Nicolas Dorval-Bory Architects
For this apartment, we understood pretty early that the clients wanted us to work on rather classical features. However we didn’t want to propose many options for designs and materials, to keep the project as radical and simple as can be. So we sorted out the ideas of the project, thinking about, on minimum, how many material we would need. We thought we would need only two materials : one for carpentry, one for bathrooms, the rest being simply white (either resin, paint of plaster…)
To create the most direct answer, we looked at typical interior architectures of Bologna and Northern Italy. Pretty quickly we decided to use this grey marble from Gré (ceppo di Gré), a type of stone with natural big chunks that is common in base parts of buildings, or flooring, and dark walnut, also typical in interior carpentry. We used these two elements to define the spaces that have certain functions, trying to avoid expressive details and other materials.
The only exception to that is a very long piece of furniture between the kitchen and living room. Here we wanted something specific, that is both neutral, and both carpentry. Both structural, both piece of furniture. Spreading between the walnut space of the kitchen to the white space of the living room, we chose an intermediate wood, a light veneer of maple.
In the bathroom the stone stops at 1m, like a waterproof covering the lower parts of the bathroom. Above this height, walls and ceilings are in plaster, except the volume of the shower itself, in white corian.
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Project : Appartement P420
Dates : 2017-2019
Location : Bologna, Italy
Client : private
Budget : confidential
Architects : Nicolas Dorval-Bory Architects
Local architect : Emmanuele Dionigi
