Sleeping inside an utopia. Living it, touching it, absorbing its human, experimental, historical, and architectural value. That utopia conceived by Enrico Mattei, designed by Edoardo Gellner and Carlo Scarpa, and lived by a generation of employees of the Eni Group, who spent their summer holidays here. In shifts, two weeks a year, equally, with no privileges for managers, like in a family. Unfortunately, the project remained unfinished; the death of Enrico Mattei in 1962 halted its noble mission. The utopia was essentially a holiday village set on 120 hectares at the foot of Mount Antelao, with two hotels, small houses nestled in the woods, a camping site for children, huts for teenagers, a church, tennis courts, bowling alleys, and spaces for recreation, socializing, and dining. The Gellner studio, made up of a dozen collaborators, designed every detail, from the architecture to the stools. The primary idea was to create small rooms, all panoramic and south-facing, reserving large spaces for communal areas. The Church of Our Lady of Cadore was entrusted to Carlo Scarpa, the Venetian architect and Gellner’s mentor. The sacred space, like an equilateral triangle made of concrete, steel, and wood, barely rises above the Boite hotel and seems to protect it.
After various transformations, the Hotel Boite today enjoys a new life thanks to the careful restoration carried out by the new owners (Cualbu Group), who deserve credit for letting what remains speak and drawing inspiration from the communal ideals that had nourished the village’s founding. Thus began a process of recovering that dream, which even today—perhaps more than ever today—represents something immense. Following these principles, Francesco Accardo, the hotel curator, rather than a “general manager,” revived the old stacked furnishings (benches, stools, lamps), brought simple mountain cuisine to the table, recovered values such as sharing, socializing, and a kind of entrepreneurial honesty. He involved young talents like Alessandra Frau of Courtesy of., who curated the visual identity and logo, and invited emerging artists to express themselves within the hotel’s walls. Tonight, in the lounge across from the bar, a crowd of locals is attending a conference dedicated to the discovery of three small local businesses, and in the large square fireplace, the fire crackles. It’s one of the many events Francesco organizes to spark connections, dialogues, and collaborations, giving voice to small, big local projects. Outside, snow is falling, a thick whiteness drifting slowly beyond the windows like light in the dark—an utopia.
Words and pictures Meraviglia Paper.
