In the northern expanse of Rome, just beyond the Aniene river, lies Conca D’Oro: a neighborhood shaped by the urban pressures and housing demands of Italy’s post-war decades. Characterized by utilitarian apartment blocks and rationalist building typologies, this part of the city presents a layered urban fabric where time is embedded in concrete, brick, and terrazzo. Within one such mid-century building, 02A Studio has undertaken the careful reworking of an apartment whose architecture quietly resists novelty, instead operating through continuity, rhythm, and calibrated redefinition.
VDS Apartment Renovation Technical Information
- Architects1-11: 02A Studio
- Location: Conca D’Oro, Rome, Italy
- Gross Area: 130 m2 | 1,399 Sq. Ft.
- Year of Completion: 2024
- Original Construction: 1960s
- Photographs: © Paolo Fusco
The design choices, though decisive, never overpower. Instead, they seem to grow out of a dialogue with the architectural object itself; one that honored its existing identity while carefully tuning its tone for the present.
– 02A Studio Architects
VDS Apartment Renovation Photographs
Contextual Framework: Urban Density and Post-War Heritage
The existing building is emblematic of Roman housing in the 1960s. It is a four-story structure marked by a grid of cruciform concrete pillars, a cantilevered canopy at the entry, and a façade of patterned brickwork. These elements collectively reflect the clarity and discipline of post-war construction in Italy: efficient, robust, and materially honest.
Rather than erase this architectural memory, the project by 02A Studio engages with it through a strategy of minimal intervention and spatial reinterpretation. The approach is neither nostalgic nor disruptive. It acknowledges the latent order embedded in the apartment’s original layout and builds upon it through subtle reorganizations that elevate rather than replace. The project aligns with a broader architectural position that seeks continuity across generations, understanding the city not as a tabula rasa, but as a layered palimpsest.
Design Intervention: Spatial Adjustments and Formal Gestures
The apartment’s plan was originally well-resolved, with clear spatial zoning and logical adjacencies. The architects chose to preserve this integrity, directing their focus to key thresholds and transitional elements. Most notably, the hallway, traditionally a service-oriented space in Roman apartments, has been reinterpreted as a spatial device that mediates between shared and private zones. Through the insertion of patterned boiserie, the corridor becomes a gradient of intimacy: decorative and animated near the entrance, subdued and quiet in the private quarters.
A second significant gesture occurs along the apartment’s longitudinal axis, where two symmetrical diamond-shaped openings in lacquer-red frames interrupt the hallway’s linearity. These apertures link the two primary façades, creating a visual and spatial cross-axis that adds depth and rhythm to the plan. Rather than being purely ornamental, these interventions function as spatial instruments, mediating light, transparency, and perception.
In the living room, where the façade’s irregular geometry could have disrupted spatial continuity, the ceiling becomes an organizing field. A dense lattice of custom plaster moldings introduces a rhythmic ceiling plane, offering visual weight and structural coherence to an otherwise diffuse volume. These sculptural ceiling elements echo historical traditions of Roman plasterwork while being resolutely contemporary in expression and restraint.
Material Palettes and Interior Craftsmanship
The project’s material strategy is rooted in continuity. The original terrazzo tiles and Bardiglio marble baseboards have been preserved not as relics, but as foundations for a new palette. Their chromatic and textural presence informs the tones and finishes that define the rest of the home. Shades of cerulean, muted greys, and rust create a balanced interior landscape, allowing individual furnishings and fixtures to emerge with clarity rather than compete for attention.
Joinery, lighting, and furniture are treated as integral components of the spatial narrative. Iron-framed glass doors, painted in a deep Chinese lacquer red, act as pivot points within the plan, while porthole windows in reeded glass and lacquered wood introduce moments of semi-opacity and threshold. Each element, whether industrial or crafted, is deployed with precision and purpose.
The bathrooms offer two divergent yet complementary interpretations of domesticity. The guest bathroom leans into warmth and memory, featuring rust-hued ceramic tiles, original terrazzo flooring, and natural brass fixtures. It embraces the historical character of the home without literal reproduction. The master bathroom, in contrast, is defined by cooler tones, stricter geometries, and a restrained material palette. White “Confetti” tiles, anthracite-stained oak doors, and minimalist fixtures create a space of clarity and repose. These contrasting atmospheres demonstrate the architects’ sensitivity to program, mood, and material expression.
Domestic Atmosphere and Temporal Resonance
At its core, VDS House is a project about resonance. Rather than imposing a new architectural identity on the existing structure, 02A Studio chose to refine the existing framework, sharpening its legibility, enriching its atmospheres, and introducing moments of surprise that remain in dialogue with the whole. The result is an interior that feels cohesive, resolved, and deeply attuned to both its architectural and human context.
The apartment operates as a contemporary domestic interior, but it does so with an awareness of the building’s history and typology. It is not a container for furniture, but a spatial field shaped by light, thresholds, materials, and memory. The project reflects 02A Studio’s broader design philosophy, one that situates architecture as a dialogue between disciplines, time periods, and lived experiences.
VDS Apartment Renovation Plans
VDS Apartment Renovation Image Gallery
About 02A Studio
02A Studio is a Rome-based architecture and interior design practice founded in 2014 by Thomas Grossi and Marco Rulli. Their work is defined by a multidisciplinary approach that prioritizes thoughtful dialogues between existing structures, user needs, and temporal context. Within residential interiors, they focus on creating atmospheres that balance compositional rigor, material precision, and subtle gestures, ensuring each project resonates both functionally and poetically within its built environment.
Credits and Additional Notes
- Architect: Marco Rulli (02A Studio)
- Project Team: Arch. Matilde Masi (02A Studio)
- Structural System: Existing 1960s structure with cruciform concrete pillars
- Construction: ViMaGi
- Sanitaryware and Fixtures: Edilflaminio
- Blacksmith: Paolo Staccioli
- Carpentry: Claudio Cecchini Falegnameria & Adamo Gazzarrini
- Stonework: Mongardini Marmi
- Kitchen: VenetaCucine
- Plaster Details: Stucchi Cecere
- Wallpapers: Lelli 1924
