Project Name: Four Oaks Apartment
Architects: BLAARCHITETTURA
Project: Alberto Lessan, Jacopo Bracco, Emilio Dalmasso
Team: Mattia Venir, Davide Minervini, Emilia Sanna
Location: Cuneo, Italy
Surface: 220 sqm
Timetable 2019
Photo Credits: Beppe Giardino
The Four Oaks Apartment project by BLAARCHITETTURA consists in the renovation of a residential unit, part of a prestigious 19th century building. The area is located on the right side of the old town of Cuneo, enjoys a fantastic view over the surrounding the city, and over the mountainous arc of the Maritime Alps. The surface of the entire unit is about 220 square meters.
The rigid structure with load-bearing masonry in solid bricks, typical of those years noble palaces are difficult to modify, and often does not allow easy adaptations to contemporary living.
As solution, we used the concept of “decomposition” of the walls as a generative element. Through some constructive expedients, we made independent partitions, transforming them into septa, separating and differentiating them by surface and material, according to the position and function in the house.
This way, formal, functional and material autonomies are alternated, the environments are distributed and interesting paths can be discovered step by step .
The entrance immediately highlights the “natural flamed oak septum” that interprets the concept of wall not as a coating, but as a volume that highlights and stabilizes the connection between the entrance and a portion of the sleeping area.
A particular element of the Four Oaks Apartment is the master bathroom: it is generated by a horizontal subdivision at the height of 110 cm that contrasts two materials and colours: on one hand a “black oak striped” coating, also present on the ceiling, on the other, in the lower portion of the walls, the olive-green colored enamel. A very intimate and enclosed room is born, like a coffer.
In front of this intimate room there is a second septum separating the entrance from the other portion of the sleeping area: a wallpaper surface with natural and animal theme.
Passing trough the entrance can be reached the long mirrored wall, another important element. Thanks to its geometrical composition with different angles, it captures the natural light coming from the windows reflecting it in dark areas of the house.
Furthermore, the wall dematerialized the physical perspective limit of the apartment, it expands the space, and contains and hides very useful functions such as closets and wardrobes.
Hidden by the mirrored surface, almost like a secret room, there is the master bedroom and its private bathroom.
The living room, characterized by a “black flamed oak furniture” becomes a passage to reach the kitchen area. Designed on our project, it is made up of an island and an equipped wall, the first in “natural flamed oak”, the second totally in “black rolled hot ” metal sheets.
The last room in the corner of the unit is the “Winter Garden”: it is an extra-room that enjoys a privileged view on the Alps and it has the vocation to be both an interior and exterior.
Its tropical wallpaper decoration allows the immersion in a natural and wild environment.
