What if spaces were defined by time instead of walls?

Architecture students do not inhabit spaces through fixed functions, but through an ever-changing rhythm of everyday life. The same place becomes a studio, a workshop, a dining room, a meeting space and, eventually, a place of retreat. Yet domestic architecture still tends to define space through permanence, assigning walls to activities that are, by nature, constantly evolving.

This project challenges that convention.

Rather than maximizing the program within a compact footprint, the proposal preserves the loft’s greatest luxury: its volume. Every intervention seeks to resolve the practical demands of everyday life without diminishing the generosity of the space itself. Here, spatial quality is not the consequence of the project; it is its starting point.

Instead of dividing the loft into rooms, the project is organized through a sequence of spatial strata. A compact infrastructural core gathers the only permanent boundaries, containing the service spaces while supporting the sleeping platform above. By concentrating what must remain fixed, everything else is allowed to remain free.

Within this framework, architecture ceases to prescribe and begins to respond. The wall is no longer simply a wall; it unfolds into the place where ideas are drawn. The table is no longer simply a table; it becomes the shifting centre of daily life, adapting naturally to study, collaboration, cooking or gathering. Privacy is no longer achieved through enclosure alone, but through section, light and soft fabric layers that allow openness and intimacy to coexist within the same continuous volume.

Natural light becomes the invisible element that binds these transformations together. Descending from above, it reinforces the vertical sequence of spaces and reveals the changing character of the loft throughout the day. Warm walnut, brushed stainless steel, mineral surfaces and soft textiles establish a quiet balance between the precision of a workshop and the intimacy of a home, allowing making and living to become part of the same architectural experience.

The project does not seek to define how the loft should be inhabited. It simply provides an architectural framework generous enough to evolve with its inhabitant, allowing each day to compose a different spatial experience.

Perhaps walls never truly define a space.

Time does.

“Pipe Dreams” was born to respond to a spatial and temporal complexity. The life of anarchitecture student is characterised by individual study and intense group work sessions. “PipeDreams” is a fluid living machine capable of accommodating the changing needs of its inhabitant. The environment abandons the rigidity of traditional floor plans to rely on fully custom-designed furnishing elements, conceived as true architectural devices. The apartment, in fact, changes its configuration depending on the required function, expanding or contracting to host every aspect of an architecture student’s life. In this scenario, storage spaces and shelving lose their static nature to become performative elements capable of changing appearance and layout. An example is the trolley module, a nomadic element that, when needed, transforms into a dining table or an extra workstation, only to then slot back into and neatly disappear within the main wall shelving.Similarly, when design activities require a large dedicated surface, a specific table for modelmaking emerges and is pulled out from a storage module hidden in the floor, optimizing movementflows when not in use. The element that weaves the relationships between the various spaces, and which gives the project its name, is an exposed system of blue-painted pipes. This tubularinfrastructure is the true functional nerve of the house: furnishings and structural elements are anchored to it, such as the rung ladder that provides access to a large suspended net, which becomes an unexpected space for relaxation and decompression floating directly above theworkspace. Further defining the space is a green architectural volume, conceived as a direct expansion of the storage system, a compact architectural core that encloses the bathroom and thewalk-in closet. This volume also serves as a base for the sleeping area, as its upper surface hosts the bed and a shelving system, creating an intimate, raised refuge separated from the dynamism of the lower level. “Pipe Dreams” thus becomes a manifesto of spatial elasticity: through its tailored design and the transformability of its elements, the apartment overcomes the physicallimits of its square footage, offering the student a multifunctional environment where domesticspace becomes an active and flexible tool for creation.

Located in the heart of Città Studi, the project is rooted in a district whose identity is deeply connected to education, research, and architecture. It extends this dynamic by transforming the apartment into both a living space and a place for creation. In a context where design and learning shape everyday life, the studio is conceived as a domestic workshop: The Blue Workshop.

The ground floor is designed as a flexible workspace where all the furniture is fully modular. The generous ceiling height is used to create a monumental bookshelf occupying the brightest façade of the apartment. Built from aluminium profiles, it incorporates three perforated metal panels for displaying mood boards, materials, and tools. Shelving accommodates books and personal objects, while a movable ladder running on a rail provides easy access to the upper shelves. The shelving system is combined with a set of three modular workstations. Also constructed from aluminium profiles, the desks can be reconfigured according to different needs: integrating a 3D printer, adjusting the worktop height, or creating a collaborative workspace.

This new work area replaces the former kitchen, allowing the studio to benefit from the best natural light. Domestic functions have been deliberately compacted to maximise the space dedicated to design, making, and experimentation.

The mezzanine has been completely redesigned. A compact staircase-kitchen block is facing a lounge area and a storage room that replacing the former bathroom. This space provides storage for the student’s bicycle, materials, tools, and the numerous architectural models produced throughout their studies.

The upper level now accommodates all the private spaces: the bedroom and the bathroom. This new layout clearly separates the different functions of the apartment. The ground floor becomes an active environment dedicated to work and collaboration, while the mezzanine offers a quieter atmosphere for rest. Their arrangement optimises the existing volume, incorporates a walk-in wardrobe, and fully benefits from the natural light provided by the veranda.

The choice of raw materials reflects both the architectural culture of Città Studi and Milan’s industrial heritage. The ground floor is entirely finished with OSB panels, an economical, durable, and easily replaceable material. It embraces marks of use, cuts, impacts, and traces resulting from the student’s daily work. Rather than concealing wear, the floor becomes an active working surface whose ageing is considered a quality. It also reinforces the transition between the productive ground floor and the more intimate upper level.

All metal elements are powder-coated in a colour inspired by International Klein Blue. This choice creates a strong contrast with the exposed concrete walls while highlighting the contemporary interventions within the existing structure. The blue becomes the project’s visual thread, emphasizing both the structural elements and the devices dedicated to creation.

The Blue Workshop ultimately transforms the apartment into a true design tool, where living and creating become one.

Privacy, together with a feeling of comfort and intimacy, is essential in any home. With this in mind, the primary objective was to achieve a delicate balance: creating a dynamic, open daytime environment while ensuring the nighttime zone remained a private and welcoming retreat.

Crucially, this had to be accomplished without compromising the uninterrupted visual connection between spaces that defines authentic loft living.

To address the humidity issues, present in the original structure, it was essential to locate the wet zone (the bathroom and laundry area) with a direct connection to the exterior. To maximize natural light and ventilation in the sleeping area, the bedroom was positioned directly above, forming a compact bedroom–bathroom core, being also the most private areas of the house.

This central core is built as a metallic structural volume clad in lacquered MDF panels, giving it the character of a large, habitable piece of furniture rather than a conventional room. The only traditional door in the loft is the bathroom’s sliding door. When closed, it reveals a concealed mirror seamlessly integrated into the wall.

Inside, the bathroom is designed as a quarry like space; terrazzo clads both walls and ceiling, emphasizing the wet core and creating a calm atmosphere. The space also functions as a laundry room, discreetly concealing washing and drying machines while housing the boiler and concentrating all plumbing services in an easily accessible location.

On the mezzanine level, the combination of a low ceiling and carpeted flooring encourages a grounded, floor level way of living, whether reading, practicing yoga, or sleeping. A futon can be stored within a low multifunctional cabinet overlooking the expansive piazza below.

Beneath, the piazza opens to a four-meter-high ceiling illuminated by natural light cascading through a wood-clad skylight. Adjacent to the mezzanine stairs, the open kitchen features a long linear unit designed for both everyday use and social gatherings. On the opposite side, a custom wall-to-wall cabinet and shelving accommodates books, personal objects, and a concealed projector.

The space remains intentionally flexible. Both the sofa and dining table are mounted on wheels, allowing effortless reconfiguration. Together they create a conventional living and dining arrangement; apart, they transform the room into a generous workspace or a setting for larger gatherings. Additional furniture folds away or adapts as needed, maximizing usable floor space.

Suspended above, the iconic pendant lamp anchors the double height volume, providing precisely focused illumination while reinforcing the loft’s dynamic character.

THE KINETIC PIAZZA reinterprets loft living as a flexible structure where privacy, adaptability, and openness coexist within a single connected space.

Contemporary student housing demands more than a compact apartment—it requires a living environment capable of adapting to changing daily routines. The proposal reimagines a former garage loft as a flexible and multifunctional space where studying, collaboration, relaxation and social interaction coexist within a single open volume.

The intervention is defined by a reversible steel framework that organizes the entire interior through one continuous architectural gesture. Integrating circulation, storage and spatial organization, the structure establishes a clear hierarchy while preserving the integrity of the existing building. Rather than competing with the original fabric, the new insertion complements it, allowing future modifications without irreversible interventions.

Adaptability lies at the core of the project. Modular furniture enables multiple spatial configurations, allowing the loft to transform according to different activities throughout the day. A continuous curtain system introduces flexible layers of privacy, replacing conventional rooms with adjustable spatial boundaries. Spaces can be opened for collaborative work and shared living or enclosed to create more intimate environments for rest and personal routines.

The original double-height volume remains the project’s defining spatial quality. Existing skylights flood both levels with natural daylight, strengthening visual continuity and reinforcing the perception of openness. Glass block partitions softly filter light while maintaining privacy, contributing to a bright and calm atmosphere throughout the interior.

A restrained palette of terrazzo, concrete, steel and terracotta establishes a timeless architectural language rooted in durability, honesty and simplicity. Robust materials are balanced by warm textures, creating an environment that feels both contemporary and welcoming.

The project embraces flexibility not as an additional feature but as its fundamental principle. By combining reversible construction, adaptable spatial strategies and a coherent material identity, the proposal creates a living environment capable of evolving alongside its users—supporting the dynamic lifestyle of architecture students while respecting the character of the existing loft.

A vertical workshop for an architecture student

“The rooms don’t change. The day does.”

A former car-repair garage in Città Studi carries one inheritance worth keeping: emptiness. For decades this volume served work — machines entered, were lifted, repaired, released. The space held no fixed program, only capacity. This project preserves that capacity and hands it to a new occupant: an architecture student, whose days refuse fixed rooms just as the garage once did.

A student’s day is not divided into rooms. The same hours hold solitary drawing, group model-making, dinner with friends, rest. Conventional plans fight this life; this one follows it. The zoning is constant — four zones, one system: STUDIO, where the platform moves; CAVE, where the day settles; VOID, where the room empties; BLOCK, where nothing changes. Within them, the elements transform. The rooms don’t change. The day does.

At the center hangs the project’s namesake: a plywood-and-steel platform suspended in betweenthe studio floor and the mezzanine, moved by hand on a fixed pulley and counterweight. Lowered, it is the worktable — where drawings are made, models built, critiques held, the stepped seating gathered around it. Raised, it docks into the extended mezzanine and becomes the floor of an isolated study, reached by its own stair — a quiet room that exists only when the platform completes it. One element, two elevations, the full arc of a working day. The student does not walk between rooms; the student summons them.

The name works on two axes. The platform lives in between levels — moving through the section. The apartment lives in between hours — at 10 AM the kitchen opens and the Cave becomes a dining room; at 10 PM it seals shut and the same wall becomes a cinema screen. At 4 PM the bed folds out of the wardrobe and the Void turns to sleep; by morning it folds away, wardrobe boxes reveal sport equipment, and the room becomes bare floor for yoga beneath the skylight. Heavy elements move by counterweight; light ones by hand. Different mechanisms, one behavior: empty until needed.

One warm material family binds it — concrete plaster, plywood, corten, steel, oak — and one module governs it, drawn from the existing window’s steel grid: every partition, shelf, and platform bay obeys the same measure.

The mechanism is inherited, not invented. It descends from Leonardo da Vinci’s studies of the pulley, the counterweight, and the locking catch, drawn during his Milan years (Codex Madrid I, c. 1490–1505). Where that lineage of lifting machines once raised stone to build the city, this one raises the work of someone learning to build it. A garage that lifted machines now lifts ideas.

Ideas take form when they are allowed the space to do so. In Milan Living Lab the ideas circulate in much the same way as people do – they occupy spaces, appear and disappear throughout the day, linger, and gain momentum. An apartment for young creatives shouldn’t just follow their changing needs, but should also contribute to the dialogue with its own voice.

The apartment is organized as a sequence of interconnected levels rather than enclosed spaces. Entering the loft, the visitor arrives in a bright, open living room – the heart of the project where activity and creativity naturally converge. Central space transitions smoothly into the utility zone housing a fully equipped kitchen, long-term storage, workstation and bathroom tucked away behind the integrated furniture piece. A flight of steps leads up to the mezzanine where lower ceilings and filtered natural light create a quieter atmosphere for focused work or retreat.

Changes in level height, and light shape the spaces, instead of relying on walls to define them. Each zone possesses a distinct character while remaining visually connected to the others. The workshop is not isolated from the living space, nor is the kitchen allowing for the spontaneity of the creative process.

The architecture and furniture are conceived as one logical system. Along the length of the loft runs a continuous built-in furniture piece, whose top surface serves as a reference point for the exploration of the interplay between levels. It changes function depending on the distance to the surrounding floor, at one point serving as a bench, a step or becoming a kitchen countertop. The modular shelving system is designed for ease of use and adaptability – shelves allow for creation of structures to fit occupants needs and when not in use find their place in the work station cupboard.

Designed around the changing rhythms of student life, the apartment readily adapts to different scenarios. It can accommodate larger social gatherings and the guests can comfortably stay overnight by rearranging the flexible furnishings. During periods of intensive work, it transforms into a creative studio equipped for model making that can house up to 6 people working on a group project. As the needs of its occupants shift, so does the character of the space.

The project reimagines the domestic space of the contemporary student as an open, flexible and adaptable environment, able to respond to different needs and moments throughout the day. Insteadof dividing the loft into traditional rooms, the design is organized around two fixed volumes thatcontain all the service functions, leaving the central and surrounding space free to become the trueliving area.

The entire project is based on a 60×60 cm modular grid, which defines the structure, furniture and proportions of the two volumes. This module becomes the main design tool, allowing storage units, pull-out elements, custom-made furniture and equipped surfaces to be integrated into one coherentsystem.

The first volume, 120 cm high, works as a multifunctional podium. It contains the entrance area, bicycle storage, wardrobes and storage spaces, while its upper surface becomes a flexible platformfor studying, working, eating or spending time with others.

The second volume, 240 cm high, is conceived as a compact living monolith, shaped by the diagonal of the existing envelope. It brings together the kitchen, bathroom, laundry area and relaxation alcove, while the sleeping area is placed on the upper level.

The different functions are not arranged as enclosed rooms, but as niches carved into the volumes. These spaces are directly accessible from the outside and act as small spatial episodes facing the shared living area.

Between the two blocks, a continuous open space connects all the activities of the home. This voidis not treated as leftover space, but as a flexible living infrastructure that changes throughout the day. In the morning, it becomes a study area; during the day, it turns into a workspace through the pull-out table; in the afternoon, it can be used for physical activity; and in the evening, it becomes a place for social interaction and conviviality.

A full-height textile membrane strengthens this sense of transformation. It allows different levels of openness and privacy for the volume facing the façade, while preserving the continuity of the space. The curtain creates changing atmospheres and supports the different configurations of the interiorwithout rigidly dividing it.

The project therefore offers a new way of understanding the loft: not as a sequence of separate rooms, but as a custom-made living machine. The volumes remain fixed, while the open space isconstantly reinterpreted. Flexibility comes not from changing the architecture itself, but from the possibility of using the same space in different ways, following the rhythms and needs of everydaystudent life.

60M is a living and mutable project, conceived from a 60 cm module. This module becomes the design tool that articulates technical precision, adaptability, and spatial dynamism, allowing the residence to evolve over time and respond to different ways of inhabiting through dynamic routes, mobile elements, and transformable spaces.

The section organizes the project across different levels connected by a central circulation core which, rather than being merely a connecting element, becomes the axis that structures the spatial experience. The user’s movement activates the residence, establishing visual and functional relationships between the different levels. On both sides of this axis, two functional cores are arranged: one integrates the kitchen on the ground floor and the study on the upper level, while the other combines the bathroom on the ground floor and the bedroom above, ensuring a clear separation between social and private uses.

The ground floor concentrates the most interactive activities. It is conceived as an open, multifunctional space suitable for cooking, exercising, hosting social gatherings, dining, or watching films. Mobile enclosure systems allow these spaces to be quickly transformed into more intimate areas or temporary accommodations, expanding their usability without altering the overall project organization.

The upper platforms are dedicated to more private uses and are arranged on both sides of the central circulation to ensure independence and privacy. Platform A contains the study, accessed via a retractable staircase, while Platform B houses the sleeping area, accessed through a staircase integrated into the vertical furniture system.

The furniture guides and structures the entire spatial sequence of the residence, reinforcing continuity between the different spaces. From the entrance, a modular wall receives and organizes everyday objects. Next, a domestic garden complements the kitchen, taking advantage of optimal natural lighting conditions. The system continues with a large storage unit featuring open and closed compartments, adaptable to the user’s needs, and culminates in a hybrid space capable of functioning as a leisure area or a temporary bedroom.

60M proposes an alternative way of living, where flexibility emerges from the precision of the modular system and each element actively participates in the transformation of space. The residence is not understood as a static object, but as a dynamic structure that evolves alongside its inhabitants, continuously adapting to their needs while maintaining the underlying order of the system that organizes it.

Work-Life Balance. A term that became once again prominent during the Covid-19–pandemic a few years ago, when people started to work from home in large numbers and burn-out rates increased significantly. The problem: Borders between work and free time got blurred or even completely disappeared. The lockdown and working from home have shown how important it is to create a physical separation between work and leisure – or, more broadly, between work and life. As architecture and it’s studies represent a profession with high stress levels and work-loads, the above seems especially critical.

This proposal makes it possible to achieve separation even in the smallest of spaces by transforming a piece of furniture into a partition wall – a living partition that divides the apartment into two parts: front and back, or life and work. Indeed, already after removing the existing non-load-bearing structures and walls, two distinct geometric spaces are observable within the existing layout. These are further differentiated by characteristic and space-defining window openings. The furniture wall is positioned precisely at the intersection of these existing spaces. It houses the bathroom with laundry facilities, the sleeping area, as well as storage space, and faces the apartment’s front space with the entryway.

In this front section of the apartment is the living area, with a kitchen, dining table, and sofa. The suspended gallery creates a gently separated private retreat with a bed and reading corner at the window. At the same time, it also separates the entrance from the kitchen-living room and provides space for hanging a bicycle and clothes. The light, airy design and the cool surface of the stainless steel create a balance with the solid, warmer plywood partition wall. The deliberate use of curves helps to keep the smaller living area open and allows for a fluid flow through the rooms.

The rear section of the apartment at first glance gives the impression of an inner courtyard. There, the space opens up into a spacious studio that can be used completely freely and according to need. A sliding elementallows the front and rear areas to be either completely separated from one another or connected into a flowing space. This enables an incredibly versatile range of uses, for example, as a workspace, group room, party room, or even event space. Playful openings in the partition wall further connect the spaces and create interesting visual connections and plays of light. The skylight, the only natural source of light, illuminates the room from above, ensuring ideal working conditions and creating a unique atmosphere.

The proposal allows the user to take advantage of the space’s unique qualities, while offering not only a physical barrier, but also a mental separation between work and life, allowing both to be celebrated together with the architecture.