Casa Verticale by La Leta Architettura
Casa Verticale reworks a tall independent house in Santa Flavia, Italy, treating the apartment as a vertical sequence of rooms. La Leta Architettura reorganizes three levels and a private roof terrace around a new central stair, using light, oak, and metal to give the home a coherent contemporary character while preserving its intimate scale. The result ties daily life to a clear upward movement through the building.
Daylight drops from above onto white metal, then softens against oak as it touches down on the lower floor. Each landing marks a pause in this vertical walk, connecting bedrooms, living room, and terrace in a quiet upward rhythm.
Casa Verticale is a multi-level apartment renovation in Santa Flavia, in the province of Palermo, designed by La Leta Architettura. The project reworks a three-story independent house and its exclusive roof terrace, using the internal stair as the primary tool for organizing daily life. Interior character grows from this element: alternating materials, changing light, and crafted built-in furniture give the domestic sequence a contemporary clarity rooted in tactile warmth.
Organizing The Vertical Home
The plan develops in section, reading the house as a stacked set of zones rather than isolated floors. The lowest level gathers the night area, with two bedrooms, a study, and service rooms arranged around the reworked masonry stair so that private rooms stay close yet distinct. Above, the upper level takes advantage of stronger light and views over the Sicilian countryside, holding an open living and kitchen volume where family life extends across one continuous room. From here, the ascent continues to the terrace, which functions as an outdoor extension of the home and completes the vertical routine.
Stair As Domestic Promenade
The stair becomes the protagonist of the interior, treated as an architectural promenade that cuts through the height of the building. Natural light from above falls into this vertical shaft, creating a zenithal glow that stresses the stair’s presence and turns movement between levels into a recurring experience of light and shadow. In its composition, the stair alternates perceptions: the first flights in white perforated sheet metal feel light and almost suspended, giving the circulation a fine-grained texture and partial transparency. Step by step, this gives way to oak cladding, which thickens the volume and introduces a warmer, more material register that grounds the upper runs.
A Veil Of Metal In The Living Room
At the heart of the open living area, the redesigned spiral element arrives as a thin metal veil that concludes the stair system. This light coil stands inside the room as an object of furniture, distinct from the main stair yet part of the same continuous movement up to the terrace. A glass partition surrounds the spiral, separating it from the rest of the room while also framing it as a scene within the larger volume. Through this clear surface, the geometry of the metal ribbon remains visible, turning the act of climbing toward the roof into an everyday ritual.
Boiserie And Oak Furnishing
Alongside the stair, a full-height boiserie with equipped doors completes the vertical system and hides service areas. This large built-in element works almost like an oversized piece of cabinetry, packing away storage and connections while maintaining a continuous, ordered surface. In the living room, custom oak furniture extends the same material language into daily use, combining a low storage unit with a suspended bookcase that anchors the room visually and functionally. The pairing of warm timber, precise lines, and the nearby metal stair expresses the client’s wish to balance tactile comfort with clear, disciplined order.
On the terrace, the sequence of rooms finally opens to the sky. Light, air, and views over the surrounding landscape give this upper platform the character of an outdoor room connected back to the stair below. From bedroom level to roof, Casa Verticale ties material choices to movement, turning a compact footprint into a layered domestic journey.
Photography by Peter Molloy
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