Today, A House from the 1900s in Milan, Italy by Quinzii Terna Architecture

Article source: Quinzii Terna Architecture

A house from the early XX century in Milan, about 50 square meters large.

To study its physiology and materiality.

To understand that those who designed and built it they would have never believed in all the infinite small changes that each inhabitant would have made in less than a century (for example, the shared heating pipes are positioned in the middle of the house, instead of along the perimeter).

The great furniture is alcove, archive, storage, space for work, for study, for exhibition, Image Courtesy © Daniele Iodice

• Architects: Quinzii Terna Architecture
• Project: Today, A House from the 1900s
• Location: Milan, Italy
• Photography: Daniele Iodice
• Collaborators: Giovanni Saputo, Roberta Fiorentino

The house moves with the inhabitants, Image Courtesy © Daniele Iodice

To appreciate the few details that an economic house could offer to the low middle-class bourgeoisie, recently urbanised: the plaster frames in the ceilings, with geometric patterns; the terrazzo floors (a mixture of cement and marble scraps, not being able to afford real marble floors); the boiserie of the windows, with wooden double darkening system, internal and external shutters.

To discover that what yesterday was economic is today almost sophisticated and precious.

The large single space is punctuated by the new furniture, which lightly delimit the different spaces and uses, Image Courtesy © Daniele Iodice

At the end of the long corridor, the old arch frames the new spatial elements, Image Courtesy © Daniele Iodice

So the new project wants to maintain the original intention and some traces of the previous inhabitants (who have changed the original ambient too), such as the arch between the entrance and the living area, a first attempt to open the spaces between each others, especially the ones of conviviality, like the living room, to mark the passage between the different areas of the house in a lighter way.

But what the original project offers is precisely the space, in its different dimensions, the high ceilings, the long corridor, the large rooms, areas that we are no longer used to, with the surfaces designed nowadays to reach the minimum dimensions in an economic context.

The space, in fact, is the object of the greatest transformation and so the new project folds the old one without breaking it, without canceling it completely.

The corridor is an abstract space, white, which prepares for the explosion of color of the living area, Image Courtesy © Daniele Iodice

The space is structured by a series of possible, changing paths, that allow a variable use of the ambient and blur the difference between inside and outside, Image Courtesy © Daniele Iodice

The space, which is already there with all its qualities, is released and re-structured with light elements, the furniture. These pieces, like large objects, creates new environments, no longer as separate spaces but as nuances of space, continuously modified by a movement of furniture, which open, move, rotate, become alcove, deposit, surface of work, archive, game.

Taut to the structure of a remembrance – the original floor portions, with the traces of the demolished walls – the new space is a sum of possible actions, which reset the house from time to time, transforming it into a light device, easily adapting to changing needs of its inhabitants – in this case, a fan of model railways.

The extreme depth of the entrance corridor makes it possible to equip the house with a storage / exhibition space, to store clothes or objects and show the large railway models, Image Courtesy © Quinzii Terna Architecture

The house is extended thanks to the many possible views, the the movements of the furniture, to the integration of the technical systems in the general spatial narration, Image Courtesy © Daniele Iodice

Small accidents, encountered during the liberation of space, become a reason to play with space itself, to transform accidents into opportunities, Image Courtesy © Daniele Iodice

The bathroom, like the corridor, belongs to the most abstract space in the house, with a neutral, comfortable character, aimed at maximizing the light and the dimensions of the small room, Image Courtesy © Daniele Iodice

Furniture, like large objects, creates new spaces, no longer as separate rooms but as nuances of space, Image Courtesy © Quinzii Terna Architecture

The new ambient is a sum of possible actions, which reset the house from time to time, transforming it into a light device, Image Courtesy © Quinzii Terna Architecture

Tags: Italy, Milan

Categories: Apartments, Interiors, Renovation, Residential

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