A year ago we had the great opportunity to be introduced to a famous painter. He needed help to transform an old industrial space into his new, equipped, atelier. We took the task very seriously: we flew over to visit the building and receive his brief, we set up a deadline and we even started a language course to facilitate the communication with our new ‘potential’ client.
We worked intensively and we presented a consistent design proposal with architectural drawings, diagrams, collages and a 1:50 scale model.
After a neverending wait for a longed-for phone call that has never arrived, we have now decided that this is another lost project.
This painful achievement enables us to publish, after more than a year, the outcome of our work.
Places, names and details about this project are deliberately omitted in order to preserve the privacy of our ‘missed’ client…

Architectural drawings

The design proposal was first described through a set of architectural drawings in 1:200 scale featuring the new elements inserted and organised into the existing space. Each element hosts one or more functions as requested by the client’s brief.

Lower level plan

Upper level plan

Longitudinal sections

Cross sections

Collages

The new elements were conceived as small buildings and the existing industrial environment was treated as an architectural landscape. The atmosphere and the character of the transformed space were depicted and communicated in a number of collages. Some collages were manipulations based on the actual photographs of the building…

the canvas archive

toward the entrance of the atelier

toward the canvas archive

… while other images, based on a simple digital 3d model, were completely ‘artificial’ and much more abstract, but still very useful to describe more precisely the space inside, outside, above and around the new constructed elements of our project.

the mezzanine above the canvas archive

inside the suspended atelier for watercolors

interior view of the kitchen

the garden toward the artist’s office

the garden toward the kitchen

inside the artist’s office

toward the garden

Physical model

A 1:50 scale model has been built to allow ourselves to understand the proportions of the new inserted elements and their effects and implications on the natural light inside the building. The maquette has also proved to be very useful during the discussions with the client that followed the presentation of our design proposal.

Design team

Lorenzo Bini, Francesca Murialdo, Marco Di Nallo, Roberta Pezzulla, Dora Pugliese, Emanuela Ragazzoni