A few steps away from the famous Casa Verdi, inside a prestigious 19th-century building of Milan, there is Casa MRB02, where Studio Elementare re-elaborated the austere classic details as well as its traditional internal partition to create a lively and contemporary apartment.
The aim was keeping the original layout, maintaining the position of the living area and the bedrooms while transforming the spirit of the interiors – which were originally dark – into a succession of playful and colourful moments.
The severe look characterising the central corridor was further intensified by painting all the walls in dark blue. In contrast, light colours were chosen for the side environments – i.e. the kitchen, the living room and the studio – adding brightness to the coffered ceiling and the fireplace.
The original parquet flooring and the wooden window frames were restored, while the coffered ceiling, once dark and oppressive, was reinterpreted through a contemporary lens, together with the fireplace.
The kitchen is enriched by the large terrace, overlooking the quiet green area of the internal courtyard.
Even the bedrooms were exploited to create something amusing and unique, with an open bathroom that extends the private sphere of the bedroom up to the central corridor.
A new arch was opened to link the kitchen to the living room, creating a new source of light for the west-oriented living area. The arch was the key element of the restoration: it was almost obsessively proposed in different heights and diameters, producing unusual perspectives inside the apartment.
The exposed systems, sometimes framed once again by arches, were turned into contemporary decorative elements.
Briefly, the refined furnishing, the colours, the memories of a lifetime and the exposed systems are in charge of telling the story of those who currently live in this house, without using words.
