Wojciech Jan Chmielewski

Self-preservation instinct of a contemporary human being, an increasing scarcity of natural resources as well as rapid urbanisation of our globe in recent decades have led to individual reactions which result in “invisible investments” in the field of individual, almost intimate, leisure. The tendency to build modern and unique buildings, or even sublime structures within natural landscapes is not a new phenomenon. Probably, the idea was first published by a person who was not even an architect, an american writer Truman Capote, in his famous novel The Grass Harp (1951) which, in reality, is a manifest of personal freedom, freedom of opinion and untouchable, delicate personal zone of human emotions. In America, it inspired many people to start a new fashion of building “tree houses”. The need came back in the recent years in a little bit different form – building structures designed for individual leisure, recreation and contemplation of the most beautiful places on Earth.

The article concerns the issues connected with design and implementation of new public and commercial investments in the context of existing spatial structures of highest cultural value, implemented in small towns of Tuscany. Spatial structure is understood as the state of investments, building development or even abandonment of any interference in existing landscape (also agricultural) due to human activity, shaped in latest centuries. In Tuscany, a land slightly different from other Italian regions when it comes to landscape and culture, unusual solutions in modern architecture, which cultivate the relationship with the great tradition, although it might have been designed by architects not necessarily from those parts. What, then, is the nature of this phenomenon and does it have to be necessarily connected with the “genetic” origin of modern architecture, exclusively by local creators. Presented examples contradict this view. The problem, therefore, lies in the sensitivity of an individual!!