There seems to be something unfinished, changing and fluid, in Casa Celeste, Milanese apartment which the Tenet studio has refurbished, making it the spirit of these times. Like many homes in the Milanese capital, this one too, in fact, is destined for short rentalsand therefore that sense of deliberate incompleteness reflects transience, the fragments of life that come and go within these walls, without ever staying too long.
A flexible and low-budget restoration in Milan
The unit, which features a surface area of 45 m2, is located at the bend of one of the slats that mark the structure of the Istituto Fascista Autonomo Case Popolari, in the San Siro Baracca area, a complex designed in 1942 by Vincenzo Columbo. The plan is not linear as one would expect, but refers to the idea of a “geode” (a cavity), and evokes “the forma urbis of Milan”, to put it in the words of the designers, who did not limit themselves to renovate while keeping the budget lowbut they also experimented and reflected on the architectural perspectives of what is increasingly establishing itself as a recurring typology of contemporary living.
A flexible and low-budget restoration in Milan
Transience, we were saying. It can be seen from the fact that there are few fixed elements, while one dominates flexible approach that does not give up precise style choices, artisanal and minimal together. First of all, we note that the service system is rotated and transformed into a volume that extends towards the main room, a open space day-night where all the functions come together.
A flexible and low-budget restoration in Milan
The leitmotif of the project are the 5 x 15 cm tiles, shiny and with an irregular surface, which entirely cover the bathroom and the countertops of the long, narrow kitchen. The covering rises here next to the hob and sink to act as a splash guard, before descending to the edge, in reference, the architects explain, to the apartment designed by Franco Albini for Caterina Marcenaro in Palazzo Rosso, Genoa (1961).
A flexible and low-budget restoration in Milan
A flexible and low-budget restoration in Milan
The same tiles also have the purpose of defining the three fixed furnishing elements around which the domestic dimension is structured: the sofa-container, the table and the bed. The latter is nestled in a sort of alcove, which ensures intimacy and privacy, accentuated by a blue curtain behind which the bed “disappears” when not in use.
A flexible and low-budget restoration in Milan
Competing the scene with the tiles are the original black and white grits that decorate the living-sleeping area, while the walls show off a cement-based smoothing compound in the service volume, and in the open space a white plaster that is normally used for the exteriors, but which here instead introduces warmth and materiality, and that toothe aura of incompleteness that is the essence of the project.
A flexible and low-budget restoration in Milan
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Elisa Zagaria is an author who has transformed her greatest passion into a job: researching and inventing stories. What she talks about for Elle Decor, as a freelance collaborator, features dream homes, personalities, events and symbolic places of our time. And then there are other stories, in the form of novels and especially screenplays, that she writes for television, waiting to become rich enough to be able to buy one of those dream houses.
