Appartement P420
We understood pretty early that the clients wanted classical elements for their apartment. Because it would fit one large living room, two almost identical bedrooms and two bathrooms, the plan is rather rational and optimized. As a small ambiguity in this rational plan, we chose to reveal the second column existing in the space, to keep the structure of the building visible in the living room, and however we didn't want to propose many options for designs and materials, to keep the project as radical and simple as can be so we thought only two specific materials would be needed : one for delicate carpentry, one for humid spaces, the rest being simply white (either resin, paint of plaster...).
To create the most direct answer, we looked at typical interior architectures of Bologna and Northern Italy. Pretty quickly we decided to use this grey marble from Gré (ceppo di Gré), a type of stone with natural big chuncks that is common in plinth level or flooring, and dark walnut, also typical in interior carpentry. These two elements define the spaces that have certain functions, trying to avoid expressive details and other materials. The very long piece of furniture stretching between the walnut space of the kitchen to the white space of the living room – an exception to the principle – is made of a light veneer of maple, being both structural, both piece of furniture. In the bathroom the stone stops at 1m, like a waterproof covering the lower parts of the room. Above this height, walls and ceilings are in plaster, except the volume of the shower itself, in white corian.
