Near Naples, this 19th-century duplex recovers memory through contemporary solutions, thanks to the intervention of In-Nova Studio

The town of Aversa holds, beneath the circular layout of its historic centre, the trace of the Normans who founded it a thousand years ago and made it the first Norman county in Italy. A stone’s throw from Naples, in the heart of the agro aversano —a land of buffalo mozzarella, asprinio wine and the traditional polacca—, the town has kept its status as an episcopal seat since the 11th century, and today combines that religious and comital past with the life of an active university centre. In one of the nineteenth-century buildings of that historic centre, with ceilings almost four metres high and vaults that speak of another domestic scale, In-Nova Studio carries out a delicate, intelligent intervention.

Subtracting rather than adding

The project sets out from a goal unusual in the renovation of a historic home: subtracting rather than adding. Across the apartment’s 280 square metres, divided between the ground floor and an upper floor reached by a private lift, the studio strips the spaces of the layers time had superimposed on the original house, letting the height, the light and the building’s own structure speak again, in creative dialogue with its memory.

Flexible architecture

Arrival on the upper floor anticipates that way of proceeding. A custom-made wardrobe, lacquered white and finished in mirror, directs the gaze towards the living room and kitchen through a succession of framings that multiply the apartment’s depth. The old openings between load-bearing walls are now framed in Verde Guatemala marble, and incorporate large bronzed glass doors. Depending on whether they are open or closed, the entrance, living room and kitchen function as a single continuous space or as independent rooms. This is an architecture that declares itself flexible without the need for partitions.

The flooring follows the same criterion. White terrazzo replaces an original floor that damp and time had damaged beyond repair, which makes it possible to install an invisible underfloor heating system. On that continuous base, two different terrazzo pieces —for the seating area and the dining area— trace geometric motifs that recall traditional Italian flooring, in aquamarine green, forest green and wheat yellow, a gesture that recovers, through other means, something of the craftsmanship these houses once had.

The living room is organised around a custom-designed oak boiserie, with grain that changes direction on each panel, and a lightened low unit beneath slim bronzed metal shelves. Facing it, an ochre-toned sofa and a terracotta armchair set the mood with a warm palette that the Nabila lamp by Corrado Dotti, hung at just the right height, underlines. The kitchen extends that language with a linear oak composition, a worktop and splashback in the same green marble as the frames, and upper cabinets in fluted glass that visually lighten the volume of the units. Sliding doors allow it to be fully closed off or joined to the living room, and the whole opens onto a terrace over the garden that in summer functions as an extension of the interior.

A more intimate night zone

Changing floors changes the material and the atmosphere of the spaces. Oak parquet laid in Italian herringbone replaces the terrazzo and announces a more intimate night zone. The first room, beneath a powder-coloured vault, works as a night living room and children’s play area, a hinge space resolved, custom-made, with the same logic as the rest of the house. The main bedroom is announced by an oak-clad vestibule that leads to the en-suite bathroom, where a vertical fluted glass filters natural light into the interior and, towards the bedroom, becomes part of a boiserie of mirrored, powder-coloured panels. The children’s room closes the route beneath two vaults painted a soft green, echoing directly the green that opens the house at the entrance.

The building’s age, the argument for the intervention

That use of colour as a connecting thread —green at the entrance, ochres and terracottas in the day zone, powder tones in the night zone— is perhaps the project’s most eloquent decision. In-Nova Studio does not restore the apartment as one would preserve a museum piece, nor does it erase it to start from zero; it inhabits it anew, letting the building’s memory —its height, its vaults, its load-bearing walls— set the rules, and letting colour and contemporary furniture respond to them. The result is a house that turns its age into the argument of the intervention carried out by the architects who restored it.

Furniture and Lighting

Furniture: Kartell Undique Mas side table by Patricia Urquiola, Kartell Cara armchair by Philippe Starck, Kartell Green-a floor lamp, Kartell All Saints mirror, Kartell Shanghai vase, Kartell Ai chairs, Miniforms Barry table, Miniforms Lillotable, Miniforms Claretta chairs, Xartedesign Plugin sofa, Novamobili Fjord sideboard, Westwing Calary console, Movi sliding doors, Cesar Intarsio kitchen, Calia Italia Daisy sofa and pouf, Twils bed, Westwing Corin bedroom rug, Pols Potten vases, Kave Home Maurina outdoor table and chairs.

Lighting: Tooy Nabila, FontanaArte Pangen, Flos Taccia and Bellhop, Davide Groppi Moon, &Tradition Formakami, Westwing Luoma.

Project: Elia’s Home.
Location: Aversa (CE), Italia.
Type: Reforma de vivienda.
Area: 280 m².
Completed: 2026.
Interior Architecture: In-Nova Studio.
Photography: Carlo Oriente.
Contractor: D.edil.
Carpentry: Barra Falegnami.
Supplies: Esagono.
Parquet: Italparchetti.
Terrazzo: Mipa Design.
Source: In-Nova Studio.

In-Nova Studio

In-Nova Studio was born in 2016 in the heart of Naples, beside the monumental complex of Santa Maria la Nova, from the meeting of three young architects: Marcello Ferrara, Martina Russo and Riccardo Teo. Trained and seasoned in international practices, they decide to return to their city to respond, from there, to the questions contemporary society poses to the architect.

Over the years, the studio grows through private commissions published in magazines such as AD, The Plan and Platform, and is recognised with international awards: the 2018 edition of Ecoluoghi, the NIB 2018 Award —among the ten best Italian studios under 36—, the Big See Interior Design Award 2019, its inclusion among the 50 best studios in Italy under 40 according to Platform in 2020, and the Special Mention at the Inarch 2023 Award.

In-Nova Studio pursues a solution of its own for every project: it experiments with materials and technologies, and attends both to the resources of the territory and to the needs of each client. Its work spans interior design, restoration and architectural and urban projects, from a critical, multidisciplinary outlook that understands architecture as a responsibility: sustainable, attentive to the environment, to public space and to historical context, capable of shaping dynamic, shifting spaces to meet the challenges of the future.

Marcello Ferrara

He trains at the Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, where he earns his Laurea Magistrale in Architecture and Building Engineering (2006-2012, final mark 108), and completes his studies at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Lyon. He builds his early professional career in Paris, at practices such as Architecture-Studio, Reset Studio, H2O Architectes and 2Portzamparc Architectes. In 2016 he returns to Naples and founds In-Nova Studio, together with his two partners.

Martina Russo

She trains at the Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, where she earns her Laurea Magistrale in Architecture (2006-2014) with a thesis on a technical training centre for raw earth construction in Marrakech. She begins her professional career in Paris, at the practices Loci Anima and TVAA — Thierry Van de Wyngaert, and continues it as an independent professional in Naples. In 2016 she founds In-Nova Studio, together with her two partners.

Riccardo Teo

He trains at the Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, where he earns his Laurea Magistrale in Architecture (2007-2013). He works as an architect at Archea Associati. In 2016 he founds In-Nova Studio, together with his two partners.

Project by In-Nova Studio