs of the structure, which reveals itself to be – at the same time – a bar with an exquisitely Mediterranean esprit where cocktails and quick snacks can be enjoyed, or more simply the inevitable coffee, a space equipped with a containing functionality, essential in the passage between the dining room and the kitchen, and a display corner highlighting the catch of the day.
The fluid, soft and sinuous linearity of the environment is predominantly characterised by the presence of three oval portholes of different volumes: a clear and symbolic homage to Giovannina, Adelina and Nannina, the three sisters who in the early 1950s started the restaurant business, which has been handed down through the generations to the present day.
In this context, the two smaller ovals, placed to the side, serve as display bottles, while the central one, larger and more dominant, houses the bar corner and makes it possible to interact directly with the barman for orders and a chat at the counter. Interrupting the chromatic monotony of the blue sea that floods the entire surface of the volumetric box with its vitality, there is also the presence of a series of perforated metal panels – in a contrasting coppery shade, to reinforce the visual continuity with the chromatic mood of the osteria – that define some focal points in the reading of the space.
In the context of the two lateral portholes, these presences are thus transformed into backdrops with a hypnotic texture which, thanks to the backlit component, highlight and enhance the display space used as a wine cellar, just as they extend to unidirectionally cover the display cases dedicated to the catch of the day. Finally, in the central oval, the panelling reveals a wider weave and becomes a container for fruit and citrus fruits: a further touch of colour that brightens up the bar area with vivid hues, foreshadowing the Mediterranean cocktails to be savoured in this highly scenic corner, strictly overlooking the sea.
After graduating in architecture from the Federico II University in Naples, Valentina Autiero founded the architecture, interiors and design studio named after her in the heart of the Sorrento Peninsula.
The studio deals with architectural and interior design, product design, art direction and strategic consulting. Over the years it has realised accommodation facilities and boutique hotels, commercial spaces, shops, lounge bars and cafés, villas and private residences, exhibitions and installations. His interest in design planning is also strong, in which he experiments with new dialogues between materials and forms, with a distinctive vision towards sustainability paths.