Jallo e Blue: a small apartment designed by Paola Sola, where colour leads the conversation with the Neapolitan bay

The project could not have been named otherwise: the yellow of lemons and the blue of the sea. Two colours that on the hill of Posillipo have a physical presence Paola Sola takes as a starting point to reimagine a small apartment on the slope that descends towards the Bay of Naples.

The approach to the interior begins before crossing the entrance. The fifty-square-metre courtyard that precedes it functions as both threshold and room. The lemon trees, with their interlaced branches, form a natural pergola that filters light into shifting shadows on the stone paving. With views of the bay —the Castel dell’Ovo to the left and Vesuvius in the background— the courtyard becomes the most generous space in the house, a place to enjoy the calm and the breeze of the Neapolitan sea.

Yellow and blue organise the reading of each element

The apartment, with twenty-six square metres and a plan with three blind facades, is an annexe to a large family villa. The intervention takes the character of the place as its design material and turns it into a fresh, liveable space that is coherent with the surrounding landscape. The chromatic solution is the same as the courtyard’s: the yellow of lemons and the blue of the sea enter inside and organise the reading of each element.

The joinery —doors, windows, folding shutters— is painted in the blue that local fishermen use on their boats. That dense, recognisable tone acts as a frame on the facade and as a structuring element in the interior: a neutral base —the same flooring that rises a few centimetres as a skirting board— gives way to the lime plaster that covers the remaining walls, applied in a fine grain over a vault built expressly to soften the angular geometry of the space.

The multifunctional rail that runs through the space

Yellow intervenes in a precise and functional way. The architect designs a continuous rail of yellow lacquered iron that runs along the walls of the room and organises everything: from it hang the bedside tables on both sides of the bed, the shelves, the dressing mirror, and the structure that holds the fabric canopy beneath the skylight. The same logic carries through to the bathroom, where an accessories rail made by local craftspeople and painted the same yellow supports round mirrors, small baskets, and hooks, all designed to measure.

The ceramics from Arcea

The ceramic tiles are the work of the master ceramicists at Arcea, a workshop that has been reinterpreting Vietri-style ceramics for fifty years. In the kitchen, the yellow zigzag pieces cover the front of the lower unit and the splashback; in the bathroom, the same pattern in aquamarine blue lines the walls, wrapping the space in a graphic energy that the rest of the apartment —more serene, more white— makes possible without tipping into excess. The same ceramics serve as table tops for the courtyard tables, also designed for the occasion.

The interior layout resolves everything needed on a single level: the fitted kitchen corner, the folding table with wooden stools, the sofa bed and the double bed all coexist, beneath the skylight, in a single space whose versatility is guaranteed by the precision with which each piece occupies its place. Between the bedroom and the bathroom, a sequence of arches defines a small dressing room that also incorporates the technical space, concealed behind a mirrored panel. The bathroom receives its own light through a horizontal window that opens onto the courtyard.

In twenty-six square metres, architect Sola builds a complete narrative, where every decision has a function as its aim and every material has its reference. The result is an interior architecture that converses naturally with the Neapolitan landscape that surrounds it.

Project: Jallo e Blue.
Location: Posillipo, Nápoles.
Type: Apartment.
Area: 26 m² + 50 m² courtyard.
Architect: Paola Sola.
Photography: Dario Borruto.
Ceramic tiles: Arcea.
Source: Paola Sola.

Paola Sola

Paola Sola studied architecture at the Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, graduating in 1997 with the highest distinction —110/110 with honours—. After a brief period in Milan at Goring&Straja Architects, she returned to Naples in 2004 to establish her independent practice, working for private clients on interior architecture and restoration projects across Italy: Naples, Rome, Milan, and Abruzzo.

Her work moves naturally between interventions on the built heritage and new-build projects, two modes that Sola understands as part of the same commitment: reading space through the needs of those who will inhabit it. In restoration, the strategy consists of bringing the memory of the building into dialogue with contemporary uses. The existing structure —a recovered wooden beam, a fresco beneath a suspended ceiling, the scale of a historic palazzo— becomes active material within the project, not a constraint to be resolved.

Geometry as an instrument for organising space is one of the most consistent traits of her work. Sola works with simple, precise forms, where the plan follows criteria of efficiency without sacrificing the perceptual quality of each room. Natural light structures the circulation and defines atmospheres; white surfaces and pure geometric lines produce an aesthetic that is at once contemporary and enduring. Direct coordination with craftspeople is a structural part of her methodology: every finish, every carpentry or cladding detail goes through a personal process of oversight that ensures coherence between project and built outcome.

In 2009 she received first prize at the Concorso Nazionale “80 Voglia di Casa”, organised by La Repubblica Casa&Design and the Order of Architects of Rome and Province. The following year she was a finalist at the Concorso Internazionale per Interior Designer “Welcome in Hotel”, organised by AIPI.

Project by Paola Sola