Via Mastro Giorgio, Testaccio, Rome

Steel stair structure —and dining table— fabrication : Bella Monica Srl, Rome.

The polished aluminium handrail is inspired by the tactile comfort of handlebars from an Italian racing bicycle

This 53 square meter late nineteenth century vaulted pied-à-terre in Testaccio, Rome, was unsympathetically developed around 2000. Remodelled, the space now awaits its writer-editor resident, and her collection of books and furniture.

Formerly divided into three separate rooms, it was natural to remove a dark wood floor and one wall to open a light filled loft-like space at the heart of one of the most wonderfully vital neighbourhoods of the city. Large picture windows replace poor quality items that cut into the view, with slimline steel frames allowing a generous bathing of Roman light.

Borromini’s Renaissance geometries are registered in hexagonal “cementine” tiled floors from Grandinetti, typical of Rome’s nineteenth century residential buildings. A double step threshold, priestess’s library stair --50cm wide--, specially made refectory style dining table and servery, as well as shelves of travertine, extend the fabric of Rome. The steelwork of the stair and dining table are of the same white painted steel stock. Alvar Aalto’s 1933 designed chairs and stools complement the simple approach to this family assembly space.

Exceptional personal attention from husband and wife constructors —known to me for more than twenty years— and steelworkers helped make the project a pleasure to produce.