Casa Platform
SET Architects transforms a 100 sqm space on the ground floor of the 15th century building Palazzo Taverna in Rome, into a multifunctional space for events and workplaces.
Located in the heart of Rome, inside the 15th-century Palazzo Taverna building, the Casa Platform Roma project is a multifunctional and versatile space to host events and workplaces for the architecture magazine Platform.
The space of about 100 sqm has the characteristic feature of having a great internal height of about 7 metres with the central hall distinguished by a vaulted ceiling while the secondary spaces have a wooden beam ceiling. Over the years, these rooms have hosted various functions, including a warehouse for an art collector and a tailor’s atelier for a fashion house, which had partly compromised the original spatial layout with superfetations.
With the renovation project, a mezzanine in the main hall was eliminated, offering the opportunity to admire the architectural quality of the vaulted ceiling once again. A new steel mezzanine was instead built in the service area to accommodate a bedroom served by a spiral staircase. The client’s request was to create a hybrid space with a domestic character that would respect the nature of the place and express the concept of Romanity reinterpreted in a contemporary key, to be used both as a workspace and as a meeting place for architects and professionals from the world of architecture. The design proposal was to keep the original shell unaltered, preserving the original cement floor and using clay as a covering to give the space a natural character. To create a contrast between ancient and contemporary, custom-designed furniture elements in metal with a brass finish were inserted into the space. The choice of metal stems from the desire to use a material typical of ancient Rome reinterpreted in a modern
key to create a contrast with the materiality of the envelope. Even the helicoidal staircase connecting to the first level is made of metal according to a design and is conceived as a fulcrum to be observed from different visual perspectives within the rooms.
The guest bathroom, made entirely of marble mosaic with different shades of red, becomes the surprise element of the intervention, echoing the colours of the original cement floor. Lastly, the project also included the design of the outdoor garden characterised by the presence of wonderful banana trees which have been preserved and enhanced through the study of a special night lighting system. In addition, a floating floor made of dark ash wood was created, the end of which forms a flight of steps to accommodate seating for outdoor meetings.
