Architectural Frames

Refurbishment of an apartment in Milan

The project by Marcante-Testa in Milan involves the renovation of a top-floor apartment in a building designed by the engineer architect Roberto Carlo Dell’Acqua in 1927, located in Via De Togni, not far from the well-known “typical houses” designed by Gio Ponti a few years later. The apartment, purchased by a professional couple with a child, presented significant challenges to the designers due to its low ceiling height and few windows in the entire attic portion facing the inner courtyard.

The approach to the project primarily focuses on the architectural dimension, involving the modification of the roof and the creation of “pocket” terraces with large French doors to provide livability and natural light to the new spaces designated for bathrooms and the kitchen. The spatial diversity within the apartment, dividing it into two distinct zones in terms of height, ceiling type, and views, led the designers to the idea of creating custom-designed doors in the central corridor to separate the sleeping area and a wooden oak veneer divider to replace the masonry. These portals, capable of opening and closing to frame perspectives, establish a flexible spatial relationship between areas like the living room with the kitchen and the entrance with the corridor.

In this way, the entry space into the apartment can become an additional isolated study room for the clients’ remote work, while the kitchen benefits from a view of the terrace in the living area that appears to “float” above the canopy of the trees in the park below.

The influence of Umberto Riva, a designer greatly admired by Andrea Marcante and Adelaide Testa since their university studies, is evident in their particular attention to relationships with outdoor spaces and the design of certain typological elements of interior architecture that are closely integrated with custom-made furnishings. Starting with the door-windows on the new terraces, the project frames the external landscape from floor to ceiling, then generates the design of specific furnishings like the desk and entrance shelves, as well as the development of the kitchen. Similarly, the wall-paneling in the living room selects and emphasizes the relationship with the terrace and the park’s trees. In the project, some historical decorative elements such as William Morris’ floral pattern wallpapers relate to the park.

This project by Marcante and Testa demonstrates, as taught by Umberto Riva, the intention to make furnishings interact with architectural space. Architecture generates the idea of furnishings, not the other way around. Architecture becomes an indispensable tool for framing and orienting visual perspectives within spaces and towards the outside, achieving a careful balance between materials, colors, furnishings, and contemporary living forms.