Studio Altura

The brief from the client was unusually specific: they wanted a home that operated on two entirely different registers—open and communal by day, deeply private by night. The existing apartment, spanning the top two floors of a converted textile warehouse, had strong bones but a layout that contradicted this dual ambition at almost every turn.

Perched above the roofline of the Brera district, the residence commands unobstructed views to the north and east. We reorganised the plan entirely around this orientation, pulling the living spaces toward the panoramic façade and tucking the private quarters behind a thick band of joinery that acts as both storage and acoustic buffer between the two worlds.

The material palette was anchored by two primary stones: a dense, almost black Marquina marble used at all primary thresholds, and a warm, creamy Botticino limestone reserved for the private rooms. The contrast between the two creates a legible transition from the social to the intimate zones without requiring any applied signage or formal division.

All joinery, hardware, and bespoke lighting was produced by our Milan atelier to ensure that the two tones of the apartment read as a single, composed system rather than two separately decorated floors.

The finished residence holds its two registers with complete conviction. By day it is generous and expansive. By night it becomes still and close. Both states feel inevitable.