Casa MZ — Crafted Oak Interiors for an Art Historian’s Home
Casa MZ reimagines a mid-century house in Iseo, Italy, through the precise eye of architect Andrea Pagani. The project joins a first-floor 1960s apartment with its former attic, creating a luminous double-height living volume and a tailored studio for the art historian owner. Original structure and contemporary interventions sit in close dialogue, giving this domestic interior a fresh rhythm while holding tight to the building’s layered history.
Morning light pours through the new full-height glazing, catching the grain of knotty oak underfoot and the soft sheen of teal velvet around the dining table. Above, the mansard timber ceiling holds the enlarged volume together as the eye tracks from terrace to living room to the quiet mezzanine beyond.
This is a house in Iseo, Italy, set in a pedecollinar area not far from Lake Iseo, where Andrea Pagani reshapes a 1960s apartment inside a 1940s multifamily building. The project unites the existing first-floor home with a once-degraded attic, carving out a double-height living room and a calm mezzanine study for the art historian client. Interior character grows from materials and furnishings: oak, glass, tailored cabinetry, and measured bursts of color.
Open Living Volume
The central move is the demolition of part of the attic floor, which releases a generous double-height living area at the heart of the home. A former north-east entrance wall facing the terrace gives way to a full-height glazed façade that visually fuses interior and outdoor terrace with views toward the hillside. Within this open-plan volume, kitchen, dining, and reading areas flow together yet keep a clear identity. Air and light define the room more than walls do.
Kitchen As Anchor
The kitchen, designed by Pagani and built to measure, anchors one side of the living zone. Lacquered wood cabinetry with anti-scratch finish and recessed “gola” openings, edged in color-matched aluminum profiles, reads as a precise built element rather than loose furniture. Countertop, backsplash, and the exposed side of the peninsula are clad in Silestone with a stone effect, adding a cool, durable surface against the warmer oak floor. Everyday cooking and social life collect around this peninsula, which acts as both workbench and informal bar.
Color Notes And Texture
Around the owners’ existing dining table, new ottanio-colored velvet chairs introduce a deep, saturated note within an otherwise restrained palette. That single color decision sharpens the surrounding textures: larch-like tones in the ceiling boards, the matte planes of lacquered cabinetry, the faint movement in the Silestone surfaces. These contemporary insertions sit in deliberate contrast with the older shell, reminding visitors that this house carries both memory and present-day life. Every piece is chosen to quietly support the owner’s work with art and exhibitions.
Stair, Mezzanine, And Study
A new internal stair in painted steel rises from the main level, its treads and risers finished in the same knotty oak planks that run throughout the home. Extra-clear glass balustrades keep the stair visually light and let the double-height volume remain uninterrupted. At the upper level, a compact mezzanine houses a small sitting room and the owner’s study, both washed by borrowed light from the tall glazing. Double-sided wardrobes and custom furniture, again designed by Pagani, divide and organize the attic floor without heavy partitions.
Light On Timber And Oak
An in-depth lighting study underpins the project, drawing attention to the original timber ceiling typical of the mansard roof. Warm light grazes the boards and picks out the rhythm of rafters, while more focused fixtures support reading, cooking, and desk work. Except for the bathrooms, continuous knotty oak planks tie living, circulation, and mezzanine together, reinforcing a sense of unity. The material calm of wood, glass, and stone-effect surfaces lets the owner’s books, art, and daily life supply the changing detail.
By stitching together attic and apartment through a carefully edited palette, Casa MZ moves the old building into the present without erasing its past. Light, tailored joinery, and measured color keep the rooms adaptable to work and rest. As the day turns over the hills, the interior quietly tracks it in wood grain, reflections, and the soft depth of velvet chairs.
Photography by Andrea Rinaldi and Michele Notarangelo
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