60 sq.m. | Year 2017

The renovation of an apartment built and designed for a late nineteenth century city poses new questions to those who are about to renovate it. It is often about learning to quietly listen to the "genius loci" and the ambience that the place seems to whisper.

The knowledge of the construction methods of the time helps the architect respond to new functional and plant design requirements, without ever distorting the structure, and finding specific solutions to the demands of modern living. In this fascinating transformation, it turns out that the apparently very rigid structures allow an unexpected planning freedom: niches, passing rooms, refractory walls and stacks of flue pipes allow the spaces to be modulated.

In the project - in the choice of materials, finishings and all the furniture - every single element was "customized", thus transforming its nature to render it unique and original. A work similar to that of the artist Rebecca Horn, with whom the accommodation converses, in a continuous play between the inside and the outside.

From the living room window, on certain nights of the year, you can see many blue haloes that draw attention to Monte dei Cappuccini and to the installation created by Horn for Luci d'Artista. The work sparkles and emerges from the top of the hill, illuminating the thoughts and the roofs of the large courtyard within the house.

Collaborators: Arch. Mauro Camagna
Construction Company: Saino Costruzioni
Photo: fabrizio Carraro