Well this is one of my favourite moments. I see his quick, safe hands raise the bottle, and the rite begins. When I hear the ice cubes tumble in the glass, then, something ancestral brings me back to my childhood. I was too young to have clear memories of those days... I recall us living in an apartment on the first hill that pushes Bologna towards the Apennines, a well-off area with elderly neighbours – all old, independently from their biological age – and tired dogs dragging their masters around the plot, an army of guards with the harsh task to preserve absolute immobility.
The days were marked by precise rites which shaped the sweet sense of security that still helps me in the most difficult moments. I recall like yesterday my father’s and my mother’s hands, his ones sturdy and chubby, hers slim and elegant, different in shape but very similar in their way to reassure me. I recall waking up to their caressing my back and cheeks, I see them in the kitchen making breakfast, I glimpse them around my father’s necktie just before leaving for school. Day after day the same movements, which I stared at for entire minutes as in a state of trance, tracking those rites of which I knew already the next move, the game being exactly to observe that all would happen in the way I expected.
I was especially attracted by the moments we spent together at home, the evenings in the sitting room reading books with my mother, following her fingers with my eyes as they turned the pages at the sound of her nurturing voice. Without noticing I’d find myself looking at my father preparing his favourite drink, his only vice after a day of work. Of course I didn’t have any idea of what he was doing but I was ravished by the moves – quick, precise, rhythmic – and by the sounds, the gliding of the ice in the rotating glass, the slow movement of the shaker, the thud of the ice cubes in the sink and the final pounding of the filling glass. So here am I, halfway around the world, trying to find again those hands in the people I meet, to recover some of their warmth, to plunge in those days and stop for a moment the frantic passing of time. “Excuse me madame... may I serve you something?” I shudder, once again caught in reveries as I follow the barman’s hands. I must stop this, or people will think I’m crazy! “Hemingway Martini, please”.
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION
The project involves the global renovation of an apartment located on the first hill of Bologna for a young couple with a child. The people who live in this place and their passions were the first source of inspiration for the design of the spaces, designed to meet their functional needs and enhance the art works that distinguish and characterize the various room.
The planimetric configuration is particularly irregular, therefore we have tried to exploit these irregularities to obtain all the service areas and bathrooms, leaving a cleaner design in the main rooms. The choice was to create neutral spaces with some accents in the main rooms, given by custom- designed furnishings. We opted for a cement-colored resin floor in all environments except for the bathrooms for which it was chosen for a petrol-colored color. The wall and ceiling colors take on slightly different shades of the floorings. In the living area, which includes the kitchen, the living room and the dining room in a single large room, there is a containment element made with a structure inspired by the elements of the stagecraft and covered with panels of black perforated metal that acts as a background to an island in stainless steel with fires, a small sink (the actual washing area is masked by containment) and a break area.
The same logic has been used for the sleeping area where two elements, similar to that of the living area but petrol-colored, identify the walk-in closet that is not completely separated neither physically nor visually from the room and thus creates interesting effects and the perception of a greater volume . The lighting and technological systems have been designed in an integrated manner and through careful positioning and special technological solutions (such as the blades in the plasterboard for the ventilation system) accompany discreetly the various environments.
