Two renovated attic apartments over the roofs of Genoa

Dodi Moss e llabb complete two contemporary apartments that are delicate side notes to the same labyrinth of existing spaces, floating over the city.

llabb, House by the Bailucchi, Genoa, Italy, 2020. Photo © Anna Positano, Gaia Cambiaggi (Studio Campo)

llabb, House by the Bailucchi, lower floor plan

llabb, House by the Bailucchi, upper floor plan

llabb, House by the Bailucchi, section

llabb, House by the Bailucchi, Genoa, Italy, 2020. Photo © Anna Positano, Gaia Cambiaggi (Studio Campo)

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Alessandro Benetti
25 March 2021
Genoa, Italy
Dodi Moss and llabb
private houses
2020

Genoa’s historic center is a poetic place as it still shows that material and socio-cultural roughness which the heart of most large cities in Northern and Central Italy has been deprived of by decades of restorations and gentrification. And still, new populations are turning to the caruggi, also attracted by real estate values that are not entirely out of reach. A movement of colonization is already well underway, in particular on the brightest, panoramic upper floors, while it is struggling to dive into the dark alleys. The House for a seadog by Dodi Moss and the House by the Bailucchi by llabb, completed in 2020, are two case studies for this process of retaking of Genoa’s attics. A similar and decidedly “architectural” sensitivity towards the existing city is shown in this regard by two firms with very different stories: Dodi Moss is created in 2004 as an engineering company, while llabb is founded in 2013 in the first place as a carpentry workshop.

Dodi Moss, House for a seadog, Genoa, Italy, 2020. Photo © Anna Positano

Dodi Moss, House for a seadog, fifth floor plan

Dodi Moss, House for a seadog, fifth floor's mezzanine plan

Dodi Moss, House for a seadog, sixth floor plan

Dodi Moss, House for a seadog, roof plan

Dodi Moss, House for a seadog, section

Dodi Moss, House for a seadog, perspective section

Dodi Moss, House for a seadog, axonometry

For the two projects, the entanglement of their multifaceted, multi-level settings is not a constraint to remove, but rather the source of spatial occasions. The newly-designed stairs – enclosed, black slate flights for the House for the seadog; an aerial, metal and oak frame for the House by the Bailucchi – are connections but also perceptible thresholds between different rooms and atmospheres, such as Dodi Moss’s mezzanine bedroom and llabb’s studiolo with a view. The two living rooms, opening onto their respective terraces, are the natural core of the domestic life, the actual luxury which offsets the discomfort of living arrangements that are distant from the optimized solutions of brand new constructions. The House for a seadog and the House by the Bailucchi are visually enriched by the textures of their ancient envelopes, including 17^th century wooden beams and exposed bricks surfaces in the case of Dodi Moss, as well as both homes’ unfinished plasters. These interventions are delicate contemporary comments, that nestle into the historic built fabric just the “right amount” of design, necessary and sufficient to reactivate two different points of the same floating labyrinth of urban attics.

House for a seadog
private house
Genoa, Italy
Dodi Moss
Matteo Rocca, Jacopo Battistini
164 sqm
2020

House by the Bailucchi
private house
Genoa, Italy
llabb
Luca Scardulla, Federico Robbiano
Linda Consiglieri, Laura Davite, Riccardo Gelmini, Martina Pisano, Floria Bruzzone
235 sqm
2020

llabb, House by the Bailucchi, lower floor plan

llabb, House by the Bailucchi, upper floor plan

llabb, House by the Bailucchi, section

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Two renovated attic apartments over the roofs of Genoa

Dodi Moss e llabb complete two contemporary apartments that are delicate side notes to the same labyrinth of existing spaces, floating over the city.

View Article details

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Specials

Magazine

Two renovated attic apartments over the roofs of Genoa

Dodi Moss e llabb complete two contemporary apartments that are delicate side notes to the same labyrinth of existing spaces, floating over the city.

View Article details

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