Rome is saturated with history. From the Colosseum and Aqueducts to the Pantheon, the city is the epitome of how to preserve architectural relics. Local architecture and design firm, STUDIOTAMAT, wove history with the contemporary in its recent residential project, House on Track. The project draws from both Rome’s Termini Station, located nearby, and the clients’ love of DJing.
The homeowners are Sergio Marras and his partner, cofounder of STUDIOTAMAT, Matteo Soddu who found it an interesting experience being both the architect and client for this renovation. As the studio described in a project description, “The overlap of being both the designer and the client, has allowed a 360 degree design, a perfect combination between the dimension and architecture to be admired.”
When approaching the renovation of the 1,023-square-foot residence, located on the second floor of a 19th-century building, STUDIOTAMAT expanded the originally dark, cramped space by knocking down one of the preexisting bedrooms to pave way for an open floorplan for the living room and kitchen. Accompanying this expansion, the design team also removed layers from the ceiling bringing life back to the original brick barrel-vaulted ceiling. Soddu shared with AN Interior, “I hate the division of spaces into closed compartments, and in this case the space is livable […] even from a purely visual point of view.”
The kitchen and living room are the heart of the home, furnished with vintage finds from a Berlin flea market to give it a lived-in feel. The walls are painted in a soft white allowing the original brick ceiling to grab attention. The kitchen showcases soft birch wood cabinetry and steel drawers, offering a subtle but noticeable connection to the metal shelving units in the living room, which house the couple’s impressive vinyl collection and walnut-covered speakers. It goes alongside the cherry-colored DJ console where the records can be played.
The musical hints continue in the home with a custom neon light in the shape of a smiley. The glowing face peers out from the top of the hallway. This fun addition is a nod to acid house music from the 1980s. The yellow light pops against the dark indigo blue walls of the study, inspired by the hues of the Sardinia sea, where the couple is from. The architects purposefully only left three doors in the entire residence to preserve the openness and versatility of the home. They rely on color instead to define one space to the next. Soddu shared, “Using color to define spaces is a technique we often use. The blue cube that defines the study, invading the hallway, has completely changed the perception of the spaces.”
Next to the study is the master bedroom, completely drenched in a bold mustard yellow. Accessories like the extensive book collection and decorative pillows introduce other colors here. Small tiles in shades of pink, amaranth, and yellow make their debut in the master bathroom.
STUDIOTAMAT cautiously blended contemporary elements with the original 19th-century bones of House on Track. The owners truly immersed themselves in the context of their site, while incorporating personal interests and touches.