Said the architect/owner, quoted in "In Italy, a Townhouse Where Polished Gives Way to Ragged and Raw/An architect laid bare the imperfections of his home renovation to fully reveal the building, and leave room for later inspiration" (NYT).
That's a gift link, so go over and see the pictures of what he did to the place. It had been "completely renovated in the 1970s." According to the architect, "It was beautiful and really bourgeois." I can see objecting to the "bourgeois," but where does that take you?
At the top, Mr. Galiotto removed part of the roof and replaced it with a concrete dome terminating in an oculus that brings in natural light. Leaving many ragged edges, he painted the whole expanse silver, using 350 cans of spray paint. Where the stair meets an entrance courtyard at ground level, he added an enormous 12-foot-wide glass door on hinges, which rolls open on wheels....
Metal shelving holds exposed appliances, pans and kitchen accessories, and a bathroom is concealed by green tarps suspended from orange straps. A swooping Belgian hammered-steel fireplace from the 1950s adds an artful touch, and a stone wall is painted with a black-and-white mural declaring “Rare Pleasures” by the German artist Stefan Marx....
What?! Are you too bourgeois to understand? Green tarps and orange straps! Rare Pleasures!
On the top floor, a central dressing room has openings to the stairwell and two bedrooms, but is elevated a couple of steps higher. Illuminated by another oculus, it has a rubber floor and presents clothing on sinuous yellow racks....
Behind the house, he introduced a new landscape design, including enormous off-kilter plastic tubes that were used for pouring concrete, but left as silver-painted sculptures....
This is hilarious or terrifying, but certainly not bourgeois.
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३९ टिप्पण्या:
There's no comments section over there and I think I know why. But what's the fun in that? Why show people this thing if you don't want to hear what they say?!
Speaking of bourgeois, who was given the work of spraying 350 cans of silver spray paint? How unhealthy is that? Remember when people used to care about eco-friendly paint?
What was the environmental impact of all that spray paint and why doesn't the NYT care?
That was wonderful. I kept imagining:
1. His parents on their first visit
2. Her parents on a visit
3. The exchanged glances at any party they throw
4. The real estate agent showing it to future prospective buyers
Way too much fun.
Rich people in Chicago pay to raise their kids in brick walled former warehouse factory decor..."lofts" to artists. Why?
Then they have to run away to door county to get put or feel like humans, uncaged from brick cells. They look sad, dark eyed...
Too cute by half, isn't it. It's like some fashion designer sending a model down the runway with - oh, I don't know...say, an inner tube or some such around her torso for no appreciable reason.
And, though I can't quite put my finger on why, the portrait of MLK on the wall is strangely predictable.
Maybe the silver spray paint is some kind of statement of doing the opposite of Trump's love of using gold everywhere. The ham-handed hint is that sign in the silver stairwell.
"The stairwell was coated silver with 350 cans of spray paint. "
I like. Stairwell reminds of the lung stairwell in the sleeper house in Genesee.
The rusticated stone walls - I like.
When I was a kid my dad was out of work for most of a year, and it was right in the middle of us adding to our home - adding an extension and an upstairs. We lived with no money, plastic sheeting exterior walls, and decorating like this place, eating beans.
I notice they don't show any of the 'before' pictures. This is just another version of that 'Chip & Joanna' Modern Farmhouse craze. My neighbor spent a fortune converting her beautiful slightly-used home into one of those. I don't care for it much, but at least it looks finished.
But: Things are classically beautiful because they endure. The finger-painters will always be with us. I wonder how much new work this brings his firm.
Stunt architecture.
Maybe this guy's happiest days were spent on construction sites and student housing and he's trying to recapture that feeling in his home. I wonder if it improved his love life.
I like it. Siege of Sarajevo vibe. Perfect for the right Chetnik warlord.
Was the paint "sprayed" with a paint sprayer? I would think yes.
Spray paint cans are nasty. 350 cans does sound like they did use actual "cans." Most modern paints in the US are low VOC.
I have no idea what the Italian equivalent might be.
In a kitchen, I generally do not like open shelving. I want my clean pots, pan, dishes - stored behind/inside something. Enough going on, on the counter.
There is literally a bone hanging on the wall.
As expected, the "statement" mattered more than the utility, comfort, or beauty. That's why modern architecture sucks.
"Tarps form a bathroom near the kitchen."
Is there a fan?
Not to be cynical, but I predict the wife makes them move in 5 years and the new owners cover up most of the ugly stuff.
It's just not good for the soul to live like that.
What is the "research" referred to in the post's title?
"I can see objecting to the "bourgeois," but where does that take you?"
Now there are 2 good reasons to hang him from a lamppost.
So, it's a slum.
The outside of the building looks expensive. The interior has a "I'm trying my best to make it look like I ran out of money"
"Make the earth flat again" WTF?
This looks like a bombed out building in a war zone.
I like it, but given the fact that Italy is awash with beautiful but decrepit buildings that need renovation, wouldn't starting with one of those have made much more sense? Why start with a 1 million euro home that has been beautifully renovated (but not to your tastes)? The dilapidated houses are available far cheaper.
I can appreciate the idea of showing the structural "bones". That's essentially what's going on in a timber frame or a log house. It's very common to see old brick left exposed and the color gives it warmth. But this house has the vibe of a crack house or an abandoned parking garage with squatters.
What this guy has done to the house is what meth and tattoos do to a beautiful girl. You look at her and just think, "Why?"
Apparently not part of an HOA.
This prison cell doesn't work for me perhaps I'll hire a decorator.
Is there any profession filled with as much preening, sense of self importance with less to show for it than architecture? On a trip to Europe and England this past summer I realized that there were no attractive, let alone beautiful, buildings built since World War II. Ugly soviet style workers' housing, to pretentious "look at me!" office buildings with no soul, character or meaning.
The outside is okay. At least he didn't inflict his vision on the neighbors. If any of the peasants and gentry ever march on his place with torches and pitchforks, they will not be motivated by envy. He's the anti-Richard Cory. Look on my works you un-mighty and rejoice.
"Why start with a 1 million euro home that has been beautifully renovated (but not to your tastes)?"
Location, location, location!
CJinPA yes but in 5 months not years.
Just came back from a 5 week Eurotrip, exclusively by train/bus. The graffiti! Just asked Gemini AI about spray paint use over the last 2 decades. 600-800 million cans. 120,000 to 160,000 metric tons of volatile gases. The paint manufacturers are making bank on Banksy-Wanna-Bees, with resultant drain bammage from gas huffing. Win-Lose-Lose.
“Mr. Galiotto is an architect — a founder of the Italian firm AMAA with his partner, Alessandra Rampazzo, and a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania …”
If you live in Italy do NOT hire AMAA to work on updating your house. And fo not employ and architect who graduated from Penn!
My most serious objection is that the pictures do not suggest a unifying vision for the house as a whole. One corner screams “look at me!” Another, very different, feature calls out “no, no, look at me.” It’s all bits and pieces, like a pile of jigsaw puzzle pieces where each is from a different puzzle.
No doubt Maestro Galiotto would call my attitude utterly bourgeois.
The reason the outside looks reasonably normal was probably not a matter of choice. Most of Italy's architecture is old, and they pride themselves on historical preservation. I bet the outside is tailored for conformance to code.
"the kitchen is equipped with a plywood range hood and portable cooktops"
Brings back fond memories of the single-wide I lived in for a while.
Nice to see that the kid has boy toys.
How liberal can you get? -- Spending at least $2 million dollars to look poor.
My first question was how free and unencumbered would the bathroom be? He maintained priviacy conventions there.
I can understand stripping out the marble and other 70's luxury finishes but living in something that looks like a parking garage can't be comfortable. How do you get the books out of the three story bookcases? I ditto the folks asking why he didn't start with a dilapidated building. There used to be a townhouse on the edge of Greenwich Village that had all the floors collapse into the basement that would have made a nice project of this sort.
"Bob Boyd said...
I can appreciate the idea of showing the structural "bones". That's essentially what's going on in a timber frame or a log house. It's very common to see old brick left exposed and the color gives it warmth. But this house has the vibe of a crack house or an abandoned parking garage with squatters."
Ditto
“ I can see objecting to the "bourgeois," but where does that take you?”
You learn that there are worse things than bourgeois.
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