On the Waterfront

The large windows and a special skylight illuminate the interior of this 40 square metre mini-apartment and offer splendid views of Genoa and its port. Designed by the firm Gosplan Architects, this small jewel of a home is located on the top floor of a building close to the Old Pier, a defensive structure that has protected the city’s port since the Middle Ages.
The floor space has been divided up between a living area with kitchenette and a sleeping area with bedroom and bathroom. The prevalently white interior is dominated by an airy open staircase that leads to the terrace. “The bedroom is separated from the living room by a custom-built white OSB unit, which on the side looking onto the sleeping area houses a wardrobe and on the side facing the living room forms the first ramp of stairs,” explained the architects. “A second series of metal steps suspended from the ceiling leads to the upper floor terrace overlooking the shipyards and loading cranes. It was this surrounding context that inspired the raw finishes of the furnishings, particularly the OSB panels and the metal staircase, as well as the metal beams used to reinforce the ceiling after an access hole had been opened into the previously inaccessible upper floor terrace. Rather than concealing these structural elements, they were accentuated by painting them white in contrast to the grey ceiling.”
A harmonious and well-balanced relationship with the environmental context is one of the defining features of the firm’s projects. Founded in Genoa in 2010 by Federico Bellegoni, Nicola Lunardi, Veronica Rusca and Lorenzo Trompetto, Gosplan Architects believes in architecture as a “mass medium. As such, it is a generator of shapes, a narrative about space. Like any medium, architecture is not based on the occasional transmitted message (environmental sustainability, functional programme, creative code, etc.) but on the creation of new connections: connections between forms, concepts and people. An architecture that is aware of its role as a medium is able to evaluate its impact on the world, because a medium always connects two different realities.”
As part of a meticulously planned renovation project, the Barrique collection porcelain tiles (Rhone Cru version in a 20×90 cm size) from Blustyle by Cotto d’Este were chosen for the flooring throughout the entire apartment in a shade that fits in with the dominant colour scheme. The collection, the name of which derives from the art of winemaking, is based on research into the authentic essence of wood and combines several premium timbers such as oak, walnut, fir and larch.