A colourful, modern home which, thanks to Woodmania, is still very much in touch with its roots

Designing a modern home in Italy is not as easy as you might think. In fact, the ingredients to be skilfully mixed within the architecture and interior design include one truly essential factor: the link with the location’s roots, meaning that special something that will convey a chapter in our long cultural tradition at a glance.

In the Murat district of Bari, named after Napoleon’s field marshal responsible for the expansion of the original core of the medieval city, an apartment recently renovated to the design of architect Davide Tarricone embraces the promise of the new while maintaining overtones of the past. Let's go and find them together, making a virtual tour of the various rooms.

All floors are covered throughout with the wood-effect stoneware of the Ragno Woodmania collection, chosen in one of its softest, most luminous, warmest variants, with a name that truly embodies its aesthetic: Honey.

The 20x120 planks weave a kind of inspirational pattern on the floors, steeped in tactile appeal and with an undeniable reference to the roots of the building but supporting the various modern features that structure and colour the functional spaces.

The heart of the apartment, which home to three young siblings, is the large open-space living area, containing a series of colourful pieces of furniture with fresh, attractive design which can be combined and separated to meet the needs of the moment, against a backdrop of white walls with some areas of bare brick.

The ironic role of colour is underlined by a series of decorative features in retro taste: on the wall, for example, a print of late 19C Paris introduces the mood of dreamy lightness then taken up, in the master bedroom, by the large Vertigo chandelier by Constance Guisset. Italian tradition and French style merge in perfect harmony to define an unequivocally modern living space with a subtle industrial mood.

A transparent frame marks the line of separation between the living zone and the bedroom area. This area comprises a series of rooms for the private lives of the apartment’s residents, organised to offer the utmost comfort not only for nocturnal repose but also for reading, study and personal care.

Project Davide Tarricone

Ph Pierangelo Laterza