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What was once an abandoned apartment in Naples is now a vibrant home and studio, reimagined by architect couple Giuseppe Punzo and Julie Nebout of La Fotosintesi. With a love of colour, craftsmanship, and contrast, the couple reimagined the historic space to reflect both the city's layered history and their own creative lives. Original features like patterned cement tiles and an original wall uncovered during the renovation were left exposed, its aged surface adding texture and contrast to the modern elements throughout the home. A compact kitchen and open-plan living area encourage gathering, while a mezzanine studio, tucked-away desk, and flexible guest setup maximise function. Outside, a sunny terrace with a repurposed tub offers sweeping views of Naples—from the sea to the volcanoes.

00:00-01:28 Introduction
01:28-02:36 Location
02:36-04:20 Floor Plan
04:20-05:04 Entrance
05:04-06:05 Kitchen
06:05-08:07 Living Room
08:07-09:15 Bedroom
09:15-09:41 Bathroom
09:41-10:20 Mezzanine
10:20-10:48 Terrace
10:48-11:46 Conclusion

Read the full article about this apartment here: https://www.nevertoosmall.com/post/58sqm-624sqft-apartment-in-naples

#smallapartment #architecture #interiordesign

Ep 227
Project Name: Paradisiello
Architect: https://www.instagram.com/la.fotosintesi/?hl=en

Produced by New Mac Video Agency
Creator: Colin Chee
Producer: Lindsay Barnard
Director and Cinematographer: Nam Tran
Editor: Sebastian Tibbs
Music: Artlist.io
Naples by LOLEK
At the Viewpoint by Skygaze
Days - Instrumental Version by HUAN
On On - Instrumental Version by Jimit
Jazzlude V Process by Walz

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Transcript
00:01We love colour. I mean, our projects are characterised by colour. We love colour.
00:07I think the most important when we design a home is to create an atmosphere,
00:12to create a space where the people feel good.
00:17We think house like story, like music.
00:22From the beginning we wanted a home where we could experiment, draw and create design objects.
00:30My name is Julie, I'm a friend, chef from Paris.
00:33And I'm Giuseppe, I'm Italian from Naples.
00:36We are partners in life and work.
00:41We are partners in La Photosynthesis, an architectural studio based in Naples.
00:55I love all the home, but I think entrance, I love it.
01:00Me too, and the mezzanine too.
01:02It's a nice place, I don't know, you are in the middle of the house, you can see all the
01:06high ceiling.
01:10The bedroom and morning is like the best place in the world, I think.
01:14I don't like morning, but since I live here, it made me love morning.
01:19It made me love waking up.
01:21Where you are on the bed in the morning, you see really Vesuvius, the sun.
01:25So nice.
01:28Yeah, if you go to Naples, you see these concerts, you see that there are a lot of beauty.
01:35A lot of the city that is abandoned, but it's under the big sun.
01:42I think that Naples has been the start of this home.
01:48Naples has inspired us.
01:52So the idea for the project, we put a lot of history because Naples is a historical city
01:58where there is a little bit of modernity.
02:01We keep the old floor and we contrast with a little bit of modernity.
02:08The furniture, the lamp, the kitchen.
02:15We were walking in the street because we were visiting another home close to this one.
02:21And so this house that had been abandoned for years.
02:25And then when we back home, we saw on internet this house.
02:29So we went to visit it and we had a crush.
02:38The floor plan has remained mostly unchanged.
02:40There was a wall here and there was the kitchen.
02:44And here there was a bedroom.
02:46We changed the function of the rooms in order to create a large living room
02:50with an open kitchen and a comfortably sized bedroom.
02:55We wanted to preserve a large entrance, something we always try to include in our projects.
03:02We also had a mezzanine that contains a studio area.
03:06We designed this desk that can be put away to create a guest room.
03:11We have another desk that goes to the terrace.
03:17The entrance is surprisingly spacious for this type of apartment.
03:22The floor features a pattern mix of original styles from the era.
03:27We feel they give a lot of character to the home.
03:30The closet in the entrance is an original one.
03:33We bring it up from the windows.
03:36There was two guys here on the balcony that take the top and I push them down.
03:44The chair in the entrance is from Anonima Castelli.
03:48The shirt is for the key and we designed it, yes.
03:55Original pallet doors, over three meters tall, open into the living room and bedroom.
04:04The custom kitchen is a very simple, clean, horizontal element where all the functions are integrated.
04:14It's really, really, really compact, but functional, super functional.
04:22And then this door, the left, you can find all the projects to clean.
04:28There's the bin, the washing machine, we have all the stuff to cook.
04:36The refrigerator was placed under the mezzanine and hidden away.
04:42During the renovation, we removed the wallpaper and uncovered the original colors of the time.
04:48We kept the color because it was nice to mix the past and the modern.
04:54We love this color because it's really linked to the color outside of the garden.
05:03In the living room, the couch is vintage from Hedra and we found it in Ferenc, Florence.
05:12It's the Homela Farm, the word women and men, it's called.
05:15Because this is women, there is another word, there is men.
05:20We need a coffee table, but there are a lot of stuff in this apartment, so we decided to make
05:25something clear that it disappear.
05:28We liked the contrast of the new windows, super modern, with the context.
05:35Because there was a normal window split in two.
05:37And so we saw this beautiful panorama, so we wanted just one window to make like a painting.
05:42When we started at Naples, we were so surprised that there is a lot of craftsmanship.
05:50And so we started to have fun, we started to design a lot of things.
05:56In the living room, we designed this console and we designed this table.
06:02We love nature, so we bring a lot of plants.
06:07So you know, this one, it was on the big road, there is a man that sold the plant.
06:13We take with us the motorbike and we drive through Naples with this big tree.
06:19And I was behind Giuseppe, with my hand, I hold it, and I was like...
06:24Behind him, it was so funny.
06:27We found the light in our house.
06:29We wanted something very simple in contrast with the light.
06:32And then the man that did the orange part decided, without telling us, to do these things.
06:41And so we were like, nice, okay, it's okay, it's nice.
06:47The living area is paved with vintage cement tiles.
06:52To match the original green of the walls, we're painting all the frames and the bottom of the walls.
06:59And the bottom of the costumes with the sage green.
07:08In the bedroom, the red applique was designed by Heustad Leuchten in the 1960s.
07:16And it's the applique that I prefer in the house because it's the first one that we bought.
07:21It's a symbolic one.
07:23The entrance and the bedroom is connected.
07:25And so that's why we decided to put our clothes in the entrance and to make it functional.
07:34So we found a red painting on the wall.
07:37We found also a little heart.
07:41There's a little graved heart in the wall.
07:43It was covered by the paper.
07:45It's a religious sign.
07:50We keep the color and then we contrast with this red Pompeian color of the flower.
08:00The green coat hanger, we found it in a vintage store.
08:05We bought it because it was nice.
08:08It was funny.
08:12The bathroom is hidden under the mezzanine.
08:15It's a little space, so we prefer to have a big shower.
08:20To make more natural the bathroom, we choose to have a flower with stones.
08:25We mix with some vintage stuff like the basin that we found.
08:30Generally, when we have a small space, we like to have some big furniture in a small place.
08:39The bright metal orange staircase leading to the mezzanine is a bold sculptural future in the room.
08:47Because we want another contrast with the apartment, so we put these orange stairs in steel.
08:55It's really nice to work upstairs because you have the landscape, you have the light of the terrace.
09:00It's really quiet and it's really nice.
09:03And you feel elevated.
09:08We designed this desk that can be put away to create a guest room.
09:16We have another set that goes to the terrace that we choose to make white to have more contrast with
09:22the orange one.
09:24The terrace is one of the best parts, I think.
09:27We spend also a lot of time in the morning because we have a hot shower.
09:34You can see the mountains, the volcanoes, the sea, and also all the historical parts of Naples.
09:42You see all the church.
09:45In small spaces, not everything has to be functional.
09:49This console, for example, that we put here is absolutely not functional.
09:56So it's a gift that we made to ourselves to have furniture in a small space, not functional.
10:04And these things feel like the space is bigger, I think.
10:09It's like some objects that make you happy.
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