LOFT RENOVATION ON ANCIENT APPIA ROAD

Location

Rome, Italy

Client

Private

Status

Realized

Year

2000

Design Team

Sergio Bianchi, Elisabetta Straffi, Enrico Bianchi, Paola Porretta

The project consists in the restoration of the ground floor of a building on the Via Appia Antica in Rome, not far from the Church “Domine Quo Vadis”.

The building, dated back to the last decade of ‘800, was originally used as warehouses, stalls and cellars.
Back then the area was countryside.
The original structure of the building is composed by brick walls with floors in iron beams and some little vaults.

The restoration consisted at the beginning in the complete removal of the interventions

succeeded on the artifact in the last fifty years.
The removal of the internal partitions brought to light a new configuration of the room: a ten-meter-long compartment interrupted only by a central masonry pillar with travertine pulvino leaning against two concrete reinforcements built in the late 40s.
From the pillar, four bined beams in iron to support the ceiling.

The removal of the plaster on walls and ceilings has highlighted the original wall texture with drain arches and platforms for the communication of the differents internal spaces.

The ancient atmosphere, once stripped and cleaned, appeared in all its marvelousness.
It was now a matter of adapting the spaces to the new functions.
The original walls were not to be touched, so it was decided to derive a series of areas for work.
No space is closed, everything participates in a unique environment and at the same time each location cuts out its own private corner.
All the furnishings are low, as far as possible they are not leaning against the walls, never reaching the ceiling.
The mezzanine, an iron structure with OSB decking, is completely independent from the building’s walls.
The oak plank floors follow the original course of the land and participate in the interior design.