Sometimes it only takes a hint to change the fate of a project. For Andres Eduardo Avanzi, a young architect from Chile, it was a glimpse of a faded, dusty colour that emerged from beneath a thick layer of paint and plaster.
He suspected that the soft blue, seen on a wall during the first stages of the renovation of his apartment in a late 19th-century building in the heart of Bologna, could be an original fresco.
Sure enough, after many hours of meticulously removing plaster, the fresco was finally uncovered, and once revealed it became the basis for the colour scheme: light blue, pastel pink, light yellow and green throughout materials, finishes, furniture and lights.
Lime-plastered walls and matt marble surfaces in the kitchen and bathroom support the dusty effect of the walls. The straw-yellow wood of the oak floors and the pink and light blue velvet chosen to upholster chairs and a sofa also match the colours in the fresco, and the light lilac shade of the kitchen cabinets was sampled from the wall in the same room.
Andres and Martina Vesco, his partner, who is expecting their first child, run Atelier Avanzi, an interiors and design practice
. Andres says, “When we design an environment we design furniture, we select fabrics, lights and works of art, sometimes we even choose cutlery or flowers to go with a certain vase.”
They took the same approach with their own apartment, creating a contemporary space whose neo-classical soul has been left untouched.
The renovation of the apartment lasted six months but every design decision had to be approved by a city commission for the superintendence of fine arts, under which the entire building is protected.
The renovation respects the original building, the only structural intervention being the removal of the corridor that once divided the living room from the kitchen. With this change, the living area is twice as big as it was, adding to a sense of space: the ceilings are more than 3m high.
The wooden flooring throughout the flat is reminiscent of the Haussmann style seen in the 19th-century renovation of Paris. The chairs around the dining table, Leggera by Gio Ponti for Cassina, are finished with a light blue velvet.
The table, from the Platner line by Knoll, is chosen for the lightness of its lines and the low visual impact of the glass that makes up the top, leaving the gaze free to wander between the walls and the floor. The carpet is designed by Patricia Urquiola for CC-Tapis and recalls the colours used throughout the house.
In the living room, the antique pink velvet chosen for the sofa is a stronger version of the powder pink used for the curtains in the same room. Two Cassina armchairs are finished in a forest green colour, and there is another CC-Tapis carpet, designed by Faye Toogood.
“This house reflects both our worlds: if mine is that of the essential lines of Cassina’s marble coffee tables, Martina’s is that of the pink velvet sofa,” explains Andres.
In the bedroom, the white velvet headboard and the pink lacquered coffee tables meld with the walls, which are painted a light-blue shade.
The office and the entrance hall feature iconic pieces from the 1980s, such as the Ultrafragola mirror by Sottsass and the Quaderna desk by Zanotta.
The bedroom features three paintings by Italian painter and poet Tonino Gottarelli, representing the earth, nature and its colours. In the studio and living room hang works by Japanese artist Ayano Yamamoto, which evoke ethereal and dreamlike scenarios in which the subjects are just hinted at by the most delicate of brushstrokes.
“When I showed the house to the gallerist we often collaborate with, she proposed a piece called ‘Attesa’,” says Andres. “Then when we installed it in the living room, we realised that the sofa – painted in the blue and pink clouds by the artist – had a striking resemblance to our own, and that in the corner of the canvas is represented a little girl.
“In a few months our daughter will be born. The painting seemed to be painted just for us.”
