Rahmaninov 38 Apartment

Authors’ Comment

This project’s starting point was the desire of a couple to simplify their life and move to the city, from an award-winning house at the Architecture Biennale, located in a suburb of Bucharest - a kind of downshifting and essentialization of everyday life. The only object they included in the brief was a painting by Gili Mocanu. We kept in mind this element, as well as the Verdi park to which the house opens with all its interior. Thus, we tried to build an interior that would wrap around the painting, offering a neutral context and a functional interior, purified of elements that are part of a life that would be abandoned to a new period of essentialization of priorities. The finishes were built around the chromatics of the artwork and the design objects were chosen to create an identity of the interior.
In search of the relationship with nature, we preferred to use natural materials, such as surfaces with mineral finishes (from plasters, stone cladding, all without or with as few chemical additives); cladding and furniture of solid wood or of solid wood elements (as little as possible treated or finished; or other natural and ecological materials). In general, we tried to use breathable materials. All this, although difficult to notice at first sight, has a real benefit on well-being.
These materials, trees and paintings of the seasons sequenced by quiet mornings, all fill the interior space. Here we witnessed the way in which an entire park can fill a simple and small interior, with a space developed in depth and how it – the Verdi Park - dominates this relationship. The whole interior entered this silent game, a monologue accompanied by a few voices among the rustle of the branches in the park, the story of a painting, a lamp or even the occupants at dinner.
The finishes, furniture and textiles are almost monochrome, in colors close to a winter forest. The walls are treated with a plaster finish, to absorb as much of the atmosphere as possible. The parquet is a pastel and faded color, in tune with the walls and the whole story is crossed by a few characters in black.
The arrangement of Rachmaninov's apartment 38 is an essentialization of everyday life.

Area: 100 sqm