Characters: a narrative apartment

Apartment Renovation, 2025, Milan.

Characters is the name of a new apartment designed by the studio Parasite 2.0 in the southwest of Milan.

The apartment is located in a former factory, now converted into a residential complex. For the first time, the Milan-based architecture studio has designed an interior within a newly built development—not a renovation of an existing space. This provided an opportunity to create a completely new narrative, only loosely connected to pre-existing elements, such as the wooden ceiling and the window layout. Parasite 2.0 focused on crafting a story, a narrative rich in cinematic references, where large custom-made furniture pieces become characters—inhabitants of the apartment rather than mere functional objects.

Upon entering the apartment, the first encounter is with Caterpillar, a monumental piece still in a chrysalis state, uncertain whether it prefers to be a large closet—defining the entry hall—or a kitchen facing the living room.

In the living room, we find The Scene, a large L-shaped bookshelf that imagines itself a theatre stage, somewhere between comedy and tragedy. It includes shelves at the back and a long platform in the front, concealing a guest bed underneath.

Moving into the apartment’s only bedroom, we enter a mysterious forest clad in light green veneer wood. Along one wall runs The Illusionist, a long wardrobe that, like something out of a fairy tale, acts as a portal to another dimension: a private bathroom with a whimsically shaped bathtub.

Running playfully through the apartment are Snake and Plissken: a non-fireplace that transforms into a desk, and a stone on wheels whose purpose is unclear—perhaps just to serve as a small step.

Completing the scene, five different floor finishes chase each other from room to room, seemingly unaware of the concept of a threshold.

The concept is a clear nod to architect John Hejduk’s “subjects” and projects like Victims, where he created characters through the design and naming of architectural forms.

 

 

Ph. Monica Di Chio