After almost ten years I make contact with a previous client of mine, to carry out the extension of his home in the southeastern part of Milan, within walking distance of Fondazione Prada and the Porta Romana area, by annexing the adjoining apartment.
The house, built in the late 1960s, is characterised by the hallway, which I personally consider indispensable yet far from contemporary plans. The existing entrance hall is transformed with wardrobes and create a new path to the sleeping areas.
The distribution covering 180 square meters, transforms the old apartment into the living area and the new one into the sleeping area. The older rooms expand the living space, in addition to creating a study/guest room near the entrance, stitched together by a mirrored wall and a parquet floor that bring back tridimensionality to a very narrow spot.
The new apartment, on the other hand, accommodates the bedrooms, one bathroom and a laundry room, developed on a circular path where the parquet flooring breaks down by constantly changing the direction in which the planks are laid.
The doors of both houses take inspiration from elements of Prouvè's prefabrication while developing with opposite meanings. In the older house the wooden pivot doors are framed by the monumentality of deep portals, whereas in the sleeping area they are sliding and concealed within the walls; the latter teasing the eye between reflections of shiny parts and opaque surfaces.
The choice of materials was guided by a clear idea. In the existing apartment neutral grey-based tone on both floors and walls encapsulate the space. Within this severe looking frame two layers are then created, one by elm wooden parts used on doors and furnishings, the other by embedding new colorful fixtures almost as 'sought-after mistakes' to grant a more ironic home concept.
The annexed flat embraces the idea of and plays with opposites. Wooden floors pave way to colorful rooms. Color is used to create microarchitectures within the space, where fixed furniture and doors mimic the walls and are distinguished only by different degrees of reflectivity of the semi-gloss and matte surfaces.
Colors are also used to depict small domestic stories, whereby the children recognize their personalities in a full bodied shade (red was a challenge for me as well), while the parents identify their heterogeneous traits by drawing a line ideally dividing the room in half.
Finally, some of the custom-made furniture pieces reflect passions that have unfolded over the years: the interest in some Charlotte Perriand elements and a small reference to a Giotto Stoppino classic that echoes my origins.
Completing the project are some smaller details, such as thinking of the laundry room as one big uniform box and the intentional misuse of bathroom tiles by turning them into Milanese lozenges.
