GARBAGNATE MILANESE (MI) – ITALY
DENTROCASA – OCTOBER 2019
THE PROJECT
The clients of this semi-detached villa built in the 1980s wished to give a new image to both the external and internal architecture of the house, and recover underused outdoor spaces for the benefit of the interiors
On the ground floor, part of the porch has been integrated into the living area.
On the first floor, the large rear terrace has been recovered to obtain an extra room in the sleeping area, while the two balconies of the living area, previously divided, have been enlarged and connected to create total communication between the living environments.
These interventions, in addition to the total renovation of the roof, and the redesign of the greenery, have given a completely new geometry to the villa: the classic pavilion roof has been replaced by the more modern flat roof, and the old sloping and hardly usable garden has been redesigned with the most modern “basin” technique on horizontal planes at different heights.
The result is a villa with a rigorous and contemporary design.
THE CONCEPT
As for the interiors we will mainly analyse the ground floor. Fusion between indoor and outdoor, fluid connection between domestic spaces, the furnishings integrated into the architecture, continuity and coherence in the use of materials, the alternation of retractable and decorative lighting in the lowerings, are the guiding principles that animate this project.
The large minimal windows of the living area and kitchen give continuity between inside and outside, giving considerable visual depth, the horizontal opening under the TV overlooking the patio connects the internal living area with the external one.
Here, lunch space includes a convivial round table in pietra serena and white marble with PANTHON CHAIR chairs by VITRA, while Gervasoni furnishings have been used for the lounge area, again in the shades of white and grey to recall the colours of the external façade of the house.
Inside, the protagonist of the conversation and TV area is the large ATLAS modular sofa by Arketipo which, placed in the middle of the room, becomes a large island of relaxation for clients and guests.
The two dining areas of the kitchen and living room are linked by the same design concept: the tables are set against the modern wall-hung benches made extremely comfortable by seat cushions and padded wall backrests, and both are lit by Vibia chandeliers.
The kitchen characterised by Modulnova furnishings is in semi open space with the living area: there are no dividing walls; however, the design ensured that the island’s operational area was not fully in sight. The large wall of full-height columns in a staved wood finish mixes up the various modules: the final effect is
a continuous wainscoting that highlights only the vinotheque with its luminous back perfectly centred with the perspective of the table and the NEFF semi-professional cooking appliances as well as the IRINOX blast chiller and water dispenser.
The night hallway is defined by full-height wardrobes, the colour of the floor and ceiling also continues on the walls and on the wardrobe doors, creating a box effect. This is interrupted only by the insertion of the flush-to-wall glass doors which are tone-on-tone with the walls, always full-height, by RIMADESIO.
Even the bathrooms offer minimal furnishings and have a close link with the kitchen environment not only thanks to the continuity of the floor but also for some design and furnishing choices.
Most of the containers are custom made and finished in resin like the walls so as to become one with the walls and have less impact on the environment.
The guest bathroom re-proposes the monolithic sink in Piasentina stone which rests on a masonry bench finished in resin like the walls and this, together with the Vibia lights and the Wall&Decò upholstery that covers the wall of the sanitary fixtures are the only yet strongly characterising elements of this environment.
In the master bathroom, on the other hand, on the continuous surfaces on the floor and wall, the suspended chests of drawers take shape in the same slatted wood finish as the kitchen columns, the Modà mirror and the engraved stone wall by BENETTI STONE. The very fusion mood leads back to a small domestic SPA.
In the night areas, the wall-coloured Lema wardrobes blend in, letting the other furnishing components stand out.
In the master bedroom, the parquet floor climbs up the wall creating a warm background where the YOU&ME white leather bed by Ivano Redaelli stands out.
The Wall&Decò graphic tapestry to represent the girl’s great passion for horses, is the background to the French bed with padded container by Twils.
For both rooms, the same series of floor-standing and suspended containers was used for which a lacquer matching the light walls for the fronts and a mink-coloured glass matching the dark walls and doors for the tops were chosen.
So the materials that cover floors and walls are wood, resin, stone and wallpaper. Inside, the floor is mainly made up of large country volcano oak planks in a white oil finish by MAFI. The same shade was used for the Atlas Concorde porcelain stoneware for the patio and walkways so as to create a pleasant continuity between inside and outside.
Between the wooden floor of the living area and the bedrooms there is an important resin insert that develops without interruption: starting from the kitchen, in fact, it enters the service bathroom and then continues along the 2 walls of the living area, ending in the master bathroom passing through the night hallway without interruption. This graphic sign of the resin on the floor follows the trend of the lowering of the ceiling, both sharing the same chromatic choice.
The resins, as well as the painting of the walls and ceilings, the materials used for the decorated walls and the invisible skirting boards to match the walls are part of the Kerakoll Design House collection, all rigorously in the shades WR 03 and WR 07. Another natural material undisputed co-protagonist of this project is the stone that we find in the monolithic sinks of the kitchen and guest bathroom, in the boiserie of the kitchen, in the wall behind the bathtub in the master bathroom.
The rigor of the neutral shades of the coverings is interrupted by the use of Wall&Decò graphics.
The lowering house Panzeri‘s invisible flush-to-the-wall lighting systems: the luminous grooves underline the perimeters and give prominence to the walls characterised by material finishes, stone or tapestries; the vertical recessed luminaries create an enveloping diffused and indirect light; the horizontal recessed luminaries create beams of light to highlight the furnishings.
The ceiling lights, wall lights and decorative suspensions are all rigorously by Vibia.
The girder inserted in place of the perimeter load-bearing wall was deliberately left in sight and thus becomes a luminous element painted white like the other decorative lighting elements.
The spotlights on the floor create beams of light from bottom to top near the columns to emphasize their presence by creating a natural frame around the table.
We are proud of this complete renovation which was also published in the DENTROCASA magazine of October 2019.
