Located on the penultimate floor of an early-20th-century building in one of Genoa’s distinctive hillside neighbourhoods, the 60 m2 apartment renovated by PIA – Perotta Iberto Architetti is shaped by an extraordinary relationship with the city. Its panoramic views, original Genoese terrazzo, timber details and exposed concrete structure form the basis of a renovation where colour becomes an additional tool for defining space, movement and connection. Different tones distinguish the corridor, study and kitchenette, while Carrara and Siena yellow marble echo the colours embedded in the terrazzo floors. At the heart of the project, a compact study concealed behind six mirrored folding doors acts almost like a periscope, reflecting the panorama and drawing the abundant southern light deep into the apartment.
Studio Panorama occupies the penultimate floor of a large residential building constructed at the beginning of the 20th century, in one of Genoa’s most distinctive residential areas. The building stands directly alongside the route of one of the city’s historic funiculars, part of the network connecting the centre of Genoa with the residential areas along the hillside ring road. Its construction is also significant: it was among the first buildings in the city to feature a concrete structure. From the upper floors, the elevated position offers an almost panoramic view across Genoa, extending from the Lantern towards the eastern neighbourhoods. At the centre of this expansive composition lies the historic city and its monuments, creating a powerful visual relationship between the apartment and the urban landscape beyond.
This relationship with the city became the starting point for the renovation by PIA – Perotta Iberto Architetti. With approximately 60 m2 at their disposal, the architects sought to simplify the existing layout while adapting the apartment to contemporary living and working requirements.
The existing configuration already benefited from an abundance of windows, including two distinctive trifora windows in the living room, all oriented towards the south or southeast.
Rather than altering this relationship with the exterior, the project reinforces it, allowing the panorama and natural light to become active elements in the organisation of the interior.
The brief called primarily for the reconfiguration of the small bathroom and the large kitchen. The former kitchen was transformed into a more generous bathroom, accommodating both a bathtub and a shower, while the existing small bathroom was demolished to make space for a compact kitchenette and to shorten the distribution corridor.
The bedroom remained largely unchanged, while a simple half-height storage element was introduced at the entrance. At the same time, the apartment required a separate study area that could support working from home without compromising the openness of the principal living spaces.
It is within the corridor that the project’s most distinctive intervention occurs.
Opposite the entrance, in what was previously a blind corner, the architects inserted the independent study area. A triangular, wall-mounted desk is enclosed by six mirrored fold-out doors, creating an optical device reminiscent of a periscope.
From the first step into the apartment, the mirrors capture and reflect the distant cityscape, bringing the panorama into the entrance while simultaneously spreading the abundant light of the living room throughout the corridor.
The study therefore becomes more than a functional addition: it acts as a small architectural instrument, repeatedly reframing the apartment’s defining view.
The material and chromatic strategy establishes a deliberate balance between the apartment’s inherited character and the new interventions.
The original Genoese terrazzo floors, timber windows and doors, ceiling stuccoes and distinctive concrete structure were retained and, where appropriate, enhanced.
Against these elements, the corridor, study and kitchenette are distinguished by different wall colours, reinforcing their role as spaces of connection between the principal rooms. A grey resin floor further contributes to this continuity, stitching together the areas affected by the new demolition work while visually framing and accentuating the preserved terrazzo in the bedroom and living room.
In the kitchenette, the cabinet doors are made from MDF treated with a transparent protective finish, while the sides of the refrigerator and the open corner shelves are painted to match the surrounding walls.
The choice of stone introduces another dialogue with the existing terrazzo: Carrara marble with inserts of Siena yellow marble forms the countertop and backsplash, continuing into the small peninsula table and the shelf above the sink.
The palette therefore draws directly from the colours already embedded in the apartment rather than introducing an unrelated material language.
The living room remains the principal spatial and visual centre of the home.
Flooded with natural light, it is defined on each of its four sides by a different relationship with the adjacent spaces and the exterior.
To the south and east, the windows open towards the city and the sea, with the latter side also providing access to a small balcony. To the west, the room transitions towards the kitchenette, where the change in wall colour, the shift in flooring and the peninsula collectively mark the threshold between the two spaces. On the north side, the only fully solid wall accommodates two large custom-made shelves.
The bathroom adopts a similarly restrained palette, allowing the strong southern light entering through its small window to become part of the room’s character.
White tiles meet grey resin flooring, while Carrara marble reappears in the sink countertop, raised step and corner shower tray. The latter was custom-made without either glass or a curtain, maintaining the clarity of the composition. Here, the richness lies less in an abundance of materials than in the precision of their junctions, with the transitions and connections between surfaces becoming details in their own right.
The building’s original concrete construction is given an equally direct expression.
The plaster was removed from the existing concrete pillars and beams, which were cleaned and painted white, revealing the structural character that had previously been concealed. Together with the smooth concrete walls and preserved ceiling stuccoes, the exposed structure contributes another layer to the apartment’s predominantly white surfaces, producing a subtle variation of textures rather than a uniform monochrome.
Ultimately, the renovation brings together three conditions: the particular character of the Genoese location, the distinctive construction and surviving details of the early-20th-century building, and the changing requirements of contemporary domestic life.
The interventions remain attentive to the available budget while concentrating resources on the elements that most strongly define the apartment: its light, its material memory and, above all, its relationship with the city. The result is a bright and welcoming home that balances a youthful sensibility with traces of tradition, while maintaining a constant visual connection with Genoa.
Here, the panorama is not simply something to look at from the windows; it becomes an organising principle, repeatedly reflected, framed and brought into the experience of the interior.
Facts & Credits
Project title Studio Panorama
Typology Architecture, Interiors, Renovation
Location Genoa, Italy
Area 60m2
Year 2024 – 2025
Architecture PIA – Perotta Iberto Architetti
Photography Anna Positano – Studio Campo Photography