Dimora Magenta by Bevilacqua Architects
Dimora Magenta is a large, elegant apartment located on the first floor of a historic building in Milan city center, Italy, designed by Bevilacqua Architects in 2023. The residence, which overlooks Corso Magenta, features a classic aesthetic that incorporates iconic design pieces and precious handcrafted materials, showcasing the best of Italian craftsmanship while also integrating modern home automation and audiovisual systems for a hyper-contemporary experience.
Welcoming Natural Light and Artistic Heritage
Milan city center, daytime interior. A large and elegant noble house on the first floor is flooded with natural light. The light dust dances suspended as it passes through the oak herringbone parquet panels. The traffic below is barely audible, only the clattering of a tram, number 18. Today, Milan is sunny.
UNESCO Site Forms a Historic Reference Point
A series of large windows overlooking Corso Magenta frame what, thanks to Bramante’s intervention, is the most eloquent example of Lombard Renaissance: the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, a UNESCO World Heritage site, where Leonardo da Vinci painted “The Last Supper.”
From this powerful reference, the project concept was born: a residence that makes dialogue with history its strength, a bridge between past and present, a stage for dialectical relationships: with the historic walls that enclose the domestic space, but also with the architecture opposite and its deep meanings.
An Experience of Timeless Space
A dimension that is both temporal and timeless, capable of moving at different speeds. There is the slow time of history, the layered city, the spiritual dimension. And the frantic time of today, the one that moves fast and looks far ahead, to the future, to a new chapter to be written. There is the time of the parents and the time of the children. Dimora Magenta is a suspended place, a protected space to pause, welcome, and reunite the family nucleus.
Spatial Overhaul for New Family Experiences
The large apartment belongs to a family of art lovers and collectors, now returned to Italy after a long period abroad. For this reason, and to accommodate new uses and experiences, the layout was completely reinterpreted from its original floor plan — in classic early 20th-century Milanese style — reorganized, structurally consolidated, and designed as a precious sequence of spacious rooms, each conceived as an emotional interpretation of an intimate and secluded condition. Yet, incredibly efficient. A domestic space that plays on dual registers: the architectural envelope tells a classic aesthetic, designed down to the finest sartorial details, a balance of references between epochs, iconic design pieces, artworks, and precious handcrafted materials. The best of Italian craftsmanship.
A High-Tech Soul Propels the Design One Level Higher
Beneath the surface, however, the intervention hides a high-tech soul, very international, that propels the environment into a hyper-contemporary dimension with integrated home automation (managed by an RTI processor controlling the sound system, lighting, heating, and air conditioning), precise lighting systems, and an impressive audiovisual system where every room — including the bathrooms — is soundproofed with a multi-room stereo system, featuring Hi-End built-in speakers. The main living room is equipped with a 2-channel stereo system of the highest quality, with Home Theatre Dolby Digital and Dolby Atmos.
Contrasting Languages, Solutions Create Strong Personality
A home with a strong personality, neither minimal nor monothematic. On the contrary, the design choice of Bevilacqua Architects here is precise and clear: to favor contamination, coexistence, and complexity over simplification. “The essence of this intervention comes to life through the union of contrasting languages and solutions,” states Marco Bevilacqua, head of the firm, “through insertions and blends that interact with the classical pre-existing elements without causing interference, instead giving them a twist. A work of subtle stitching, made with the balanced gestures achieved by the skilled hands of Italian artisans. All the built-in furniture here is custommade, tailored to the space. The others, however, are colorful, pop, avant-garde — a selection that declares its foreignness, and for this reason, its expressive strength.”
Astute Design Elements Honor Architectural References
Starting from the entrance, a tribute, a reference to the dome of Santa Maria delle Grazie. A nearly sacred space, a ritual threshold between the exterior and the interior, reinterpreted by the designers as an envelope within an envelope, made circular through a new skin of oak slats that conceal wardrobes and welcome curved glass sliding doors. Or the kitchen, capable of becoming the pivot around which family life takes shape, with its large custom island. Every storage element here is designed, crafted from oak slats and stainless steel, with a travertine countertop, Gaggenau appliances, and an extractor hood.
Comfort and Relaxation for Sleeping Area and Bathrooms
The sleeping area and bathrooms are conceived as private spaces for comfort and relaxation, with floors and wall coverings made of matte travertine cut from the slab, multi-layered furniture with oak slats and marble countertops, and custom-made shower boxes with a painted stainless steel structure and layered canalized glass.
Welcoming Design Highlights Italian Creative Contamination
And then there is the expansive living area, the formal living room, a space with a contemporary and technological soul, albeit hidden, the ideal meeting point for togetherness, a true hearth. Maintained in its original lines, the container, much like a home-gallery, chooses to offer the best possible scenic backdrop: the neutral chromatic tones and precious natural materials of the surfaces are made vibrant through a careful selection of contrasting furnishings — icons of Italianmade design — and colorful contemporary artworks.
Dramatic Design Elements Feature Personal Expression
The choice of pieces integrated into the interior design, in fact, tells of that idea of creative contamination, complexity, and details that make the difference. Most of those selected by Bevilacqua Architects were extremely innovative — almost provocative — during the period of their conception. From the “table en forme libre” by Charlotte Perriand (1938) to the Tulip table by Eero Saarinen for Knoll International (1955), from the two large Poliedri chandeliers by Carlo Scarpa for Venini (1960) to the Catilina chairs by Caccia Dominioni for Azucena (1957), from the Eros table by Mangiarotti (1971) to the Camaleonda sofa by Mario Bellini for B&B Italia (1970). The artificial lighting itself (by Viabizzuno) is designed with the same purpose: to accentuate, highlight architectural details, and create an atmosphere that bridges mid-20th-century Milan and contemporary domestic space.
Photography by Daniele Giovagnoli, Riccardo Pelliccia
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