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Project Details:

Location: Rome, Italy

Architect: Studio Strato / @studio_strato

Footprint: 1,615 square feet

Photographer: Serena Eller / @serenaeller

From the Architect: “A view of the Colosseum marks time and the succession of eras alongside the cadenced rhythms of its arches, as do 18th-century statues that dominate the facade of the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano. With just a glimpse facing the terrace, the property embraces an arc of time that spans from the 1st century AD to the Age of Enlightenment. After all, Rome is exactly this: the possibility to navigate between different eras and cultures fused into a place that we can truly call our own.

“The 1,615-square-foot apartment, designed by Studio Strato, is atop an Umbertine building. The request of the homeowners—a family with two kids and a Maremma shepherd—revolved around the idea of practical comfort, but most of all, around an atmosphere of light and playful exuberance that distinguishes the best holiday homes. The project aims to recreate a sense of lightness and vivacity, but also character through distinct architectural aspects like arches and alternating colors on the walls, ceilings, and floors.

“As a continuous element throughout the apartment, a long corridor connects shared spaces with more intimate areas, linking all of the rooms distinguished by special colors and elements.

“The presence of oak parquet is superimposed on painted patterns with various motifs and colors that harmonize with each other through a chromatic gamut ranging from blue to gray. It’s with this that we find strips of light gray and blue in convivial environments, blue in the master bedroom, and light gray in the kids’ rooms. Elsewhere, in the kitchen, dining room, bathrooms and terrace, decoration is interrupted to make way for terra-cotta floors laid in a herringbone pattern.

“To recall the image of the Colosseum and its arches, a series of arched openings are marked by contrasting chromatic lines present in the corridor and living room. Here in the latter, a double-height space defined by a mezzanine is integrated with a lateral bench running along the wall, linking all the elements of the conversation area in this part of the house.

“Arches are also found in the dining area and nursery, which develops continuously with the exteriors, including three openings onto the main hall and the living area. It’s this that acts as the vital center of the home, not to mention an element connecting the interiors and exteriors, defined by the malachite green of the ceiling.

"Passing from shared spaces to the bedrooms, contrasting decorative motifs leave space for a chromatic continuity, which sees the same color used for both the walls and ceilings. In the case of the primary bedroom, a volume in navy blue, walls are enlivened by rough plaster.”