An apartment renovation project in the historic center of Milan, on the top floor (terrace extension), has confronted us with the increasingly recurring theme of “building on buildings”.
Special Mention- Global Future Design Awards 2020
Firm | Deamicisarchitetti
Architect/Designer | Deamicisarchitetti
Category | Residential Interior Built
Team | Giacomo De Amicis, Rossella Destefani, Luigi Bartoli, Luigi Lorenzi
Country | Italy
Photographer/Copyright | ©Alberto Strada
Under these conditions, the relationship theme with pre-existences becomes central at least from two points of view: on the one hand in the relationship with the “host” building, on the other with the urban skyline.
The design choice consists in the realization of a volume, almost entirely made of glass, set back from the façade for its vertical components and instead realigned to it for the horizontal ones.
This volumetric breakdown, made entirely of glass and polished steel for both components, allows, from a perceptive point of view, to relegate the new glazed façade as the background and instead making protagonist the horizontal bris-soleil, realized with differently oriented slats.
The composition of glass plates with different orientations and lengths allows to fragment the physicality of the fabrication and to make light the protagonist of the vision.
From a practical point of view, the brise-soleil glasses contain a protective film inside to act as a sun screen.
On the terrace floor there are two habitable spaces that present two different ways of relating to the external space: the living room, thanks to the presence of large sliding windows, the movement on the outside of the load-bearing structure made of shaped polished steel pillars, and finally to the maintenance of the same flooring material at the same level both inside and outside, dissolves the limits and the threshold between exterior and interior; the kitchen instead frames the splendid view of the park as if it were a huge painting.
The staircase connecting to the lower floor is shaped with a curve that follows the similar but opposite of the entrance wall, so as to favor a fluid and dynamic relationship between the two levels. Also, the lower floor houses the bedrooms, the bathrooms and the service area.
The materials use in all the environments were only in stone and hand-planed oak strips (specially made) laid in formwork. The sinks, the tub, and the showers, also in stone, were custom made.
Large door and wardrobes integrated into the walls or designed to partition the rooms, allow the precise geometry of each room to be preserved regardless of the furnishing needs.