The project
The Creative Journey of Mangiastorie
How an idea becomes architecture, identity, and destination
For years I had been asking myself a simple yet profound question:
What is the right thing for an entrepreneur, for a small business operating in the tourism industry, to invest in?
I was not looking for an easy answer or a quick profit opportunity.
I was looking for a project that could generate value over time, one that could leave a mark and, at the same time, give something back to the territory.
The answer came slowly, taking shape in my mind before it ever reached paper:
Invest in a territorial project, capable of enriching the destination, creating something beautiful, identity-driven, rooted, and shared.
Enlightenment: an evening in Oxford
In 2016 I was in Oxford.
I had long been looking for a strong insight, something that could combine identity, function and beauty.
By mistake, I made a reservation at the Gees, a small restaurant with an Art Nouveau greenhouse-style veranda.
It was a simple but vibrant environment, full of atmosphere, light, and transparency.
A place able to convey a sense of peace, elegance, and contemporary intimacy.
As we left, I said to Elisa, my partner:
“What if this were the right inspiration? A structure reminiscent of greenhouses—connected to my family history, symbolic for Cavallino, and tied to the agricultural rebirth after the 1967 flood. It could become a piece of contemporary architecture, yet deeply ours.”
From the Idea to a Creative Workshop
Back in Italy, I organized an informal visioning workshop. I involved the most proactive people around me:
Elisa Fratter, Stefano Zanella, Teresa Colombara, Francesco Angiolin, sometimes joined by Eros Grandin, with the facilitation of my performer coach Leonardo Milan.
It was an intense period of comparisons, images, thoughts, attempts.
After about a year, I initiated the acquisition of the land, entrusting the negotiation to Giovanni Mercuri, a technician and trusted friend.
The first night sketch
After two rejections from the Superintendency, and one design disappointment, I decided to take the architectural concept into my own hands.
It was late August. The goal was to submit the project by early October.
During a sleepless night, sketching lines on paper, the first sketch was born:
a structure with a facade that housed an off-center tree shape element, from which two volumes similar to small greenhouses were generated laterally.
I still didn’t fully understand why, but that solution solved the problem of the lot’s orientation and created a living, flexible, organic form.
The next day I presented it to the group: we immediately knew that was the right direction.
The team, the energy, the project
We rebuilt the team around this creative core: in addition to me, there was Samuela a visual artist, Elisa Fratter, Sergio Muraro, and other members of the first workshop.
With Susanna Dei Rossi we created the material to participate in the Drawings+ call for proposals, winning it. And we registered the concept as an innovative architectural model with EUIPO.
A form that accommodates
The “L” shape became a symbol of openness, like two arms that welcome.
The structure is inspired by natural and land elements:
The trunk of the maritime pine tree on Fausta Street.
The iron that connects
Charred wood, recalling the tarred briccole
The tamarisk trees, that withstand everything
The greenhouse as a symbol
For me, the greenhouse is not just a form.
It is memory, rebirth, transparency, authenticity.
An architecture that does not flaunt, but tells.
“I wanted to create something that in its humble simplicity expresses true, deep content. The greenhouses were an instrument of rebirth for Cavallino after the flood of ’67. This is my form of gratitude and continuity.”
Today Story Eater is…
…an experiential destination.
A place that is alive, flexible, connected to the community and the environment.
A project that starts with an idea, goes through an August night, and comes to be a symbol of contemporary hospitality.
Stephen Enzo
Founder and creator of Mangiastorie
President Linea di Costa Ltd.
