Casa di Vetro

The idea that came from a workshop

The idea took shape from “Design of Spaces II”, a workshop that involved international students and envisaged the reconfiguration of the layout of a popular housing apartment, employing elements generally used in office design. The projects created by the students yielded a very positive, creative outcome, underlining a number of improvements that could be made: the creation of more spacious rooms, thanks to the more slender width of the glass elements compared to traditional partition walls; the possibility to look through each room and have natural light filter in from outdoors, and to make spaces larger or smaller, connecting and separating them according to need or mood. This prompted the team to try to apply the design ideas to an actual popular housing project in Milan.

The key role of natural light

Seeking light, regardless of the exposure of the home; the need to have large, seamless spaces, with open-plan solutions that can be divided if necessary, and most importantly of all, given the larger amount of time we now spend at home, a profound vision, with changing landscapes and colours and shifting light and shade effects that can be controlled as we please: these have become impelling needs. Adaptability, movement, flexibility, coexistence: the home thus becomes an almost theatrical scenario for the lives played out in it; according to needs, just as in the theatre, the curtains can be moved, opened or closed to “stage” our everyday lives with varying levels of privacy, and the different areas in the home can engage with each other as we please.