In Turin, a 38m2 two-room apartment that knows how to intrigue by playing with optical illusion

The aim of the project was precisely to transform a potentially bright and welcoming space but used in a poorly functional way, into an apartment capable of calling itself 'home'.

Thanks to some color and shape tricks and some masonry interventions useful for recomposing the starting plant, the young couple who will live there today find themselves able to enjoy comfortable spaces surrounded by greenery, inside and outside the house.

In fact, the two-room apartment is located on the second floor of a 1903 building designed by the architect Pietro Fenoglio, in a context of blocks of < strong>early 20th century of the Torinese Society for Popular Housing, among Art Nouveau decorations and exposed bricks.

Reverse the situation

First of all, Enrietto took care of inverting the spaces originally intended for bedroom and kitchen: the room, in fact, was excessively large and underused, and the kitchen was rather narrow.

The sleeping area has thus gained a window which, overlooking the greenery of the courtyard, restores natural light and tranquility to the environment. The opportunity then arose to include a small walk-in closet and, not at all trivial, more convenient access to the bathroom.

Complicit in the success of the intervention, the furnishings identified for this renovated bifocal in Turin were chosen to measure and functional to the needs of the young couple, an example of which is the canopy bed with a powder-coated iron structure. Based on the architect's design, it is a sort of 'room within a room', a colored box equipped with four retractable drawers that can be pulled out on the sides, where you can store linen and objects.

The canopy curtain, like a curtain, creates a dimension of intimacy, a border between inside and outside. Able to isolate the place of rest, transforming it into an escape from everyday life, it is softly delimited by a perforated fabric printed with 'multicolor foliage' motifs of Monstera Deliciosa.

The lamps hang from the ceiling of the mesh sheet canopy and can be moved to where the most light is needed. In the name of functional flexibility.

'The green box'

A recurring motif is that of the 15x15 tile, which returns to both the bathroom and the kitchen: an optical game that had already been announced in the sleeping area, with the square 'box' format of the bed, but which in these two environments becomes decidedly more explicit.

The pattern, which guides the entire project together with the color palette, takes on different shades of green in these two rooms; a device thanks to which both appear deeper than they really are.

The bathroom has been subjected to a rethinking of the spaces, although it has remained unchanged in its original structure: the tub has been replaced by a shower and a comfortable washbasin unit has been added on design, with doors in square mesh expanded metal.

A large mirror, strategically placed near the window, reflects the natural light, amplifying the real space available. The transparent tempered glass sliding doors in the anteroom and shower once again recall the aquamarine green of the furnishings.

Between sage green, olive green, aquamarine green and petrol green, the bathroom wall cladding creates intriguing graphic effects, with 15x15 tiles, arranged in four bands, darker at the bottom and lighter at the top.

Finally, the disappearing sliding doors, in transparent mirrored glass, let in a soft natural light that caresses and amplifies the space.