Imbriabi Milano

Francesca Iovene

Renewing Two Early 20th-Century Interiors in Bovisa

• Architects

In Milan’s Bovisa district, the project transforms two compact early 20th-century apartments arranged around a shared threshold. More than a simple point of access, the threshold becomes a spatial device that both separates and connects two distinct domestic identities, immediately recognisable through a decisive chromatic contrast: earthy red on one side, matcha green on the other.

photo_credit Riccardo Giancola — Riccardo Giancola

photo_credit Francesca Iovene — Francesca Iovene

The project also stems from a shared history. Andrea, Giulia (from co.Arch) and Alessandra (Negri) met while studying at the Politecnico di Milano; later, Erasmus experiences in different cities and their respective professional paths took them elsewhere, until they came together again, years later, through this commission. Their collaboration reactivates a common ground and becomes an opportunity to imagine the kind of spaces they would have wished to inhabit as students and young workers: interiors with identity, rooted in the character of the building, yet practical, flexible and able to accommodate study, everyday life and social relationships.

The quality of housing is changing, the aim was therefore not to reduce the home to a sequence of minimum functions, but to create compact spaces that remain generous in use, where privacy and sharing, concentration and conviviality can coexist. In this sense, Imbriani also reflects its authors: it intertwines a personal history of education and mobility with a broader reflection on contemporary ways of living.

The intervention is rooted in a careful reinterpretation of the existing fabric and guided by a process of subtraction. In the first apartment, original ceiling decorations, hexagonal cement tiles in shades of white, deep red and black, and Italian herringbone parquet with border and inlay are preserved and reactivated as living elements of the design. Cherry wood, employed in a saturated tone, recurs in both apartments as an ordering element, taking on different configurations.

In the first apartment, the atmosphere is deliberately stratified. Historic surfaces enter into dialogue with compact service volumes that clarify the layout. A monochromatic entrance structures the sequence of spaces, while the bathroom — entirely clad in matte 5 × 5 cm clinker tiles — reads as a cohesive environment in which material and colour evoke an almost abstract quality.

The fan-shaped living area is organised around a continuous built-in element that integrates the kitchen, storage and shelving along the diagonal wall. Located on the fourth floor, the openings provide constant natural light, while bespoke wooden furnishings — including a fixed bench — lend the space a measured and coherent character. The bedroom is mediated by a transitional storage element topped with fluted glass; a platform bed minimises freestanding objects and reinforces the perception of a compact room.

In the second apartment, the inability to preserve the original finishes prompted a more radical approach. Matcha-green linoleum establishes a continuous material landscape. At the centre of the room, a compact wooden storage volume concentrates the primary functions — mezzanine sleeping area, wardrobe and living space — reinterpreting the concept of existenzminimum as a self-contained architectural element. The kitchen, marked by a stainless-steel countertop, is integrated into the volume and incorporates a custom-designed dining table by co.arch, strengthening the idea of a single domestic device capable of organizing the entire interior.

All furniture and joinery were custom-designed as integral components of the architecture and crafted following a precise on-site survey, through a process that reduces the distance between design and construction.

Rather than seeking symmetry, the two apartments articulate distinct ways of living: in the first, an interior in dialogue with the building’s memory; in the second, a more compact and abstract condition, defined by material continuity and functional concentration. Through the five balconies shared by the two apartments, the view opens onto a consolidated yet evolving urban context.

Throughout, the project maintains a tension between definition and openness, proposing a precise form of domesticity that can nevertheless adapt to the uses and forms of life that may unfold over time.

The project was documented through two complementary photographic perspectives. Francesca Iovene focused on the geometry, light, and atmosphere of the interiors, while Riccardo Giancola captured the spaces as they were experienced in everyday use. The architects chose to take part in the photographs themselves, entering the images and directly inhabiting the spaces they had designed

CREDITI / CREDITS
Il progetto è stato sviluppato da co.arch studio — Andrea Pezzoli e Giulia Urciuoli — e Alessandra Negri.

The project was developed by co.arch studio — Andrea Pezzoli and Giulia Urciuoli — and Alessandra Negri.

Architettura / Architecture
co.arch studio
Andrea Pezzoli, Giulia Urciuoli
http://www.coarchstudio.it
https://www.instagram.com/co.arch.studio/

e / and
Alessandra Negri

Direzione lavori / Site Supervision
Alessandra Negri

Team di progetto / Project Team
Federica Leonardi
Valentina Carignani
Tosca Lagona
Gaia Uslenghi

Arredi interni / Interior Furniture
Rabatto
Oto Chair by Martinelli Venezia and Alessandro Stabile

Fotografie / Photography

Francesca Iovene

https://www.francescaiovene.com/

https://www.instagram.com/francescaiovene

Riccardo Giancola