Casa Velasca

to the passemanterie utilized for the radiator covers, or the fabric doors of the wardrobes. All the fabrics, including the curtains, have been created for the occasion by the textile designer Aleksandra Gaca, in agreement with the designers, and produced at the workshops of the TextielMuseum of Tilburg (Holland). There is also another element that stand out in the studio’s design: the central European culture of Trieste in the early decades of the 1900s. Hence the walls covered with wallpaper reproducing an original design from the Bauhaus period, or the reproductions of lamps by Adolf Loos. As well as the ceilings, inspired by the works of Josef Hoffmann in the 1920s, and the handles by Walter Gropius.

To create a residence that is also a workplace. To transmit emotion and function at the same time. The house is for a composer of electronic music, and it has been designed by m2atelier in the center of Milan, close to Torre Velasca. And the focus is on compositional balance, together with a well-gauged use of materials, as seen in the plan of the flat: a perfect cube, a soundproofed box for creating and recording, around which all the flows of the house are organized. The cosmopolitan and contemporary space shuns bourgeois styling – we are in an office building from the first half of the 1900s – while attempting to formulate the right freedom and calm for creative work. The studio m2atelier has eliminated all the unnecessary parts, creating an open space marked only by the structural grid of the pillars. The result is an oblong rectangle (about 450 sqm) that dictates the longitudinal extension of the house, with a black metal monolith at the center, raised on a platform and framed by a wooden structure. This volume is interrupted only by the door and the ribbon window on one of the sides. Everyday life happens all around this presence, like the various chords of a rich score. The spaces in the public sphere, fluidly connected to each other, are separated from the more reserved, closed private zones. Everything, however, takes part in a situation of material and chromatic continuity. Wood and metal, the absolute protagonists, establish a dialogue with natural light that enters in abundance, becoming an important ingredient of the design. The overall effect is measured, poised and flexible.

Location: Milan

Architecture: m2atelier

Photos: Lorenzo Pennati