Casa Saldarini, also affectionately known as “The Whale”, is an extraordinary house that was built in 1961 and designed by Florentine architect Vittorio Giorgini. It was the first building in the world based on an iso-elastic membrane made of concrete and wire netting and predates the work of architects such as Frank Gehry at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao by 25 years. The organic curves of the building created concerns about how structurally sound it was and, so, it was tested with double the normal amount of weight usually applied. It passed with flying colours and, yet, despite the advanced nature of the design and building techniques, the work was largely ignored by Giorgini's peers at the time.
Today, it remains as a bit of an unsung hero and hidden gem, an architectural masterpiece in the Gulf of Baratti that few have ever heard about. If you are an architecture nerd and are thinking of spending time in Tuscany, why not find a vacation rental in Piombino and stop by the Casa Saldarini to see this extraordinary building for yourself?
Giorgini was born in Florence in 1926 and studied architecture there, continuing to live in Tuscany until he moved to New York in 1969. He lived and taught there at the Pratt Institute until 1996 but his heart seems to have largely stayed in the land where he was born.
As an architect, he was interested in the relationship between the built environment and nature and this is visible in the organic forms that his buildings took on. The environment that most inspired him was that of Baratti. At the time, it was an unknown and untouched area, far from the famous beaches of Tuscany. It was here that he built his own home, Hexagon House, in the midst of and at one with the natural environment of this incredibly lovely part of the world.
A small silk producer from Como, Rino Saldarini, also used to come to the area on holiday and he wanted a “cottage” looking out over the gulf. Having become his friend, Saldarini humoured his Giorgini and gave him a free hand in 1962 to create the Whale House. Constructed in a few months, with reinforced concrete crete cast over an arc welded mesh, it is a building of curves that resembles a huge animal, a whale. This zoomorphic construction is perfectly at ease in the Mediterranean maquis and has changed hands many times over the years but remains a constant surprising delight that some people are lucky enough to accidentally stumble upon and that others seek out. Be sure to be the latter on your next trip to Tuscany!
