Concrete, wood, iron and light: the ingredients for warm, bright interior design

Sometimes the design of an interior space works like the recipe for a complex, unusual gourmet dish: many seemingly incompatible ingredients create something astonishing that far exceeds your initial expectations.

In interior design, rather than flour, cocoa, ginger and cinnamon, we have iron, wood, porcelain stoneware and light; the latter, both natural and artificial, is often the secret to the success of the overall look.

If you are still unconvinced, we invite you to take a look at the gallery of photographs showing a beauty centre in Latina, which was recently renovated based on a design by young architect Carla Quintigliano. Don’t you think that the airy, luminous space is perfectly distinctive and recognizable?

Assuming that your answer is yes, we will try, one step at a time, to break down the whole into its various elements in order to demonstrate that the recipe comparison is very apt.

Starting from the building envelope, which, as you can see, is made up of very articulated, solid or hollow walls, high ceilings and a floor which, extending over the entire L-shaped surface of the space, creates continuity and movement.

There are numerous elements, but the design choices ensure that everything contributes to defining a harmonious, perfectly functional space.

White, liberally distributed on vertical and horizontal surfaces, perfectly contrasts with the tiles chosen from three different Ragno collections for the floor and wall coverings. Among these there is a base, consisting of the steel variant of Boom stoneware in the 60 x 60 cm size, as well as two series of decors:

• The first, for floor coverings, draws from the Studio collection and, while maintaining the same size as Boom, presents it with a fascinating play of layers that evokes antique cement tiles.
• The second, applied on wall coverings, accentuates the articulation of volumes with a skilful interplay of joints and links created with hexagon tiles from the Rewind collection.

However, there is more than just stoneware. There is iron, worked in order to preserve its raw, distinctly artisan character and used as a structural framework for certain fixed furnishing elements. And there is also wood. The latter plays a truly important role: it helps to add warmth to the environment, accentuating the earthy colour component of floor and wall coverings.

Translucent fiberglass bands and luminous bulbs distributed in clusters across the entire surface of the living room complete the space, fragmenting and recomposing the different perspectives.