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in the Villa Bonelli district of Rome, the reinvention of this
property has brought a run-of-the-mill 1970s building right up to date thanks to some painstaking detailing and a fusion of different cultural styles. Every aspect of Casa-O has been
redefined to make the home a perfect place for a family with two small children. The renovation project was developed
by an all-female team of the architect firm Alvisi Kirimoto + Partners. The architects Junko Kirimoto, Arabella Rocca, Chiara Quadraccia and Carolina Ossandon jointly developed their ideas for this home, which is on a single 150 sq m level. The main feature of the interior is the
clear division between the sleeping area and the living area dedicated to conviviality and socialising. The bleached oak flooring extends all over the apartment. Together with the white walls, suspended ceilings, and most of the furnishings – many of them tailor-made and custom-designed by the architects – it delivers visual continuity and harmony to the two areas. The whole living area is located round
a central parallelepiped container structure in corten weathering steel. This structure is a key design feature of the house, with its changing visual impact on the different environments that surround it. The side facing the living room features a large niche in white back-painted glass,
cutting out a corner of the container and revealing the inside. This part of the cube hosts the hi-fi and home entertainment appliances. A folding wing on the side facing the dining room hides large storage units; the side facing the kitchen reveals once again the milky white ‘soul’ of the space. It hides electric appliances behind wings and drawers. The fourth side facing the entrance
holds the guest bathroom. It is a small green space inspired by the colour of tarnished iron. The architects’ team carefully supervised this process to colour the corten panels covering the parallelepiped in the same tone. Materials have been fully integrated
throughout. For example, corten can be found all over the apartment, even in the sleeping area. Here, the white wall-flush doors feature a square hollow holding a door-flush corten handle designed by the architects. The living area is dominated by a large
living room. In addition to the equipped wall with storage units and niches for the hi-fi and video equipments, the living room features suspended bookcases. Their lightweight look further enhances the bright space. The living room is directly connected to
the dining room equipped with a large table and a suspended bench extending along three sides of the space. This sober interior with a Japanese touch also features a large and wide sideboard, suspended at the same height as the bench.
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Opposite: A wide, outer balcony runs all around the external walls of the apartment
Above: The kitchen view looking towards the dining room
Below: A view of the living area at Casa-O, dominated by the corten cube on the right
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