Deep within the pine forest of Fregene, Italy, about 30 kilometers west of Rome, stands one of architecture's most intriguing and overlooked masterpieces: La Casa Sperimentale, also known as Casa Albero or "the treehouse." This extraordinary brutalist structure, which once served as a film set for Federico Fellini and a fashion backdrop for Bottega Veneta, now sits abandoned and slowly being reclaimed by nature.

The experimental house was conceived in the 1960s by architect Giuseppe Perugini, his wife Uga de Plaisant (also an architect), and their son Raynaldo Perugini. Built between 1968 and 1975, the structure was designed as an architectural laboratory to test the limits of modular architecture, spatial flexibility, and new forms of living. The family used the villa as a weekend retreat while conducting their groundbreaking experiments in residential design.

At first glance, the Casa Sperimentale appears to be a science fiction set piece escaped from a brutalist dream. The house features a series of geometric concrete forms suspended on stilts and hidden among the pine trees, accessible by a distinctive straight red staircase. The architectural constellation reveals movable and even rotating parts, reflecting the designers' intention to adapt spaces according to different lifestyles and desires. The structure was deliberately left unfinished, meant to remain open to transformation, imagination, and future experimentation.

Unlike the cold and radical image that brutalism can sometimes convey, the Casa Sperimentale offers an almost playful interpretation of the architectural movement. The raw concrete plays with conventional codes, offering a free, poetic, and subtly radical aesthetic. The villa juxtaposes multiple volumes connected by circular elements that resemble capsules, creating a unique form of poetic brutalism and modernist utopia.

During the decades following its construction, the Casa Sperimentale attracted the attention of creative professionals. Its futuristic appearance and enigmatic character made it a perfect backdrop for cinema and fashion. Federico Fellini filmed several scenes there, capturing the strange and magnetic aura of the place. More recently, the house served as the backdrop for a Bottega Veneta campaign, where the fashion house saw a visual echo of its own sculptural language.

Despite this artistic recognition, the villa gradually fell into obscurity starting in the 1990s. Today, the structure stands abandoned and overgrown with vegetation, revealing concrete forms eroded by time and weather. Graffiti covers its walls, and access is officially prohibited, although many curious visitors still venture there, fascinated by this vestige of modernist utopia. The once-revolutionary architectural experiment now serves as a haunting reminder of ambitious dreams and the inevitable passage of time, slowly disappearing into the Italian forest that surrounds it.