year: 2021
client: private
photo: Anna Positano
The flat, a small 60 m2 penthouse, is located in the heart of the historic center of Genoa near the Cathedral of San Lorenzo. Despite its small size, there were seven rooms. So many rooms in such a small space made it quite unique. On the 8th floor of the building and with a good exposure, every room, even if small, offered charming views of the historic city. Hence the idea of a minimal intervention to enhance the panoramic view of the apartment and reorganize the original layout with many different rooms into more functional spaces better suiting contemporary life.
A large living room was obtained by opening it up with the entrance. Here, furniture and finishing have been chosen and arranged, on the one hand, to affirm the unity of space, on the other hand, to evoke the original space divisions. The living room, while presented as a whole space, at the same time is divided into two areas – dining room and living room – by a 1950s bookcase-desk. Space homogeneity is amplified by a seamless resin floor, while two large exposed wooden and steel beams – the result of structural consolidation – are the focal point of the ceiling and spatially define a central area and two lateral distribution areas.
The living room is the core of the house, around which all the other rooms are arranged. From time to time, this role is defined and underlined by a white Carrara marble floor and by green maple wood paneling and furniture. A large threshold defines the entrance, another marks the passage from the living area to the kitchen, three large marble slabs, forming a single flooring, lead to the sleeping area.
A maple wood boiserie separates the living area from private spaces. While formally defined by its distinct triangular apse design, it contains the doors leading to the other rooms.
Further, some other items of furniture in green painted maple wood not only meet specific functional needs, but also mediate between the apartment interior and the city outside. A storage bench leads and facilitates the transition from the living area to the outdoor space. Fashioned from two grates turned into large planters, where you can walk on, a unique view of the Cathedral bell tower can be enjoyed from here Accent to the kitchen window is a semicircular and foldable coffee table , from where the view reaches down to the port and the Lanterna (Light House).
In this room, kitchen tops are made of white Carrara marble to emphasize the same materials alternately used in the entire apartment. It alludes to the classic Genoese sink revisited with an ironic semicircle shape and an out-of-scale backsplash.
Finally, the bathroom is a neutral and clear ambient where the natural light coming through the large window is amplified. The lemon planter outside is enhanced by the simplicity of the room. Designed to hide the toilet, it is also an unusual lively natural presence that enriches the interior.
The whole apartment is characterized by a fine formal play of triangle and circle shapes, paneling, and furnishing solutions such as the bathroom mirror and the kitchen table, but also the kitchen top upstand, the hood, and boiserie doors. Together, they build a visual interaction of never equal but typologically recurrent forms justified by the desire to mediate more traditional objects of a Ligurian home with their more contemporary version.
