SPECTRUM's Approach to Heritage Villa Design

Heritage restoration carries its full weight when physical evidence governs every decision. Where a building holds the layered memory of more than a century, the task becomes one of recovery: identifying what the structure originally was, locating what subsequent decades concealed, and reinstating an authentic register through verifiable findings. The discipline lies in restraint.

In Abastumani, on the southern slopes of the Meskheti Range at 1,340 metres, a 19th-century aristocratic residence has been restored through this discipline. Built in 1883 by Benar Beg Feyzullakhan of the Jakeli dynasty, Pasha of Akhaltsikhe and connected to the Romanov imperial family, the house was conceived as a summer residence incorporating motifs of Islamic architecture within local traditions. A cultural heritage site since 2010, the building came to SPECTRUM Architecture with its authentic form buried beneath Soviet-era intervention.

The interior design organizes the indoor volumes to establish a seamless connection with the forested environment through a calculated biophilic framework. The indoor volumes establish a seamless connection with the forested environment through a calculated biophilic framework, where materials anchor the structural narrative. Stained-glass windows filter daylight into the double-height entrance hall, while classical wall paneling and a cascading chandelier define the primary thresholds.

Within the collective living and dining zones, neutral tones and layered textures balance classical detailing with contemporary refinement, organizing the layout around a central fireplace. This structural clarity extends into the private sanctuaries, where ornate floral panels and gold accents stabilize the master suite, while muted palettes and delicate murals compose the secondary chambers. Geometric boundaries govern the sensory experience.

Laboratory analysis preceded every palette decision. Material samples from across the building established the heritage colour scheme that now governs every space: cream across shared rooms, blue in bedrooms and bathrooms, warm wood across floors and furniture. Original parquet, covered during the Soviet era, was rediscovered and reinstated in a pattern analogous to what had existed. The decorative frieze on interior walls was conserved in place, with original brushwork preserved where it survived.

Architecturally, the staircase becomes the defining gesture of the project. Its stained-glass panels reproduce ornamental motifs drawn from the building's original facade, restored to their first form. Light passes through and shifts across the day, casting changing colour onto wooden treads and metal balustrades. The stairwell brings the exterior ornamental language inward, and the same motif returns in the master bathroom above a freestanding clawfoot bath. The facade now completes itself in the rooms it shelters.

Within the classical shell, individual rooms hold distinct identities. The master suite carries floral wall panels, a restored fireplace, and gold accents drawn from the residence's historical register. Through this multi-layered synthesis, the residence successfully transcends a simple restoration to reclaim its authentic spatial anatomy. Structural clarity governs the final alignment.

By reconciling the nineteenth-century regional motifs with contemporary biophilic continuity, the completed envelope establishes a permanent equilibrium between historical fidelity and modern environmental integration. The architecture ceases to look backward. Instead, the building resumes its dialogue with the alpine landscape, ensuring that the stone facades and interior volumes exist in absolute, permanent unity with the sub-alpine gradient. Built form and terrain achieve total resolution.