The New York Times-20080124-In a Town Known for Light- A House With Very Little

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In a Town Known for Light, A House With Very Little

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THE little 18th-century house in Siracusa, Italy, was striking for its location near the sea in a town known for its light. But when Enzo Cucchi, an Italian painter, bought it in 2005 to use as a summer house, he knew that it would be light challenged. It had windows on the front, right, but none on the rear or on the sides.

He hired Johanna Grawunder, an American designer based in Milan and San Francisco, to renovate the house, design the furniture and bring light in. She finished it last October, in collaboration with the Roberto Giustini & Partners Gallery in Rome, which produced the furniture and lights with local craftspeople, at the client's request.

In Mr. Cucchi's 14-foot-wide by 45-foot-deep house, light is diffuse, and the sources are often unexpected -- from under tables, sofas, and a sink. The glow of light is not unlike the quality of light in Siracusa, Ms. Grawunder said. There is light everywhere and nowhere, just a mysterious light effect that bounces off of forms and walls and the sea.

Her first idea was to put in skylights that went from wall to wall. They would have been stunning, but the city said no, Ms. Grawunder said. So we made a series of fake skylights using recessed fluorescent lights in the ceiling.

The skylights are translucent plastic, and each skylight conceals two Phillips fluorescent tubes. The diffuse light streams down from the roof to the first floor entry, partly through the stairwell and partly through the spacing of the wood planks on the third-floor landing.

On entering the foyer, the first thing one sees is a sink. He wanted to walk into the house and wash his hands, said Ms. Grawunder of her client, who she said compares it to a sacred cleansing ritual in a fountain. She designed a lava stone sink and lighted it from underneath with a 20-watt fluorescent tube.

After the sink comes the kitchen, with lighted shelves, and then a dining room, where the table is cantilevered from a shelf on the wall, above, far right. The dining room is lighted with small fluorescent tubes placed beneath the shelf, and a hanging lamp from Flos that was designed by Ms. Grawunder.

The second and third floors are identical in plan. In the front there is a sitting room furnished with a 14-foot wood sofa upholstered in red canvas that is built in from wall to wall. Along the sofa every three and a half feet, fluorescent tubes glow through translucent plastic diffusers. Each diffuser is like a table, Ms. Grawunder said. You can put your martini there.

In the corner of each sitting room there is also a sconce, which Ms. Grawunder designed for the house. The shade is Douglas fir, which conceals a 36-watt Osram fluorescent tube.

A bedroom is in the rear of each floor, separated from the hallway by what the designer calls a light-carrying wall, a pink wall that does not rise to the ceiling, and which has two halogen spotlights, each 150 watts, inserted into a hollow.

Finally, at the top of the apartment, a pair of glass French doors offer a glimpse of natural light. And from the terrace, Mr. Cucchi has a view of the Mediterranean.

[Illustration]PHOTOS (PHOTOGRAPHS BY SALVATORE GOZZO)SCHEMATIC