'The internal transformation of an Italian country farmhouse.'

The February 2013 issue of Architectural Digest tells the story of how, twenty years ago, Count Antonio Bolza and his wife, Angelica, purchased the 2,700-acre Castello di Reschchio estate in the wooded hills of Umbria, Italy, with the intention of transforming its country houses, all centuries old and in ruins, into luxury villas.

At the time, their son Benedict was studying to be an architect and soon joined the family business, overseeing the restoration and design of the estate. Over some 13 years, Benedikt has repeatedly restored 22 of the 50 houses (with three more currently underway), complete with customized interiors, traditional gardens and infinity pools. The estate also offers resort services to buyers and''to tenants from an elite international clientele.

"We don't just design houses and gardens for our clients, we manage their properties," explains Benedikt, who is also the director of the estate.

For many years he and his family lived in unheated rooms in the 11th-century Rescchio Castle, but eventually it was time to get a more permanent home, especially after his wife, Nencia (from the princely Corsini family of Florence), became pregnant with their fifth child. "It was cold in the castle, and when it rained, we had to get dozens of buckets and even umbrellas," Nencia recalls. "We needed our own house, and it had to be big!"

The couple decided to occupy one of the largest houses on the estate, which also happened to be one of''most difficult to renovate.

While its shabby stone exterior was in reasonable condition, the interiors presented a different picture. "It was a maze of staircases and small rooms for seasonal workers and their families," says Benedikt, known as Count Bolz, a title bestowed by his aristocratic Austro-Hungarian ancestry. "The only solution was radical - demolish the interiors and rebuild them from scratch, adding an additional floor for more space." The architect was originally going to choose a less complicated property, but Nencia insisted that was exactly what they needed. "I thought about the kids," she says. "They can walk from here to the stables. "

By the time Benedict and his team of more than 100''s builders and craftsmen set to work on the house, he already had a clear idea of how everything should fit.

"The truth is, I like to plan every detail, from the roof to the smallest lampshade," he says. At the beginning of the Castello di Rescchio project, Benedict's excessive partiality didn't always find favor with the workers. "They weren't used to detailed drawings and thought they knew better," Benedict says. "Over time, they learned to be more meticulous.

One of the remarkable features of the Boltz family home, which has two stories in some sections and three in others, is the fluidity of its structure.

The majority'. 'The public areas are linked by an impressive two-story central staircase consisting of a monolithic sandstone lower section and an open steel and timber upper span. Located within the original stone courtyard, now enclosed by glass, the staircase is part of a light-filled interior atrium that infuses the old building with a modern dynamic.

For his own home on the property, Benedict completely remodeled the interiors and added a glass atrium, seen here, so that the structure's observation courtyard is enclosed.

The center of activity in the home is its spacious kitchen, featuring an impressive vaulted limestone ceiling with strips of steel beams, polished concrete flooring, stainless''steel in the kitchen furniture and an oven designed by Benedict.

"I enjoy cooking recipes with Marco Pellegrini, the chef at Rescchio's restaurant," Nencia says. She notes that her kitchen can accommodate nearly three dozen people, thanks to large but intimate recesses for seating. "We often have a lot of guests," she says, "especially when my double sister, Fiona, and her six children come to visit." In the summer, when Nencia organizes theater camps for family and friends, at least 40 children stay in the house, she says, adding, "most of them sleep in tents on the garden!"

All the interior spaces in the house were designed jointly by Benedict and Nencia, who first came to Rescchio in 1998 as a master of the''trampelena decorative painting.

"Benedict's parents commissioned me to decorate one of the houses on the estate," she recalls. "That's how I met my future husband." Nencia likes to experiment with her own pigments. "I recently discovered that oil paint lays down well on limestone, so I decorated the floors of some of the bedrooms with colorful patterns. "

With the exception of a few vintage pieces, most of the furniture in the house-from the nearly eight-foot square dining table in the kitchen (made from recycled oak and steel from wine barrels) to the locally made lamps used throughout-was designed by Benedict.

In the master bedroom, the upholstered chair is custom-made, as is the freestanding''A cast iron bathtub nestled next to the fireplace. The double-height couple's bathroom is complete with marble sinks matched with copper mirrors. Sunlight streams into the space through a two-story lattice brise-soleil conceived by Benedict, reminiscent of those found in traditional brick haylofts.

The experience of restoring a home and living with so many of his own designs has prompted Benedict to launch his own line of furniture, which he plans to begin offering for sale online in May.

The estate remains his priority, however. "When my parents bought the property, I was just a student," he says. "But I knew that my destiny as an architect was inextricably linked to it'''place'.