Casa In Via De' Bardi

The apartment is in a building constructed in the early '50s, belonging to that part of ancient Florence that was rebuilt after the Second World War. One of the facades faces the Arno river. The Ponte Vecchio to one side, with the Vasari corridor connecting it to the Uffizi on the other side, create a feeling of an urban space, as though overlooking a square, when instead of a paved piazza, there runs the river! Before works were undertaken, the house was almost unchanged from its origins, with its beautiful doors, fixtures, handles and original linoleum flooring. These pre-existing features have been the true source of inspiration: they’ve been maintained and restored, wherever possible, and where deteriorated, replaced with the very same type of materials. The rest occurred spontaneously: the year of construction drove the choice of finishes and furnishings. These are largely of Italian design (from Franco Albini, Gio Ponti, Osvaldo Borsani) dating from the 50s to the 70s, set up not merely as a matter of chronological choice, but also as a search for a living space, functional and rational. The project respected the original layout of the apartment, with some improvements to the kitchen and bathrooms. One of the three bedrooms is aligned on axis with the internal courtyard, the entrance foyer and the living room, providing an axial view onto the Vasari corridor beyond. It functions as a study room, featuring a wall- paper installation by artist Francesco Simeti, with its decorative elements, thus reiterating the axis cutting across the apartment from via de 'Bardi to the river. The artistic installation, with its attractive exotic landscapes and threatening clouds, conveying a certain degree of ambiguity. The materials used in the apartment are limited: teak for doors and fixtures; fluted glass mounted on frames in natural brass; marble.