Renovation, Milano
Located at the edge of Milan’s historic center, the apartment, a result of divisions and renovations over the years, features a complex and non-unified layout. The project springs from the desire to find space to all of those functions considered non-essential by real estate logic, often forgotten in small-sized apartments, but fundamental for comfortable living. Service areas are conceived and designed as the core of the project. A semicircular entrance separates the entryway from the living room, which opens onto the internal courtyard and contains a hidden kitchen. The living area and the bedroom, the two sober and rigorous main spaces, are connected by a hallway. The discovery of a lowered metal beam during the site forced a reshaping of the geometry of the passage: the ceiling has been drawn as a semicircle reaching its lower point in the middle. The hallway becomes the protagonist of the house, a filtering space that unites and divides the two main areas just through a curtain. The stainless steel covering enhances the entrance and the hallway, camouflaging and reflecting the rest of the house. The simplicity of the chosen materials, from the cement resin flooring that covers all the spaces, to the gray textured walls contrasting with the stainless steel, is punctuated by colorful elements. The entrance curtain, as well as the one separating the bedroom and the kitchen hidden behind panels finished like the walls, have all the same color, emphasizing the main moments within the house.
Year
2021-2022
Location
Milan, Italy
Client
Private
Project
SOLUM
Surface
58 sqm
Contractor
F.lli Fenaroli
Carpentry
materya.xyz
Photography
Martino Stelzer
Renovation, Milano
Located at the edge of Milan’s historic center, the apartment, a result of divisions and renovations over the years, features a complex and non-unified layout. The project springs from the desire to find space to all of those functions considered non-essential by real estate logic, often forgotten in small-sized apartments, but fundamental for comfortable living. Service areas are conceived and designed as the core of the project. A semicircular entrance separates the entryway from the living room, which opens onto the internal courtyard and contains a hidden kitchen. The living area and the bedroom, the two sober and rigorous main spaces, are connected by a hallway. The discovery of a lowered metal beam during the site forced a reshaping of the geometry of the passage: the ceiling has been drawn as a semicircle reaching its lower point in the middle. The hallway becomes the protagonist of the house, a filtering space that unites and divides the two main areas just through a curtain. The stainless steel covering enhances the entrance and the hallway, camouflaging and reflecting the rest of the house. The simplicity of the chosen materials, from the cement resin flooring that covers all the spaces, to the gray textured walls contrasting with the stainless steel, is punctuated by colorful elements. The entrance curtain, as well as the one separating the bedroom and the kitchen hidden behind panels finished like the walls, have all the same color, emphasizing the main moments within the house.
Year
2021-2022
Location
Milan, Italy
Client
Private
Project
SOLUM
Surface
58 sqm
Contractor
F.lli Fenaroli
Carpentry
materya.xyz
Photography
Martino Stelzer
SOLUM is an architecture office based in Milan established in 2019 by Mattia Agates, Lorenzo Campagna, Filippo Gismondi and Alessandro Loda after their graduation at the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, (CH).
The studio works with a diversity of projects at various scales from urban planning to interior projects. It has participated in several national and international competitions, also in collaboration with other architects, winning some prizes and awards.
SOLUM is also involved in research and education activities as design teaching assistants at the Politecnico di Milano and Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio USI.
Mattia Agates, Rome 1994
He graduated in 2019 from Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio USI, in Switzerland. In 2015, he worked for Al-Jawad Pike Architects in London. In 2017, in Mendrisio, he founded the student association Concreto and Archealizar, a studio for the realization of images of architecture and design. In 2019 he founded SOLUM. From 2024 he’s teaching assistant at Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio USI.
Lorenzo Campagna, Rome 1994
He graduated in 2019 from Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio USI, in Switzerland. In 2015, he worked for Manuel Aires Mateus in Lisbon. In 2017 he worked for Itten Brechbuhl in Lugano and in Mendrisio, he founded the student association Concreto and Archealizar, a studio for the realization of images of architecture and design. From 2019 he’s teaching assistant at Politecnico di Milano and from 2024 at Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio USI. In 2019 he founded SOLUM.
Filippo Gismondi, Milan 1994
He graduated in 2019 from Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio USI, in Switzerland. In 2015, he worked for Manuel Aires Mateus in Lisbon. In 2017, in Mendrisio, he founded the student association Concreto and Archealizar, a studio for the realization of images of architecture and design. From 2019 he’s teaching assistant at Politecnico di Milano. In 2019 he founded SOLUM.
Alessandro Loda, Desenzano 1994
He graduated in 2019 from Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio USI, in Switzerland. In 2015, he worked for HKS Architects in London. In 2017, in Mendrisio, he founded the student association Concreto and Archealizar, a studio for the realization of images of architecture and design. In 2019 he founded SOLUM.
Collaborators
Laura Acanfora, Alberto Allevi, Giovanni Battocletti, Silvia Beretta, Niccolò Calabrese de Feo, Giulia Grifoni, Gian Mario Vecchiato