As a glass artist and the founder of Arcade handcrafted Murano glass, Ivan Baj is fluent in design and collaboration; he has a lifetime of projects, from object to architectural, that he has taken from concept to fabrication. But as he starts to describe Casa Stella, his shift to a reflective and unhurried tone indicates that the building of, and living in, this home has been more of a practice than a project; in his words, “it is a 30-year process”.
Working with architect Alberto Ponis, Ivan built this home on the coast of Sardinia in 1994. Although he was not a “local” (being from the South Tyrolean region), he had spent much of his childhood in the northern part of Sardinia and always wanted to have a house in this less remote area of Li Ciuoni. After purchasing the land, Ivan visited and studied it for over a year.
Throughout, Casa Stella seems to be a kind of negotiation, or invitation, between effort and release, concentration and imagination—perhaps originating in the formative “play and plan” of Ivan and Alberto, whose friendship has deepened over the years. One of the most dramatic embodiments of this negotiation are the “wild” approaches to the house: from the sea a stairway struggles upwards the cliff; from the drive, a well-natured garden snags its way. But once inside, there is a rush of fluid openness (amplified by the play of wind through billowed yardages of linen drapes) that literally releases to a breathtaking view of the sea, “which is so close to the house, it comes to the house.”
