The sea at the window

IN AN APARTMENT IN NAPLES THE LANDSCAPE SUGGESTS THE MAGIC OF THE CITY, AND SEEMS TO INVADE THE HOUSE.

Villa tury the residence residence Salvo stands has of noble conserved on one lines. of the its Transformed most original elegant architectural as streets an exclusive of form. Posillipo, apartment an 18th-cen- house, Vittoriana and I were Baggio, looking the for owner, a special comes place», from she the says. world «My of jewelry. first visit «My here husband was at dusk, and it was truly thrilling. The majesty of Vesuvius, and the sea on the other side, with the sunset. After the stroke of luck of finding this place, we called on Giuliano Andrea dell’Uva, with whom we had already worked in the past». «The house had enormous potential», the architect says. «I tried first to imagine it as a big empty box. To reach and recover the back façade, I had to strip the building down to its load-bearing members». The round arch is the pivot for the layout. Today it is a diaphragm between the sea and garden views, the first and second levels. The flat has three bedrooms with bathrooms and a living area that flows into the open kitchen. Few boundaries, lots of light. The amazing force of the landscape seemed to dictate the chromatic choices. «Color is a constant in all my works», Dell’Uva says. «But in this case white had to become “something else”, bringing out forms, making the architectural features come alive. The full-height windows facing Capri and the Gulf enhance the monochrome paleness of the rooms. Walls, furniture, floors, lamps – everything is rigorously white». The uniformity is broken up only by the black and white design of the bathrooms, of impeccable proportions. While the facings in the guest bathroom are a tribute to the Baroque church of San Gregorio Armeno, the master bath connected to the bedroom offers a more dramatic, theatrical setting.