Not always restructure means disrupting the internal composition of an apartment. There are in fact, in the real estate assets of a few decades ago, apartments with simple patterns, in central corridors and separate rooms that long ago could be perfect for the average family, but today every square inch is essential, the dimensions are reduced, and it is necessary to adapt the internal composition of the house to the new requirements.
One of the first interventions, in general, is the reduction of the “corridor”, an element always present in old buildings and increasingly reduced or rationalized in new projects. But what does "rationalized" mean? It means that it can be used, not only as a passage area, but also as a service closet housing, perhaps mirrored to visually increase its depth, or by lowering the ceiling with a load-bearing structure and "hiding" a loft storage room, which as far as I can be seen as an "uncomfortable" space it is still a volume already ours, so why not exploit it? I also remember that the “corridodio effect” is that particular combination of disproportionality between the width, length and height of the room that makes it perceive as a long space. Lowering the ceiling helps diminish this perception of a gloomy place.
We see below a practical case of the renovation of an old apartment, with classic centralized distribution in the hallway.
Access is from the common stairwell. The apartment is located on the "mezzanine" floor, ie the internal walkway is about 1,20m above the level of the common external garden.
What to keep:
- shape and position of the windows and external walls (to avoid landscaping)
- scale body
- structures (two pillars at the corners of the kitchen and bedroom)
- location of the drains
- entrance door position
Demands of clients:
- have direct access to the living area
- addition of a laundry room and possibly a walk-in closet.
Ideas?
The first that came to me is to combine living room and kitchen and have direct access from the entrance, modifying the corridor. With a shift of planks, I added a laundry room and a walk-in closet. Let's see how the apartment was transformed:
The bathroom has been resized, widening and shortening it, so as to have both a bathtub and a shower. A laundry has been built which will also be used as a service bathroom. It was not possible to tear down the left pillar, which is now visible between the kitchen area and the living room. This element has been strengthened and emphasized by creating a lowered plasterboard beam which together with the pillar itself acts as a "portal" between the cooking area and the living room, as well as being functionally useful for housing two pendant lamps above the dining table which is a link between the two areas. The portal has acquired character also thanks to the creomatic choice of painting, a dark red, in combination with the living room accessories.
The project was appreciated and quickly realized. In contrast to the marked plan, at runtime, the spots in the central corridor were replaced with neon positioned laterally to pass and move the disengagement a more linear and modern.
project also published on the website: www.paolanardin.com
