Overlooking the seafront promenade of Corso Italia, in the residential heart of Genoa, ZaraUno is a renovation project that reinterprets the identity of a historic apartment within Palazzo Tritone through a contemporary lens. Designed by bump studio, founded by architects Giulio Massetani and Fabio Filippo, the project achieves a refined balance between memory and modernity, enhancing both the visual relationship with the sea and the luminous quality of the interiors.
The entrance opens onto a continuous, permeable space where the living area unfolds as a sequence of interconnected rooms. A sky-blue boiserie extends like a ribbon across walls and furniture, evoking the movement of water and creating a visual connection between different areas.
The living and dining rooms dialogue with the central kitchen, conceived as the core of domestic life. At its center, a square-shaped island in navy blue defines the visual and functional heart of the space, while large glass openings on opposite sides multiply perspectives and amplify the sense of depth. The original parquet flooring, carefully preserved and restored, becomes an element of continuity between past and present. Its grain and geometric patterns interact with smooth surfaces and saturated colors, giving life to a layered material language. In the living room, a red volume acts as both TV wall and passageway, introducing a sense of three-dimensionality. Perimeter grazing light highlights the decorated ceilings, restoring depth and a soft, enveloping glow throughout the rooms.
The dining room is dominated by a sculptural wooden table set beneath a frescoed ceiling, an element that perfectly synthesizes the dual soul of the home: historical and contemporary.
In the sleeping area, chromatic volumes shape the space: in the master bedroom, a midnight-blue niche houses the walk-in wardrobe, where coral tones are reflected outward through metallic details and suspended lamps. The use of complementary colors — blue and coral — recalls the marine morphology, defining a dualism between inside and outside, in a continuous reference to the Ligurian gulf landscape.
The master bathroom is a small exercise in material composition: three-dimensional pink tiles interact with a monolithic sky-blue shelf that crosses the glass partition of the bathtub area.
The daughter’s bedroom is instead a small, bright microcosm: pastel tones, soft surfaces, and a white wooden loft evoke the interior of a boat, suggesting a sense of play and adventure.
“The house already held a noble charm, but the project revealed its true soul: the blue ribbon running through the rooms interacts with the antique parquet, enhancing its beauty and creating continuity”, explains architect Fabio Filippo.
“Overlooking the sea of Corso Italia, ZaraUno reinterprets Genoese tradition through light, color, and material, bringing the maritime horizon into the living space”, adds Giulio Massetani.
For more information, visit www.bumpstudio.it
CREDITS
Project: ZaraUno
Studio: bump (Giulio Massetani, Fabio Filippo)
Location: Genoa, Italy
Year: 2024
Photography: Enrico Massetani
