AN APARTMENT IN MILAN
In the southeast area of Milan, within the ring road, there is a brutalist-style residential complex built in 1969, designed by Architect Giuseppe Chiodi and the Passerelli studio.
The project breaks the compact urban grid of the city by proposing cross-shaped volumes, that are diagonal to the orthogonal axes of Via Muratori and Via Friuli, leaving ample space for the shared garden.
The exception, besides the planimetric and volumetric arrangement and distribution spaces, lies in the use of materials and the design of the façades: the exposed reinforced concrete structure is made of floors and round pillars set back from the façade line, filled with solid brick walls interspersed with full-height glass panes.
In this context, Architect Scarano redesigns the interior of a 160 sqm apartment for a family with three children.
“I lived in this neighborhood and have always looked at this complex with great curiosity. During my first visit, I realized how strong and radical the use of concrete, brick, and glass was, emphasized by a myriad of details. Pure material, absence of decor.
I based the project on respecting the intrinsic characteristics of the building.”
Architect Scarano frees the round bush-hammered reinforced concrete pillars included in a series of storage rooms, allowing the four visible elements to punctuate the living area of the apartment from the entrance to the closing glass wall.
The first pillar is highlighted by a lamp made with a red metal sheet that surrounds it, hiding the light source.
Two full-height niches converging towards the second pillar, while keeping a distance, contain part of the kitchen.
The space between the niches and the pillar allows light to infuse the corridor, glimpsing the kitchen.
A new bedroom occupies a portion of the triple living room, connecting to the perimeter wall with a curved wall that gently allows light to slide into the corridor.
Inside the space, the views are never global, but always mediated by the presence of an episode:
“I shy away from the ideal of an open space, a single space where boundaries are lost, and activities blend together; I seek the narrative, made of pauses and accents, but above all, anticipations that, in spatial terms, are glimpses, that is, the possibility of peeking from one space into the next. It is always a partial view that introduces the next pause and invites you to discover the following space. Part of the theme of glimpses are the cuts: vertical, no wider than 10 cm, which function both to offer a view and to create a discontinuity and a passage of light”.
Emilio Scarano (Naples, 1982) received his degree from the Politecnico di Milano in 2007.
He began working professionally alongside Umberto Riva in 2008 collaborating with him until 2021.
In parallel to his collaboration with Riva, he has managed his own studio since 2013, developing a personal language enriched by a prolonged investigation of artisanal crafts and a distinctive attention to architectural detailing.
