The renovation of a historic home

HOU 45 is a private residence in the heart of Milan with a traditional floor plan that has been completely transformed by Milan-based firm Mimoa to create a more modern and contemporary space while retaining its original flavour. The corridor, which served as the floor plan’s focal point on the right side of the building facing the inner courtyard, was attached to the two bedrooms to create a large living area with more than double the previous space, highlighted by the original decorative ceiling mouldings. “The mouldings were a real obsession,” explain architects Alessandra Memoli and Francesco Franchi from Mimoa. “We really wanted to preserve them, even if they are no longer visible in their entirety. However, once cleaned, properly lit and re-centred in relation to the rooms, they have helped to create spaces with a powerful but discreet sense of history.”

The bedrooms and kitchen are arranged in a comb-like layout adjacent to the brightly lit living room, forming a solid and functional modernist footprint that separates and acoustically filters the living and sleeping areas.

“Drawing inspiration from the concept of an old house, we decided to create a traditional bathroom where the various functions are kept as separate as possible,” the architects explain. “An initial relatively large washbasin area leads to the bathtub recess, hidden away inside a niche. We needed tiles that would fit in with the original surfaces,” they continued, “so we chose a delicate and luminous Catalatta gold marble-effect porcelain for the floor and a three-dimensional hexagonal ceramic wall tile in plain cobalt blue for the washbasin area to accompany the contemplative act of washing, and white in the bathtub niche to create a vibrant burst of cleansing light.”

The chosen wall tiles are from Marca Corona’s three-dimensional 4D collection, a line with a contemporary, irreverent flavour that blends perfectly with more classical architectural elements while enhancing them to the full. The 4D relief geometries in both the white and audacious Deep Blue versions add an exclusive, informal touch to the shower and washbasin areas (Flaminia’s App oval series), helping to soften the atmosphere while rendering the rooms even more stylish and exclusive.

The Motif Extra marble-effect tiles were chosen for the floors, creating a contrast that heightens the room’s luminosity and visual appeal.