The studio apartment is located in the northern part of the city, in the Bovisa area, as part of a recently built building set back from the main road. It has a small terrace that benefits from the quiet of a small internal courtyard, well exposed and shielded from traffic noise, with a view also of the park beyond the nearby buildings. South-facing, this ensures the small studio is always well lit.
The renovation project was realized for a couple with a passion for design but also for minimalism. Like all projects, it was a small journey into the clients’ desires and needs: in this case some particular ones, such as having two separate beds, avoiding light-colored wood elements, and including a bathtub, all in such a compact footprint, represented the challenge for us.
The initial state presented as an anonymous square space with the left side occupied by the bathroom and ante-bath block and the kitchen in the far dead end.
We decided to privilege the front side of the space to let the space enjoy the natural light, and thus demolished the bathroom and kitchen, also freeing part of the small window previously dedicated to the bathroom. The rear, dead-end area was then used for services, creating a central hallway accessible via a mirrored sliding door, which at the same time functions as storage, a walk-in wardrobe, a laundry, and an ante-bath.
The living area was then divided by a semi-open wall, with the living-dining area on the right featuring the large window, and on the left a small kitchenette (with window) and a semi-open bedroom with a storage bed and built-in wardrobes, all custom-made. These two small spaces are partly veiled to the eye from this brick wall, which reveals some elements.
The living/dining area represents the widest part of the space, defined on the left by a small asymmetrical modular sofa and on the right by a long low sideboard designed to measure, composed of modules on wheels (to access a pre-existing technical cavity on the wall). The top of the unit is like a long trough for storing objects and sliding small shelves for day-use.
The back wall is partly masonry and partly custom-made by the carpenter. Here we find: the mirrored boiserie paired with the sliding door to create a large vanity mirror, the wardrobe wall where the other pull-down bed is hidden, and a series of compartments, including the highest one to hide the air conditioning unit.
Regarding materials: the kitchenette and the furnishings of the small bedroom are made of birch plywood covered with a fabric-effect laminate. The floor is a single resin across all spaces, including the bathroom, in warm light tones that are very close to each other. For the pull-down bed, we specifically chose to make it disappear by using the optical whiteness of the walls and the terracotta Celosia wall by Mutina to tie the whole thing together. The closet-laundry-wardrobe area, visible once the sliding door is opened, has been concealed by a chocolate-colored velvet curtain to embellish the space and for practicality of using all functions.
The bathroom, despite the studio’s size, is wide and monomaterial in resin with black taps and a black vanity for contrast. The lighting relies on a few elements, with a precise mix of decorative lamps and LED technical lighting to create indirect or direct light.
