GR Apartment: A Lemon-Yellow Stair Animates a Roman Prati Duplex
GR Apartment sits in Rome’s Prati district, a two-level home within a early twentieth-century condominium set around a leafy courtyard. Designed by 123ArchitectureOffice, the apartment restores a vaulted brick ceiling and clears darkening additions to bring back light and cross-breezes. The real estate type is an apartment, yet the reworked interior reads generous and fluid, with one vivid gesture steering the mood.
From the entry, daylight pulls toward the courtyard and the street. The brick vault reads clean again, its light clay tone setting a calm register across the rooms.
This is a two-level apartment in Rome’s Prati quarter, reworked by 123ArchitectureOffice with an interior agenda centered on material presence and color. The project removes a spanning mezzanine, restores cross ventilation, and lets one chromatic element—an expressive stair—activate a palette of oak, travertine, and steel.
Restore The Ceiling
The original vaulted brick with exposed steel joists returns as a continuous surface, no longer interrupted by a heavy mezzanine. Its pale terracotta tone draws light, so the ceiling reads as one plane that links front and back while making the room feel taller and more legible.
Set The Color
A circular stair in cement-resin, finished in lemon yellow, stands in the corridor where it’s visible from the entry. It reads as a sculptural pivot—one bright note against neutral walls and warm materials—turning circulation into a visual anchor and giving the layout a crisp, memorable pause.
Light The Rooms
With the mezzanine pared back, daylight moves between street-side and courtyard elevations, picking up texture on the vault. A run of porthole openings cut through internal masonry echoes exterior motifs and softens the central corridor, so light and sightlines travel where they once stalled.
Furnish With Matter
In the living room, a full-height white bookcase frames the internal terrace and keeps the eye on the greenery. Opposite, a gas fireplace is set within a light travertine bench that ties together horizontal and vertical elements in natural steel, forming sturdy shelving with a tactile edge.
Tune The Palette
Materials carry the mood: oak parquet in Italian herringbone underfoot, reclaimed cement tiles in the kitchen, and matte neutral walls to steady the composition. The bright stair stays the only strong hue, so the room reads warm and quiet while the vault’s clay color and the oak’s grain do the work.
Step Outside
Two outdoor rooms extend daily life—one small terrace to the street, one larger and more secluded to the courtyard. The inner terrace is paved in graniglia tiles and shaped by a sinuous planter with built-in seating, a generous run of vegetation, and an iron pergola shaded with bamboo canes over a convivial table.
Even the custom pieces respect the palette, from iron planters to furniture tones that sit comfortably with the masonry and metal. As evening drops across the courtyard, the vault holds a soft glow while the yellow stair catches the last light and keeps the interior lively.
Photography by Alessio Neroni
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