A contemporary loft beneath the beams of an antique home in the Langhe district, paved entirely with the Grand Carpet collection, uses surfaces to enable the functional sharing of spaces with an appropriate stylistic language.

The two owners of this striking loft had a dream: to live in a castle and transform it into luxury holiday accommodation. To accomplish this, they called in the team of architects from GAP Studio, based near Asti, Italy, to restore and transform the attic of an 18C building perched on a hilltop in a UNESCO World Heritage landscape (Langhe-Roero and Monferrato). The result, after two years of work, is a 160-square-meter contemporary loft, which has now become their home. The minimalist, modern furnishings merge with the castle’s historic beauty, retained intact thanks to the skillful recovery of the roof beams and the original stone walls. Since it was not possible to split the loft into several rooms, the home was designed as a vast open space subdivided into two areas: the living area, overlooking the 35-square-meter terrace, with a kitchen, dining room and lounge, and the sleeping area, with a bedroom, walk-in wardrobe and master bathroom.

The absence of structural division is highlighted and transformed into a key design feature by the choice of floor covering. The flooring throughout the whole home features large-format stoneware tiles from Marazzi’s Grand Carpet collection, which was designed by Antonio Citterio and Patricia Viel and derived from the Augmented Surfaces installation, which received great critical acclaim during Milan Design Week in 2017.

The material concept that inspires this collection is the weave of antique Persian carpets, the motifs of which, worn and modified by the passage of time, become the pattern for the collection, forming a unique decoration that can be repeated indefinitely.

The 120- x 240-cm tiles and their slim 6-mm thickness feature this pattern in six different modules, and since there are so few joints, they create a seamless, exquisite, decorated floor.

Grand Carpet was installed in this project in the “Smoke” gray color.

The use of porcelain stoneware in large-format slabs confirms this material’s ability to fit attractively even into historic contexts, which may appear stylistically remote from it.

The rest of the castle is still undergoing restoration and, as planned, is to become luxury holiday accommodation.