The contrast between past and present in the renovation of this Milan penthouse
Vaults, boiserie and original details are transformed through targeted interventions, creating brighter, more fluid and more current spaces.
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A penthouse and upper-penthouse of about 260 sqm in Milan where the last renovation dated back more than forty years. Casa C’era una Volta chooses not to erase the past but to bring it up to date: the wooden entrance staircase, the austere attic vaults, the upper-penthouse boiserie, the original arched doors, even the pre-existing niche units are kept and reinterpreted through colour. Burgundy, blue, jungle yellow-green, coral and powder blue become the tools to update the forms of the past without betraying them. The project was published by AD Italia.
A two-level penthouse. The renovation of this two-level penthouse of about 260 sqm in Milan is a bridge between past and present. The penthouse’s last renovation had been done more than 40 years ago, and fully represented all the living needs of the time.
It was designed with a total separation of the routes between service staff and living spaces, with the kitchen sized perfectly for technical use and not like today’s kitchens — a technical kitchenette and laundry. The space, moreover, the main floor being an attic, had a complex system of fibre-plaster vaults made at the time, which lowered certain spaces enormously, giving them an austere look.
The staircase, the boiserie and the vaults. The home had, in some of its elements, pre-existing features that were kept and reworked through the use of colour and details. For example, the wooden entrance staircase leading to the upper-penthouse floor with terrace was kept but re-coloured, removing the rope-and-drape handrail, and brought up to date.
The vaults in the bedrooms’ sleeping area were kept and updated through the use of contrasting colour, paired with wallpapers in nuance. One bedroom links the tones of green and yellow, used to reinforce the structure’s shape, through a jungle-themed wallpaper, similar to the one used in another important flat done in Milan. The other alternates coral and powder blue together with a Fornasetti wallpaper.
Restoration of the elements. Another important element of the home, re-edited through colour, is the upper-penthouse boiserie. It was entirely coloured in burgundy tones and brought up to date, since it conceals inside it the home-theatre system with the projector screen and the audio speakers.
The dining-room door was also kept, while the study door was rebuilt to the same design, so as to create an ideal symmetry of the living room’s two appendices. The solid-oak floor of the whole penthouse floor was restored and reintegrated, while the herringbone floor of the upper-penthouse floor is new. Again on the upper-penthouse floor, arched niche units that were present in the home were re-coloured and inserted into a completely redesigned bespoke area. Another important element that was kept is the original doors, which were all arched and which were repainted RAL 9010 like other parts of the structure.
Once upon a time. To cover the shape of the pitched roof and its structural tie-rods, the whole living area had a vault as a false ceiling which, though very beautiful, was decidedly low and oppressive. It was removed, giving the living area a completely different breathing space.
The roof tie-rods were reinterpreted, again through contrasting colour, and are also used as a lighting element for indirect light, via an LED strip, and direct light, via Artemide’s adjustable Tolomeo clamp lamps.
The corridor. The very long corridor divides into two zones. One part, the one with the greatest aesthetic value, is that of the living area. There was a system of cross vaults that linked to the staircase. It was demolished and a barrel vault was rebuilt, following the whole length of the corridor, accentuated at the centre by an Infinito by Davide Groppi. The wall towards the study and towards the living room was also opened with plasterboard shelves, although in the study’s case a glass was added for acoustic reasons.
The master bedroom. The main bedroom plays on blue tones, dosed between ceiling and some walls and enhanced by the contrast with the wood-and-glass parts of the walk-in wardrobe.
Above the bed, by Gervasoni, a Zettel’z by Ingo Maurer stands out. The walk-in wardrobe is bespoke, as is the plasterboard niche in the bed headboard. The master bedroom has the bathroom in the room. It too plays on tones between blue, light blue and petrol.
The existing false-ceiling system was kept, enhancing the window that is perfectly aligned with the spire of the Duomo, seen in the distance, and housing a niche bath. The cladding is by Atlas Concorde, while the floor, the bath-zone cladding and the masonry washbasin top are in tone-on-tone resin.
The children’s rooms. The children’s rooms have a shared ante-bathroom, through which you reach the bathroom, made with blue Tonalite floor tiles and diamond-point cladding.
It plays on colour contrasts between yellow accessories, the yellow taps (Fantini’s I Balocchi) and the light blue of the tiles and the cladding enamel. Completing it all is the reuse of some pre-existing furnishings, repainted RAL 9010, and new bespoke furnishings with details again in yellow tones.
The touch that most enhances the structure of the coral and powder-blue room is the bespoke wardrobe. It is made following the curvature of the vaults, integrates details in the same colours and has, in the central door, a full-length mirror that doubles the room’s spaces.
AD Italia. The prestigious international design title Architectural Digest dedicated an article to this renovation, written by Valentina Raggi, which you can find at this link.
