Milanese architects Marco Bonelli and Marijana Radovic of design studio M2Atelier have created an for local DJ and electronic music producer Stephan Jolk. A minimalist, cavernous space, the home, explain the architects, is ‘a contemporary, cosmopolitan space, neutral and essential enough to allow the client to carve out a niche for freedom, peace and quiet needed to foster his concentration and creative flow.’
Clad in eco leather on the outside with internal acoustic textile-covered walls, a music box is the heart of the home, with a slim window to the outside and internal views of the living area. Say the architects: ‘the centre of attention and the development of the entire floor plan is this perfect cube, a soundproof box for composition and recording around which all the flows and movement of the home would revolve.’
With the music box at the centre of Jolk’s attention, the rest of the apartment was designed as a tabula rasa, explain the architects, with a material palette setting the tone for a sombre mood, featuring a desaturated ‘sawcut’ oak parquet on the floors and thin strips of wood on the ceilings throughout. Acid-etched steel columns and walls complete the space.
Similarly, colours are kept neutral, with greys and blacks punctuated by rare drops of red (such as on the legs of the dining table by Lema). Everything in the house has been carefully selected to complement the house’s aesthetic, from the low, minimal sofas in the two living rooms (by Molteni & C and Poliform) to the vintage pieces that include a 1970s armchair by Luigi Saccardo for Arrmet or a 1980s Gabriele Mucchi for Zanotta.
The apartment’s functionality is enhanced by bespoke designs, including a kitchen by Dada and a walk-in closet by Molteni.
The home, the architects explain, is a succession of ‘flexible spaces to move around freely, thanks in part to the full-height sliding diaphragms that sit perfectly flush with the walls, simultaneously separating and bringing together the more private rooms.’ The project, they note, was an exercise in proportion and material research, resulting in a perfect symbiosis between work and pleasure set within a modern domestic space. §
