A Single Man House Reframes an Artist’s Atelier Into a Haven of Height
A Single Man House occupies a storied street in Rome, Italy, transformed by Margutta Architetture into an apartment that preserves the atelier’s towering proportions. The studio-to-home conversion balances street life with a quiet garden outlook, pairing structural remediation with deft insertions—an iron stair, a slim walkway, and a rigorously ordered library wall—to organize two levels. Its character comes from height and light, yet the plan feels precise and assured.
Morning slants through a tall arched window. The garden beyond sets a calm counterpoint to the street, while restored timber overhead carries the room’s long breath.
This is an apartment in Rome that began as an artist’s studio, reworked by Margutta Architetture with structure and circulation as the guiding brief. The throughline is height handled with clarity: a six-meter living room organized by an iron stair, a suspended walkway, and a full-height library tuned to proportional order.
Reinforce the Shell
Structural remediation comes first. Substantial consolidation returns stiffness to the envelope, allowing the original wooden ceilings to be restored and the arched garden window to reopen to its full span. That single move resets the house’s core axis, drawing sightlines across the living room and into the green courtyard. Light lands cleanly on timber, plaster, and iron.
Span the Height
The living room reaches nearly six meters. An iron stair rises to a slim walkway that threads the upper level, its lean profile keeping volume intact while stitching the two floors into one legible section. The insertion reads as a structural line rather than a bulky object, so the ceiling’s rhythm and the tall proportions stay dominant.
Stage the Library
A full-height library occupies the principal wall. Its variable module derives from the golden section, a quiet geometric grid that orders books and artifacts while echoing the atelier’s discipline (and nodding to Shiro Kuramata’s measured clarity). The stair gives direct access along the wall, turning storage into a vertical room—ladders replaced by a walkable line of steel and treads.
Light the Volume
With ceilings largely exposed, lighting asks for precision. Spotlights mount directly to steel beams, setting a clear datum; custom Candela di Vals pendants drop to 230 cm above the floor to humanize scale and brighten conversation height. The combination maps the section at night and keeps glare down, so timber texture and the arched reveal read with intention.
Private Level, Clear Lines
Upstairs holds a transparent bathroom. A Turkish bath sits within this glazed suite, set as backdrop to an equally clear wardrobe that stretches along the upper gallery. From here, a view cuts to a second, taller room below—the so‑called bell tower—its compact footprint rising to six meters for music, reading, and retreat.
Back downstairs, the dual outlook sets the mood. Street energy lives on one side; a bohemian garden facing the Pincio cools the other, and the structural order keeps both in calm conversation. The renovation closes with craft and proportion, not flourish.
Photography by Carbonelli&Seganti
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