“It was just a shell,” Geraldine Vergara says of the apartment, which sat vacant for years before she and her husband gave it a minimalist revamp with mirrored storage and sculptural archways.
Most people don’t seek out an architecture firm until after they’ve bought a home. Geraldine Vergara found hers before she even knew she needed one.
It happened on an ordinary afternoon in Cesena, a town near Geraldine’s home in Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region. While her daughter was at violin lessons, Geraldine wandered past a small studio with gleaming resin floors and felt compelled to step inside. “I told them I liked the floor,” she recalls. “My Italian wasn’t great, but I asked what the material was.”
She had unknowingly stepped into the office of architect Cinzia Mondello, who works at the firm Tisselli Studio Architetti.
Geraldine Vergara and her husband, Nicola, called on Tisselli Studio Architetti to renovate a dilapidated home in Longiano, Italy. Perched on a hillside, the one-bedroom apartment sits on the same street where Nicola’s late father once owned property.
Photo by Angelo Ciccolo
The ground floor was reimagined as a flexible, inviting common area that flows from kitchen to lounge, anchored by soft light and Geraldine’s beloved resin-finished flooring.
Photo by Angelo Ciccolo
That moment stayed with her. So when Geraldine, a New York native, and her Italian husband, Nicola, discovered and purchased a one-bedroom apartment in the hillside town of Longiano (just a few minutes’ drive from home), she knew exactly who to call. “Don’t bother looking for an architect,” she told Nicola. “I already found ours.”
By chance, the apartment sat on the same street where Nicola’s late father once owned property. “It felt like a sign,” she recalls. “Like something, or someone, was guiding us there.”
The main bedroom reflects the apartment’s pared-back palette. Minimal detailing lets the hillside views take center stage.
Photo by Angelo Ciccolo
See the full story on Dwell.com: Budget Breakdown: They Redid a Ruined Home in Italy for €380K—and They’d Do It Differently Next Time
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