In Noto, the iconic baroque town of Sicily, architect Salvatore Spataro designed Filinona B&B, a small hotel just a few steps from the historic center based on a mix of tradition and modernity.
Typical elements of the local tradition characterize the environments giving a warm and ancient flavor to create places with a strong identity but at the same time flexible, welcoming and suitable for a demanding clientele.
Filinona B&B includes three rooms, different in surface and characteristics, distributed on two levels thanks to a staircase entirely covered with local white stone and illuminated with a bundle of suspension lamps.
Each of the three rooms is inspired by an element of local popular culture: Sicilian cards, wicker baskets, colorful ceramic plates. In addition, each room has a floor decorated with small-sized tiles with colors and patterns belonging to the island’s iconographic memory: patterns that from the entrance of each room develop in the respective bathrooms rising from the walls of the showers up to color the ceilings.
The aim was to reproduce with objects, plants and ancient tools a climate capable of stimulating the client to know the traditions, colors and Sicilian artisan culture. In the common areas (breakfast room and stairwell) there are also two black and white posters depicting moments of daily city life.
The contemporary aspects consist in the approach to the distribution of the environments, in the careful allocation of the services, in the synthesis of the wardrobe element (simple minimalist iron profiles), in the parapet of the staircase.
Finally, the breakfast room is designed as a place of common conviviality through the sharing of the only large wooden table. An oak top around which all seats of different types are placed, to underline the uniqueness of each diner.
