May 1, 2019

Text: Jesse Dorris

DVDV Studio Architects Goes Next-Level for a Milan Apartment

The dining room’s “Bau” custom table supports a black walnut top on four brass feet, which fold and cut into the wood. Photography by A. Tamborini, courtesy of DVDV Studio Architects.

A young businessman in south Milan needed to make a connection between his studio with a terrace on the ground floor and a three-room apartment above. Davide Vizzini, principal of Milan-based DVDV Studio Architects, had a tasteful idea: splitting the distance between the two levels. First, a concrete podium on the ground floor offers steps up, then reaches cantilevered quadrangular profiles of corrugated iron.

“It becomes the axis of symmetry,” Vizzini says. “As a result, the plan seems to be squeezed in the middle like a butterfly shaped pasta.”

At left, Vizzini’s Zag bended brass sheet pendant hangs in the kitchen; on the right, Oluce’s Atollo table lamp cuts through the blue. Photography by A. Tamborini, courtesy of DVDV Studio Architects.

The apartment’s owner will be able to cook the Italian staple in its industrial-style kitchen, with aluminum fronts and pegboard storage, and serve it on the dining room’s dramatic custom black walnut table. Above runs the footbridge. “The spaces, volumes, and functions are gently intertwined to enable the flow of light, air, and sight,” he says of the gray concrete interiors accented by a bold blue.

Once across the footbridge, spaces are defined by glazed, vertical partitions. “At eleven o’clock,” Vizzini says, “sun rays pass through the stairs and through the perforated metal sheets, reaching the floor. And the client is happy!” And that, of course, is the highest achievement.

Keep scrolling to view more images from the project > >

The bathroom’s penny tiles are by Porcelanosa. Photography by A. Tamborini, courtesy of DVDV Studio Architects.
The kitchen’s storage and island are fronted with corrugated aluminum doors by Vico Magistretti. Photography by F Romano, courtesy of DVDV Studio Architects.
The upstairs bedroom’s glass walls are by Mainardi Sistemi. Photography by F. Romano, courtesy of DVDV Studio Architects.
Vizzini devised Poi, a modular system of drilled panels and shelves, for walls throughout the residence. Photography by F. Romano, courtesy of DVDV Studio Architects.

Recent Projects