NEW LIFE TO ADA BURSI

Apartment in Turin, Italy

Published in T-The New York Times Style Magazine, October 2024:

On the cover of Living, Corriere della Sera, January/February 2025:

“A World Apart”

Text by Lia Ferrari 

(Text written for Living, Corriere della Sera, issue 1/2  of 2025)

The first architect to be registered with the Turin Order, Ada Bursi signed a building in the Crimea district in 1958. Inside, the Marcante-Testa studio reimagines an apartment with respect and intelligence: “Recently, there’s been a tendency to redo the past, but here, the past was already present, and it had to be reinterpreted in an original way.”

Certain recurring elements in their works have set trends, such as the exposed metal structures or the dividing elements, always in metal, with which they articulate the spaces. But, as true creatives, they don’t like to repeat themselves. When the first imitations began to circulate, more or less consciously, the Marcante-Testa studio, namely Andrea Marcante and Adelaide Testa, continued to surprise by always inventing something new. It’s no surprise that the IED in Turin, for which they recently redesigned the headquarters, entrusted them with coordinating the Interior Design department. It’s a field they take very seriously, interpreting it as research, invention, craftsmanship, thoughtful choices, and cultured references, not without a subtle irony that sometimes veers into the surreal.
This Turin apartment was designed for a long-time couple of clients, Marco Lobina and his wife Isabella Errani—he is the founder of Rezina, a resin coatings company, and she is the owner of a well-known public relations agency. There was great harmony, say the architects, which allowed for experimentation. They chose to play with the preexisting elements, in this specific case, an authorial genius loci: the building where the apartment is located was constructed in 1958, designed by Ada Bursi, the first woman to be registered with the Turin Order of Architects.
Bursi worked in the municipality, in the public works office. Clearly, at that time, opening an architectural practice for a woman would have been too complicated. To build this house in the Crimea district, where she later moved, she and other employees formed a cooperative. The project has admirably withstood the test of time. “Before buying, Marco and Isabella asked for our opinion,” recall Andrea and Adelaide, “and it was an immediate yes, we had no doubts.” It was also a matter of details, which here are very refined: “Bursi gave the building a very strong imprint. She spoke of democratic luxury, achieved on a budget. She used brick, mosaic, and glass block sparingly, yet with great elegance.”
It is this attention to detail that inspired the new floors designed with Rezina by Marcante-Testa, in light resin with ridges made of Bisazza mosaic tiles, recalling the balcony coverings and the common areas of the building. A reference that is also an invention.
If Ada Bursi set the tone, the project by Andrea Marcante and Adelaide Testa also pays tribute to another female architect, Maria Grazia Conti Daprà, who lived in this apartment and designed its interiors. She was the one who commissioned the column-cabinet units in the living room. While well done, another architect might have suggested removing them, but Marcante-Testa decided to keep and artistically modify them for coherence.
“They are useful and beautiful, throwing them away would not have made sense,” they say. “It’s a matter of responsibility for the designer. One should always be concerned with avoiding waste, especially when there are valuable elements like these.” The stroke of genius lies in the metal inserts at the base to fill the gap created by removing an old platform. For the same reason, a marble step was added to the staircase leading to the attic. “Recently, there’s been a tendency to redo the past, and sometimes you can’t tell whether something was made now or in the 1950s. Here, the past was already present, and it had to remain. The task was to reinterpret it in an original form: an interior design project should always tell something new.”

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photos par Carola Ripamonti