In the Northern Italy town of Mantova—named the “Italian capital of culture” by the national government last year—local architects Archiplan Studio used a light touch when rehabbing a circa 1600 apartment for a private real estate investor. The one-bedroom flat reveals the remains of a 400-year-old fresco throughout, making the passage of time the home’s primary decorative element. Sleek, all-white Italian furnishings are secondary players.
Photography by Davide Galli, courtesy of Archiplan Studio.
Above: Nearly all the furnishings are white, save for the occasional antique or light fixture. Above: The architects preserved an original archway, which dates to 1600—it now frames a custom, white laminate kitchen. Above: The original fresco is carefully integrated into the new plaster walls. An essential dynamic at play in the apartment is the “blurry relationship between the natural and artificial,” say the architects. Above: The architects installed new wood plank floors and painted them in glossy white paint. Above: Fresco painting, popular during the Italian Renaissance, is created by applying water-based pigment to wet lime plaster; as the plaster dries, the pigment becomes an integral part of the surface. Above: Throughout the apartment, light fixtures project illumination upward to highlight the textural frescoed ceiling. Here, the Toio Floor Lamp for Flos, designed by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni. Above: A built-in hallway storage closet is covered in mirrors. Above: All interior doors are original to the apartment and painted white.
Above: A single unifying curtain rod runs along the entire windowed wall of the apartment. Above: The bedroom is open to the hallway, and two double doors open onto the bathroom. A projector system in the all-white bedroom means no unsightly television is on view. Above: The bathroom was completely remodeled by Archiplan; it features new plumbing fixtures—including the requisite Italian bidet—and an antique mirror. Above: The new shower is lined in Simply diamond-edged white ceramic tile by Devon & Devon. Above: Bathroom storage is tucked inside an antique blue-and-white armoire.
(Visited 395 times, 1 visits today)
You need to login or register to view and manage your bookmarks.
This error message is only visible to WordPress admins
Error: No connected account.
Please go to the Instagram Feed settings page to connect an account.
v5.0
×
Join the Remodelista Family of Websites
Become a Member at no charge
When you register as a free Member of the Remodelista family of websites (Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home), you gain access to all current posts plus 10 archived posts per month, our internal bookmarking tool, and the community bulletin board.
Access 10 archived posts (older than one year) per month on each site
Use of our internal bookmark tool, so you can save products, posts, and other pages for quick reference
Access to our community bulletin board so you can ask and answer design-related questions
Unlimited access to the Product Catalogs, Design Travel sources, and Architect & Designer Directory listings
Choose from our ten newsletters to keep up with the latest on the sites
Or Subscribe for Maximum Value!
For $5/month ($59.99 paid annually) you'll enjoy unlimited, ad-free access to Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home and all the benefits of Membership.
Annual subscribers pay 50% off the monthly subscription price of $9.99
×
Subscribe to the Remodelista family of websites
For $5/month ($59.99 paid annually) you'll enjoy unlimited, ad-free access to Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home and all the benefits of Membership.
Annual subscribers pay 50% off the monthly subscription price of $9.99
×
Sorry! As a registered member you get 10 free posts from our archive (posts more than a year old) every 30 days. You have reached your limit for this 30-day period. If you would like to access unlimited posts from the archive (ad free, too), become a subscriber today, and keep reading as many articles as you want.
Full Access Individual Subscription
Benefits include:
Unlimited access to Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home sites
Ad-free browsing environment
Unrestricted access to 30,000+ archived posts
Receive the full-text daily newsletters
All features that Members have access to
Annual subscribers pay just 50% off the monthly subscription price of $9.99
Sorry! You have reached your limit of three (3) free posts from our archive every 30 days. You can increase this to 10 posts by joining as a free Member, or read unlimited posts with no ads by becoming a paid Subscriber.
Subscribe to the Remodelista family of websites
For $5/month ($59.99 paid annually) you'll enjoy unlimited, ad-free access to Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home and all the benefits of Membership.
Annual subscribers pay 50% off the monthly subscription price of $9.99
Become a Member at no charge
When you register as a free Member of the Remodelista family of websites (Remodelista, Gardenista, and The Organized Home), you gain access to all current posts plus 10 archived posts per month, our internal bookmarking tool, and the community bulletin board.
Congratulations on becoming a Subscriber to Remodelista, Gardenista and The Organized Home! You now have access to many great features across the sites:
Unlimited access to all three sites
Ad-free browsing environment
Unrestricted access to 30,000+ archived posts
Receive any of the newsletters, including the the full-text daily Remodelista and Gardenista newsletters
Use of our internal bookmark tool, so you can save products, posts, and other pages for quick reference
Access to our community bulletin board so you can ask and answer design-related questions
Congratulations on joining as a free Member of Remodelista, Gardenista and The Organized Home! You now have access to many great features across the sites:
Access to all posts published in the past year
Access 10 archived posts (older than one year) per month on each site
Use of our internal bookmark tool, so you can save products, posts, and other pages for quick reference
Access to our community bulletin board so you can ask and answer design-related questions
Unlimited access to the Product Catalogs, Design Travel sources, and Architect & Designer Directory listings
Choose from our ten newsletters to keep up with the latest on the sites
If at any time you want to become a Subscriber and enjoy unlimited, ad-free access to all our content, just go to the My Account link and choose Subscribe.
Advertising funds our work at Remodelista and helps us provide you with a daily dose of design. We hope you’ll consider disabling your adblocker for Remodelista so we can continue our mission: a well-designed home for all.
Have a Question or Comment About This Post?
Join the conversation (1)