residential. An industrial shed in Udine becomes a smart home with modernist overtones at the hands of designer Patricia Urquiola. Designed for her friend Patrizia Moroso, the house is surrounded by vegetation from which its occupants draw physical and mental regeneration. The woods are central to the design, with large windows in almost physical contact with the tree tops and overlooking labyrinthine vegetation.“It gives me wide, restful spaces to look at and long through-vistas where full sunshine alternates with dappled light from roof apertures; and the pleasure of unmediated visual contact with the outside that draws the eye to the tree tops so you dance with them in the breeze. The exterior is a compact volume clad in darkened cedar, while a powdery red metal ramp, suggestive of a desert landscape, serves to mark the entrance.The two-storey house, with ground floor for socializing and first floor for the private, family area is connected through the apertures in the living area and stairwell. The alternating solids and voids of the interior volumes generate a forceful energy, while the earthy red of the upstairs living room floor denotes the striking vitality of the colours.In keeping with the expressive individuality of the colour scheme and volumes, in one of the bathrooms the pale tones of the Flat XL programme in oak with integrated Raso washbasin in white Exmar is set off against dark tiles. Inspired by nature with its clean, sinewy lines, the suspended Pear 2 sanitary ware, designed by Patricia Urquiola herself, appears here in white.More essential is a second bathroom, where the iconic Pear 2 sanitary ware by Patricia Urquiola is teamed with the square, hefty volumes of the Flat 100 washbasin – designed by Benedini Associati and made of white Cristalplant® biobased, with assymetrical oval basin. Natural light flowing through the large window becomes a driving force that underscores the symbiosis with the outdoors.As with the rest of the house, the geometry of the decor is powerfully evident, as emphasized in particular here by the horizontal lines of the Flat XL system in its dark version, with integrated Raso washbasin in Exmar.
Patricia Urquiola
Patricia Urquiola was born in Oviedo (Spain) in 1961. Lives and works in Milan. She attended the School of Architecture of Madrid Polytechnic and Milan Polytechnic, where she graduated in 1989 with Achille Castiglioni. From 1990 to 1992 she was assistant lecturer to both Achille Castiglioni and Eugenio Bettinelli in Milan and Paris.
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