An architect's home inside a former theatre fly loft in Florence

In 2015 the architect Stefano Tozzi, of AE5 Partners, was shown an abandoned space in Florence's Santo Spirito: the fly loft of a 19th-century theatre, with monumental masonry walls, a great brick arch and some details older still. He had wanted a city view, but his agent insisted he see this top-lit shell. He spent six years turning it into a home for his family.

The scale is the first thing you notice: 13 metres of height, with the living area beneath the brick arch, echoed below by a ribbed timber divider. The home runs over three levels, with the kitchen and living room at the bottom, bedrooms up in the eaves and, in between, a suspended glass-bottomed swimming pool that lets roof light fall through to the rooms below. A winding teak staircase threads through both arches, an effect Wallpaper* likens to Piranesi. Walnut, Calacatta marble and translucent polycarbonate panels play with light and shadow.

There's more tucked in: a primary suite opening onto the pool, with its own fitness area and Turkish bath, a cascading vertical garden, guest rooms, an annexe, parking, a small patio, and a bar and cinema lounge at the top. In all, 600 square metres.

It's a private home, now listed with Savills at €13.5m because Tozzi still wants that view. Nothing to visit, but well worth a look for anyone who loves a bold conversion.

Our summary of a story from Wallpaper*, published 8 October 2026. Read the original

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