The apartment is located in an elegant middle-class area of Milan, dotted with palazzos and apartment blocks in an Art Nouveau style that is both austere and decorative.
The home that this project dealt with is on the top two floors of one of these, instantly recognisable due to its tall circular corner tower.
- Client
- Private
- Year
- 2011
- Status
- Completed
- Size
- 500 sqm
- Team
-
project Flavio Albanese —Franco Albanese
Flavio Albanese
founder & partnerFlavio Albanese (1951), is founder and president of ASA studio albanese. He is a self-educated designer, by combining his passion for contemporary art with the practical experience of an artisan-architect. Having come into contact with Carlo Scarpa, he learns from him to avoid an “a priori” approach to design, adapting on a case-by-case basis to the occasions, themes and contexts. He has held courses at the École Polytechinique Fédérale in Lausanne and at the Art Institute in Chicago (1980), at Yale University (1983), at the University of Architecture in Delft (2005), at the University of Florida (2006), at the Fundacion Proa de Buenos Aires (2008) and frequently at the most important Italian universities. He has also held two workshops at the international summer school of the Architecture School in Venice in 2009 and 2010. He was a member of the Confindustria Vicenza committee from 1998 to 2001, the Domus Academy Scientific Committee (2004-2005) and the MIart Committee of Honour (2009 and 2010), director of the Officina del Porto di Palermo (2006-2008), vice president of the Andrea Palladio Architecture Firms International Centre (2011-2015) and president of the Fondazione Teatro Comunale Città di Vicenza (2010-2016). From 2007 to 2010 he was asked to head Domus, the prestigious international architecture, design and contemporary art magazine. Active since 1971, in 1987 he founds with his brother Franco ASA studio albanese. The studio's projects were published by the most most important architecture and design magazines: the Neores project was selected for the Mies van der Rohe Foundation European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture (2003), and ASA studio albanese took part in Venice's Architecture Biennial in 2004 and 2006. Flavio is an avid reader and bibliophile (his library, which is open to the rest of the firm, contains more than 15.000 volumes) and he is a connoisseur and collector of contemporary art.
Franco Albanese
partner, CEO & executive directorFranco Albanese (Vicenza, 1958) has worked in the world of architecture and design since 1976. He graduated from the Architecture School in Venice in 1986 and the year after he founded ASA studio albanese in Vicenza with his brother Flavio. Since then he has been the firm's CEO and Technical Manager, and this role has led him to playing his part in the creation, development and execution of the most important projects. As designer and operations manager he oversaw: the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Padua (1997); “Neores”, the production site and headquarters of Sinv Spa in Schio, Vicenza, (selected for the Mies van der Rohe Foundation European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture in 2003); the project for the Town Hall of the Municipality of Grumolo delle Abbadesse, Vicenza (1999); “Morimondo 17”, the industrial reconversion of the Sinv spa premises in Milan (2000); the headquarters of Margraf in Chiampo, in the province of Vicenza (2006). He also supervised the “Rocco Forte Verdura Resort” in Sciacca, in Sicily (2005), the expansion of Pantelleria Airport (2006), the new Rinascente in Palermo (2007), the reconversion project of Lindower 22 in Berlin (2011), the Hybrid Tower project in Mestre-Venice (2012), the Fope headquarter extension project in Vicenza (2016). In recent years, he has increasingly concentrated on reconverting urban industrial areas, which has become a key theme of ASA studio albanese's philosophy. In recent years, he has increasingly concentrated on reconverting urban industrial areas, which has become a key theme of ASA studio albanese's philosophy.
project manager Benedetta Nicolich
Benedetta Nicolich
team Lisa Bisarello —Nicola Caputo —
Lisa Bisarello
interior designerLisa joined Asa studio albanese in 2001 as personal assistant to Flavio Albanese, before becoming an interior designer and working on projects ranging from furniture design to patterns for fabrics, as well as on interior design projects. She received her High School Diploma in 1994 at the Canova Techical Institute for Surveyors in Vicenza, and before joining Asa studio albanese, she worked as an interior designer for a building firm from 1994 to 1996, and from 1998 to 2000 at the prestigious Fontana Arredamenti showroom as a sales assistant and interior designer. Personality-wise, Lisa is sensitive, meticulous, strong-willed and down-to-earth. She prefers still water, and her favourite proverb is "Where there's a will, there's a way".
Anna Tozzi
Nicola Caputo
architectfinal and working stages of projects, coordinating operations on site for the professionals who physically create the project and working with clients on their choices to ensure that the firm's vision for the project is in keeping with the clients' wishes. For the firm Nicola has been involved in projects that include the Rocco Forte Verdura Resort in Sciacca, the Hybrid Tower in Mestre, the Villa Coeur Jolie in Cap d’Antibes, as well as many other projects. Before joining ASA studio albanese, he worked at Studio Altieri in Thiene, in the contract field in workplace interiors with Adotta, and again as designer with Studio Gabbiani & associati, tackling projects of different sizes, including hospitals, shopping malls, infrastructure and restoration work. He lives in Vicenza with his wife and son. He's a keen pre-master swimmer and when he isn't diving into the firm's design projects, he's diving into swimming pools. One of his favourite books is "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu. One thing he couldn't live without is a pair of well-crafted shoes.
Anna Tozzi
project manager, interior designerAnna joined the firm in 1982 after graduating from art high school. She has made her own contribution to ASA studio albanese's growth and development, helping shape its distinctive style and sensibility. An interior designer with a particular flair for design and colour, Anna has always been interested in interiors, the spatial arrangement of items, and proper and elegant proportion between tones and volumes, working on projects from their concept to their design, coordination with suppliers and relations with clients. Today she is one of the pillars of ASA studio albanese, and the point of reference for the most important interior design choices. Over time her colour palette has concentrated on soft shades, and the colour she undoubtedly uses most is beige, in all its tones. Anna loves nature, animals, baggy, warm cardigans and monographs by Liagre, both for pleasure and necessity.
- Partners
- Studio 03, Debra Balucani, Mario Lemorini, Micaela Marinoni
- Images credits
- Germano Borrelli, Andrea Garzotto
This project refurbished and renovated a two-level apartment on the demolished and rebuilt top two floors of an elegant Art Nouveau apartment block in the centre of Milano, recognisable by its tall round corner tower. A building of this kind called for a number of reflections on how to incorporate a contemporary style in an historic space, developing coexistence tactics between the old design and the new layout. The theme of the work, as often occurs in situations like this, is the attempt to create balance and proportion to turn a 20th century living space into a contemporary “machine for living in”. To achieve this, it was decided to empty the first level of the existing partition, reshaping it by adding a sequence of “room-boxes” that create a rhythm without closing the spaces off. The round living room, located in the corner tower, was restored to its original state, turning it into a kaleidoscopic panoramic viewpoint over the city. The large windows looking onto a new terrace set back from the street view, generate a sort of continuity between the exterior and the interior and illuminate the new spaces with natural light. The addition of more contemporary solutions in the Art Nouveau setting is partially offset by a large number of more modern pieces from the ’40s and ’50s, as well as bespoke furniture. The result is a fluid and comfortable environment, laid out all around the terrace, a very measured balance between warm and cool tones and between innovation and moderation, the bourgeois virtues par excellence.
