Recovery of an early 20th-century apartment house

The project focuses on a theme that has become central for the survival of historic cities: the reconstruction, with sobriety and good taste, of modest buildings built in the early ’900 for residential purposes.
As always in these cases, there is a double register for the project. The façade and the volume had to be restored to be felt as part of the city, while the interior space accommodated according to the changing needs of living.
Large windows, high ceilings and spacious rooms represent the qualities of these buildings. The limit generally relates to the rigidity of walls, which have been adjusted with difficulty to create large, modern and flexible spaces.
The space of these homes is usually “horizontal”, consisting of long corridors that distribute a number of rooms with a few variations in both their perception and use. No matter how broad the apartments might be, you have always to move from one "box" to another; a constraint that provokes a great sense of frustration.
In this case, by using the attic we created wide and free volumes, hinged together by supporting solids that contain the functional elements as staircase, fireplace, flat screen TV, library.
In this way, we obtained articulated spaces, communicating and connected with each other, allowing both privacy and communication between those who study in the mezzanine and those who cook in the kitchen or watch TV. A sophisticated game of hollows - sometimes large openings and sometimes small crevices - allows the visual and physical communication among rooms.
In order to break the rigidity of windows and  20th-century corridors, the mezzanine offers a renovated view of the old town, enjoying the light and air the place can offer.
Once created the interior, the task was to fit it out with furniture pleasant for both the body and the soul. Materials are related to the city’s history and culture: Venetian terrazzo and wood trusses, together with some pieces belonging to the history of modern design and others "custom made" by skilled local artisans.

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