The inversion of the traditional organization of a duplex is one of the main themes of Casa Milanese, a two-level apartment located between Arco della Pace and Corso Sempione, in Milan.

Rather than placing the spaces of collective life on the lower level and the more private areas above, we chose to overturn the usual organization of the home: the upper floor is entirely dedicated to communal life, light and views, while the lower level accommodates the bedrooms and the more intimate and private spaces.

The project took shape while construction of the building was still underway, allowing us to intervene in the internal layout and rethink the relationship between the two existing levels. Both entrances to the apartment were retained, but the true center of the home became the connection between the two floors, with the introduction of the sculptural staircase.

The staircase develops as a green spiral set within the cylindrical masonry volume of the lower floor, rising freely and independently into the upper level.

On the living floor, it becomes a sculptural presence between the sitting and dining areas: it separates the two spaces while at the same time preserving their visual continuity. Seen from below, the circular opening becomes an invitation to move upward towards the spaces of communal life.

A large supermirror steel disc, positioned above the staircase, reflects its geometry and movement, visually extending the spiral beyond the physical limit of the upper-floor ceiling.

The upper level is conceived as a continuous sequence of spaces organized along the longitudinal axis: kitchen, dining area, living room and terrace. The continuous glazing and long perspectives accompany movement through the living spaces.

This continuity, however, does not result in an undifferentiated open-plan space. The different areas are articulated by architectural furnishings: the staircase, bookcases and cabinetry, all custom designed, create thresholds and give rise to a sequence of distinct domestic spaces without resorting to conventional partitions.

The kitchen is partially screened from the living room by Franco Albini’s Infinito bookcase, maintaining both transparency and separation. Alongside pieces by important masters of Italian and international design, from Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni to Gerrit Thomas Rietveld and Michael Anastassiades, the apartment includes furniture designed by our studio and several elements developed specifically for this home.

On the lower floor, the atmosphere changes and the spaces become more intimate.

A central circulation area separates the primary suite from the children’s bedrooms, located on the opposite side of the apartment. The master bedroom is conceived as a second private living room within the home, bringing together the sleeping area, walk-in wardrobe and en-suite bathroom in a sequence of interconnected spaces.

An immovable structural column becomes part of the volumetric composition of this environment, together with the bed and the other furnishing elements, which combine green leather, open-grain lacquered wood, natural oak and colored mirror.

A ribbed-glass wall marks the transition towards the master bathroom, allowing light to filter through while at the same time introducing a more intimate and secluded atmosphere. Verde Alpi marble becomes the dominant material in the bathroom, used for the custom-designed washbasin and shower area.

On the opposite side of the floor, the three children’s bedrooms required an extremely careful and precise approach to the layout, where every centimeter was studied in detail in order to create three independent bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, wardrobes and dedicated elements for each of the three children.

Material and color play an important role in this project; they are not used as a simple decorative layer, but as elements capable of defining the spaces and giving them a precise identity.

Natural oak parquet laid in a traditional Italian herringbone pattern runs throughout the apartment, creating a continuous backdrop for a more articulated palette of black-stained wood, Grigio Carnico marble, raw iron, stainless steel, colored mirrors and lacquered surfaces.

Against this material backdrop, color characterizes a number of key elements, giving them a carefully calibrated intensity: the greens of the staircase and the primary suite, the mustard yellow of the dining table and the deep red of the guest bathroom, recalling the Rosso Levanto and Verde Alpi marbles used in the bathrooms.

The furnishings follow the same principle. Some elements disappear into the architecture until they become part of the walls, while others assert themselves as autonomous objects within the space. Custom-designed elements coexist with furniture designed by our studio for companies such as Frigerio, Porada and Frag, as well as iconic pieces selected for their ability to establish a dialogue with the architecture.

Casa Milanese represents an approach to domestic interior design that is deeply rooted in the Milanese tradition of architecture and design, in which the project is not limited to defining the spaces themselves, but expands to include the design of the furnishings, the research into materials, the selection of objects, the importance of light and the different relationships between all these elements.

Architecture, interior design and furniture design thus become part of a single process, moving continuously back and forth between different scales.