winnatal In Sardinia, a Showcase for Craft and Culture Rises From Ruins

This article is part of our Design special section about the reverence for handmade objects.

It took nearly five years for Kyre Chenven and Ivano Atzori to buy a cluster of ruined houses in southern Sardinia.

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The single-story buildings, or rather, the skeletons that remained, once made up a furriadroxu, a type of agrarian community common in the southwest region of the Italian island. The farmstead, likely constructed in the 19th century, was home to a sprawling family that long ago abandoned it for village life. Since 2022, however, the property has taken on a new identity: as Luxi Bia, a revitalized rural haven where curious visitors can immerse themselves in local culture and the natural environment.

“I think there were 14 people present when we signed the deal,” said Ms. Chenven, a 46-year-old woman with a short crop of blond hair and a shock of red lip stain. She was following Mr. Atzori, 48 — whose long gray hair was tied up in a pair of French braids that rested on his shoulders — through their grove of olive trees while explaining that Sardinia’s complicated hereditary tradition meant that houses were often divided between heirs by room. It took the couple an entire year and much cajoling to gather all the family members and convince them to sell.

ImageMs. Chenven and Mr. Atzori designed Luxi Bia to be as closely aligned with a traditional furriadroxu — a type of agrarian community common to Sardinia — as possible.Credit...Courtesy of Pretziada

Ms. Chenven and Mr. Atzori relocated with their two children from Tuscany to Sardinia in 2014. Though they had vacationed on the island and Mr. Atzori had family roots there, it was fundamentally terra incognita. Ms. Chenven grew up in San Diego and later worked as a set designer in New York City,66br and her husband, a former graffiti artist who painted under the alias Dumbo, is a native of Milan.

And now, before he had even kicked a ball for the team he had eventually joined, a thousand miles from home in Spain, he was being feted as a star. He wore a broad, faintly startled grin and an Atlético jersey with his name on the back. There was just one element he did not understand: Why did the club keep referring to him as El Pit Bull?

Anticipating the forecast earlier this week, Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher at the University of Miami, called it “a pretty aggressive intensification.”

The couple were drawn to Sardinia’s deep and layered history. First inhabited in the Stone Age, it has long been defined by its isolation from the mainland, which allowed it to cultivate an independent and change-resistant culture.

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