Since founding We Are Ona in 2019, Luca Pronzato (winner of a Wallpaper* Design Award in 2025) has amassed a reputation around impermanence. The Paris-based entrepreneur has spent the past seven years staging nomadic dining experiences across the world, bringing together chefs, artists, designers and cultural figures for events that exist for a matter of days – sometimes only hours – before disappearing again.
Among the most memorable was a collaboration with artist Carsten Höller’s Stockholm restaurant Brutalisten during Art Basel Paris 2024, where a menu of radically stripped-back dishes transformed a former railway station, with the monochromatic interiors matching the brutalist influences of the food. His next venture? It goes beyond one-nighters.
Tour the modernist house reimagining hospitality in Arles
Casa Ideale marks Pronzato’s first move into longer-form hospitality. Conceived as a hybrid between a private house, cultural residency, exhibition space and culinary destination, the project extends the collaborative universe of We Are Ona beyond the temporary event format on which it was built.
‘There is something very powerful about gathering people for a moment that only exists once,’ says Pronzato. ‘However, after years of travelling and creating projects around the world, I felt the desire to build something with a longer horizon.’
That ambition found a home in Villa Bank, one of two organic villas designed by architect Émile Sala in the early 1970s and recognised by the French Ministry of Culture as Architecture Contemporaine Remarquable. Spanning 350 sq m, the sculptural residence unfolds through a sequence of curved volumes and south-facing spaces that establish a symbiotic dialogue between architecture, landscape and daily life.
‘What I enjoyed most was taking the time to understand Sala’s original vision and thinking about how it could resonate today,’ he explains. ‘Rather than transforming it completely, the process was about listening to the architecture.’
The interiors were developed by Pronzato and his partner, fashion insider Clara Cornet, who approached the villa as an inhabited environment rather than a conventional interior design project. Pieces from their personal collection sit alongside works sourced with gallerist Luna Laffanour and her Paris-based design platform Downtown+.
The resulting mix spans post-war French design, radical Italian experimentation and contemporary practice, bringing together pieces by Pierre Chapo, Jean Prouvé, Philippe Starck, Gaetano Pesce and Henri Bataille.
‘The challenge was not to create another hotel or hospitality concept. It was to build a place where different creative worlds naturally meet’
Luza Pronzato, We Are Ona founder
This philosophy is further reflected in Casa Ideale’s multidisciplinary cultural programme. Opening during the first week of the annual summer photography festival Les Rencontres d’Arles in July 2026, an exhibition developed with Fondazione Sozzani will bring 67 works from the Carla Sozzani Collection into Villa Bank’s domestic setting.
Curated by Maddalena Scarzella, the presentation draws on more than five decades of photography assembled by the polymathic journalist, publisher and founder of 10 Corso Como, spanning fashion imagery, portraiture, reportage and still life. Installed throughout the house, the works create what Pronzato describes as a series of ‘rooms of vision’ and will remain on view for six months by appointment.
During the opening period, from 1-10 July, Villa Bank’s five suites will be available to book individually, while Portuguese chef Gil Nogueira, known for his bold, fire-driven cuisine and who earned a Michelin Green Star at Le Garde Champêtre, will lead a gastronomic experience open to both guests and the public. Outside this period, from mid-May to October, Casa Ideale is available for exclusive private hire, accommodating up to ten guests across five suites. Half-board is included, while a full-board option features meals prepared on site by a private chef.
‘Hospitality has always been about more than food or accommodation,’ Pronzato adds. ‘It is about creating cultural environments where people can connect, discover and feel inspired.’
As for what’s next, additional Casa Ideale locations are already in development, with future sites expected to respond to their own architectural, cultural and geographical contexts. The ambition is to build a collection of houses shaped by culture, design and hospitality rather than a network of conventional hospitality destinations.
As Pronzato puts it: ‘Art is not something separate from hospitality; it becomes part of how people experience a place.’
Casa Ideale opens from mid-May to October. Rooms are available from €600 per night via We Are Ona, while exclusive hire of Villa Bank starts from €3,000 per night with a three-night minimum stay. The Fondazione Sozzani exhibition opens during the first week of Les Rencontres d’Arles and remains accessible by appointment.