#DOMUS TILES WINDOWS#

These suggestions led to the idea of living areas and the egg, a metaphor for the circle of life and also an ancient symbol of hope and renewal, which becomes the protagonist. If little remains of that day-to-day life, the form of the architecture endures and keeps suggesting an attitude of sharing in which personal space is more flexible and collectivity becomes an integral part of the domestic identity.

#DOMUS TILES WINDOWS#

The entryways and windows of these working-class homes, laundry hung out to dry, shared bathrooms, chickens in courtyards and cats on staircases represented the deeply communal habits and customs of these living spaces. Here are still traces of working-class Milan that, having moved to the city, replaced farmyard life with courtyard life. Between the empty spaces (not for long) of the Porta Romana railway yard and the new Symbiosis district, there are some blocks of courtyard housing from the early 1900s, creating a compact front overlooking the street. The Oasi di Ines is on the fourth floor of a casa di ringhiera, right outside the south railway circle of the Lombard metropolis. Despite very tight budgets, unique, hybrid and expressive designs are created, which often become collaborations with other creatives (in this specific case, the stylist Veronica Leali and the illustrator Pavel Zhovba). By establishing an emotional connection with clients, they create suggestive spaces of great visual impact.

“We like to interpret design in a fantastical and playful way,” they state. And the Milanese collective Paradisiartificiali has talent in this. The Oasi di Ines, a mini-flat (36 m2) renovated by Paradisiartificiali, incorporates many ‘very Milanese’ themes: the casa di ringhiera (typical working-class houses with railings), minimal lifestyle and customisable space, which speak about and to the client.

Domus tiles