Pathos

Authors’ Comment

Pathos – an emotion, a feeling, a belief, a place.
The project took shape around a couple in their sixties who, after decades spent living in the United States and the Netherlands, are moving into a new apartment. They bring with them the objects collected throughout their lives: century-old furniture, paintings awaiting restoration, vintage car models, and memories of a life lived with beauty at its heart. Their wish was for the new home to be comfortable and suited to their cosmopolitan outlook, distinguished without becoming opulent.
Pathos thus became their home, but also a portrait of their family. The apartment is primarily occupied by the couple, yet it periodically welcomes their daughter, her husband and their three children. The design had to respond to the couple’s everyday needs while giving each family member a place in which they could feel represented. The rooms are not simply places to sleep, but different chapters of the same story.
The intervention was restrained. The existing layout was preserved, while curved coves at the junction between walls and ceiling soften the boundary between the two planes, introducing a fluid and dynamic continuity. Comfort was the main criterion in selecting the furnishings: each object had to be functional and ergonomic, rather than merely expressive in visual terms.
A significant part of the existing furniture was recovered and reinterpreted. Cabinet doors and carcasses from different wardrobes were integrated into new pieces, while two wardrobe doors, approximately 150 years old, became the top of the dining table. Cherry veneer appears at key points throughout the apartment, bringing authenticity and a mid-20th-century character. The old objects are not preserved as exhibits; they continue their story through new functions.
The colour palette draws from the family’s collection of paintings: olive green, the red of ripe cherries, the golden nostalgia of an autumn sunset, and mineral tones drawn from the brushstrokes of the artworks. The paintings were selected and positioned according to their message, atmosphere and relationship with the objects around them: a quiet still life in the living area, a cheeky nude in the bedroom, and a floral composition with a childlike sensibility in the children’s room.
Each generation receives its own interpretation. In the children’s room, a painting made by the daughter during her childhood became the source of vivid colours, playful forms and a relaxed atmosphere. In the daughter’s and her husband’s bedroom, an asymmetrical composition and minimalist artworks create a modern, fresh image suited to their age and life trajectory. The vintage car models, which will later be displayed on the customisable shelves in the children’s room, inspired the dynamism, voluptuous curves, cool materiality of chrome and vintage character of certain details.
The living area was designed for occasional family gatherings, without becoming oversized for the couple’s everyday life. The sofa and armchair provide comfortable seating, the extendable table can accommodate four to eight people, and the open floor allows the children to play freely.
Pathos is about the passion of looking at a life lived as a collection of meanings and the desire to see it present every day. The home becomes a place where memory is not archived, but inhabited.