Paolo House
Rome, Italy
On the top floor of a building overlooking the Tiber River in Rome, Paolo House was designed as a vintage exercise. A 1950s apartment strongly characterized in terms of poor architecture has been transformed into a faithful representation of the 1950s American dream.
The apartment’s distribution was traditionally Italian, with small rooms and strongly divided spaces. The structure was rethought with the mentality of a great Hollywood villa architect: a large open space to host, translucent wings instead of partition walls, transparencies and movable walls to make the space fluid. The American bar for sophisticated guests is the very heart of the living room, as per tradition.
The materials used are green splitting stones inspired by the water of the river that can be seen from the windows of the apartment. The typically 1950s wooden ceiling softens and warms the stone on the ground. Mirrors were used extensively but always in a hidden way – in the cuts, at the bottom or above the windows – with the aim of breaking through the space.
Client: private
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Status: complete