The accommodations of small size, different from traditional hotels, are growing in the world but also in Italy and in Milan. Following this trend architect Nicola Gisonda has converted a Milanese three-storey apartment block of the early twentieth century into the Conti Guest House.
The architectural project was developed through a radical renovation that transformed a residential palace in a guest house with six bedrooms, a living area equipped with a kitchen and a dehor with a private garden. The entire project, through the language of architecture and interior design, wants to express an idea of luxury accommodation but closer to the concept of “residence” where the spaces meet the needs of guests.
The issue of the project is based on the choice of colours and materials, deliberately inserted in a game of contrasts but at the same time in a continuity mood. An example is the velvet, the protagonist in the rooms that is declined in a colour palette. Each room, in fact, is characterized by a colour and the nuance selected change from pastel colours like pink and powder pink to the more defined as blue and purple until arriving to colours warmer and enveloping like rust and ruby. Gray and black are present in different nuance with different materials like the wood of wardrobe and doors or duffles and link each colour.
In every room there is an important installation adopted for separating the bedroom area from the bathroom. In order to provide additional depth, giving continuity to the space and expand them visually, a crystal gray smoke filter wall has been inserted. With its partial glazing it gives the right privacy and allows you to read from the bedroom area the Carrara marble presents in the bathroom, additional material element that is linked to the colors gray and black.
White, black and gray are in the living area, linked together to the oak wood floor and the gray of the stone staircase. Another color is blue, deliberately inserted for creating a black shading. This living area, a disused site in the past, becomes alive and overlooking the garden with a front of windows. With this solution it’s possible to get in touch the living area with the garden, ideally allowing the garden to enter in the structure and creating a strong continuity between the spaces. The outdoor area becomes an extension of the living area and turns, opening to the garden, depending on the seasons. Further protagonist of the living area is the central table that, with its function, wants to be a meeting place for guests; this emphasizes the convivial atmosphere of the guest house.
all images © Andrea Martiradonna