00:00Our inspirations come from the Japanese houses by folding panels like origami,
00:10and melting these to the European functionalism and modernism of the last century.
00:28The apartment building is located in Brera, one of the most famous central district of Milan.
00:39We are in the medieval district of the city, and the building has been built
00:45approximately at the end of the 18th century.
00:54The apartment is 34 square meters.
00:59The aim of the project, it was to create an open space,
01:03even if the apartment is quite small,
01:06and to bring as much as possible the natural light inside the apartment.
01:13When we first came, the apartment was divided into two different small rooms and one bathroom,
01:20and that created a feeling of having a small and dark space.
01:25So we decided to demolish only the partition wall that was between the two rooms,
01:30in order to have a large room with two windows to bring light in.
01:39We created a space with different configurations.
01:45By using movable panels and fixed furniture, we can use the apartment in different ways.
01:56During the day, we can open up the panels, connecting the kitchen and the living room or dining room,
02:03and during the night we can open up completely the other panels and have access to the bedroom.
02:14Instead of using traditional handles, we decided to put hand holes in the cabinets.
02:22The holes in the panels also allow the light passing through the panels and going to the bedroom,
02:30in order also to leave the air passing through.
02:34With the living room, we created a custom designed sofa that can be used as a second bed for the
02:41apartment,
02:42and is integrated in the furniture of the kitchen.
02:47We make sure there's plenty of storage in the living room.
02:52We also included a wardrobe next to the entrance area.
03:00We used a grey color for the apartment, and getting to the sleeping area,
03:06the grey becomes a little bit darker to give a coziness to the alcove.
03:12By elevating the bed at 1.4m above the floor, we created more wardrobe under the bed.
03:23In order to access the elevated bed, we can use a staircase that is hiding into the wardrobe,
03:31and it slides out.
03:36We also created a round window that allowed the natural light getting into the bathroom,
03:42and also, by turning on the light in the bathroom during the night,
03:46we can have a smooth ambient light in the bedroom.
03:52Being Italian, kitchen is part of our daily routine, and is very important to us.
03:58So, even in a small apartment, for us it's important to have a proper kitchen, very functional.
04:06There is a gas cooktop, a large fridge, an oven, and plenty of pantry.
04:12There is a hole in the kitchen bench to put fresh herbs that is very useful for Italian cooking.
04:21We also created wooden shelves below the windows in order to have a small space to have coffee or read
04:29a book in the natural light.
04:34The dining area is a flexible space. It can be used as an extension of the kitchen, or simply by
04:41closing the panels.
04:42It can be separated when someone is cooking and another person can work or read a book.
04:52The client decided to keep the bathroom as it was, and we just added a new corridor in order to
05:00create more storage inside.
05:03To create a simple and elegant space, we just used concrete light grey tiles in the floor.
05:11And in order to create more warmth into the apartment, we created a lot of storages and panels in natural
05:18timber.
05:20The centre of Milan is a very ancient city with all these medieval areas.
05:28And we think that reusing all these traditional buildings, we can give a new life and turn into modern and
05:38contemporary dwellings.
05:41It can be a possibility to preserve the story of the city and our tradition.
05:48And in the meantime, it can be sustainable.
05:53Ciao!
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