Memento Memoriae — Civita Castellana, IT
Status: Proposal

A flat on the third floor of an early 19th century building currently in need to be renovated carries on memories that certainly influenced the approach of this full gut renovation. Memories from a childhood, now opportunities for a grown up.

The approach has been quite radical; the current layout presents a series of rooms that certainly respond to their function. Non-bearing partitions throughout offered the possibility for a substantial demolition mainly at the front, targeting the possibility of open up a wide view towards the local stone built old town, with a tiny church right across acting as a pivot point for a typical Italian landscape.

The apartment has been basically divided in two different zones, with different degrees of privacy and accordingly treated adequately employing specifying materials for tailored atmospheres. Quite and meditational the back where a tiny reading room welcomes you into a mute dark entry hall, a glass block wall invites diffuse light to come in from the stair way that leads to the apartment counterbalancing a full height window door that opens to the balcony.Known, yet undiscovered, the rear gets intimate, a study/working place wraps around the existing fireplace, while the bedroom opens to the existing balcony overlooking the courtyard.

Partial height cabinetry doesn’t disclose the front of the apartment yet. Broken down by colored episodes, the long row of cabinets leads to the living room, soft and warm, gently filled by natural light and landscaped views throughout.

Kitchen and dining live together to house the extended family environment, the long counter to gather around it, the table to feel it. Memories have been read differently, memories have been there, sure so, memories need to be built further though, that’s how we played with, that’s the opportunity we saw for the forthcoming looking back with a touch of nostalgia.