a journey into people’s rooms

Hello,,,

My name is Giulia Golla Tunno, my purpose in this blog is to lead you through a journey into people’s rooms: when we furnish, colour and personalize a space that is ours we make an act of design. We don’t need expensive brands or famous architects in order to create a room where we can feel at home, where we can create a pleasant atmosphere.

Even if it’s not on purpose, by the minute we live, sleep, study, work etc. in a place we give to that “empty box” something very personal, intimate, delicate. I will try to portray rooms of people of all ages, professions, personalities in order to show how they express themselves through their room…can we see your bedroom as your very first design artwork?!

I’ve chosen bedrooms (and not kitchens, living rooms or bathrooms)  because it’s a place where you can create your perfect habitat, your microcosm, a shell where you can hide from the real world…. The photographs will be taken in the morning when the room has a very natural and untouched atmosphere, the key element being the “letto sfatto” , the mess or tidiness of the room  will depict a charachteristic of the owner.

A second shot will picture the room and the owner followed by a few comments of what they think their room represents for them.

I hope this idea will be successful….I also hope that the quality of the pictures I will take won’t be too bad, they won’t be taken professionally, i’m not a photographer and (unfortunately..) I’ve never studied photography, i’m just an economics student (!!) therefore the photographs will be very simple and naive as the ones anyone could take,,, nonetheless i will put all my effert into this project 🙂 

Hope you enjoy your visit…

and…..Design?!

Dear readears, all this was born with the idea of a blog about design, but you might ask yourself where is design?? This blog talks about everyday life and objects, it doesn’t display great designers works, this is not the purpose.

However, many great designers, when creating something are inspired by normal people, who are in fact the final beneficiaries of those creations. For example the famous architect and designer Ettore Sottsass has always designed his objects and buildings with a symbolic and intimate meaning.

“inseguivo la commozione, cercavo un rapporto fra l’architettura e la vita, perché penso che l’architettura sia il disegno di un luogo da abitare, e non da guardare, come la gran parte delle architetture che si fanno adesso”.

“Io sono più interessato a problemi intimistici, minori, ad esempio che cos’è un’architettura intorno al corpo della gente, intorno alle tristezze, alle paure della gente piuttosto che architettura come spettacolo gigantesco e impressionante”

Sottsass is not interested in useless and beautiful design, design is not just the aesthetic of an object, he is concerned with the design for people.

 ” Ci sono stati momenti, rari, nei quali il design zitto zitto sentiva questa responsabilità verso il pubblico, verso la società. Roberto Olivetti sentiva questa responsabilità. Sentiva che l’industria aveva questa responsabilità morale e lavorava con ingegneri, urbanisti, architetti e designer, perché pensava che l’industria potesse fare qualcosa di più che produrre. Pensava che fosse importante avere immaginazione. “

Giuseppe’s bedroom #

This is Giuseppe’s room. He is 73 and is retired he lives alone in a small apartment with a mansard in the Ligurian hinterland. Since he has a serious eyesight problem (he’s almost blind) he doesn’t go out often. His house is very simple and essential because he needs to have everything at hand, especially if it’s dark he can’t recognise  objects. His room has only a small window and there’s few furnitures: in the middle of the room you can see his iron wrought bed,decorated with a blue ceramic rosary he hung on the bedhead. On the side he has a stereo, he loves listening to music and being unable to reed or watch tv music is vital for him. Giuseppe lives in an old house and being alone with a very small  pension he doesn’t even have central heating, he only has a wood burning stove. Despite all the difficulties he went through in his life, he’s a very vital and positive person, here you can see him preparing his breakfast.

Elio’s bedroom #

This is Elio’s room. He’s 64 and is a train conductor, he lives in the countryside of Ligura, in an old house surrounded by nature. He has a vegetable garden that he likes to  cultivate and he also has 3 hens and a lame rooster 🙂 His house is a typical country- house, the furnitures are old and simple. His room is very messy and chaotic also because he hates to throw useless things away (I think it’s typical of untidy people being unable to part from old objects).  His bed has thousands of covers with completely different patterns, but all together they look great, as a sort of patchwork. The room is almost completely furnished with dark brown wood, from the parqué flooring to the cupboards and bed. This gives a very warm and old-fashioned atmosphere, typical of old country houses. And here is Elio, having breakfast in his lovely kitchen.

Jacopo’s bedroom #

This is Jocopo’s bedroom.  He’s 20 and studies at university foreign languages. He lives in Rho (near Milan) with his parents, older brother and grandmother. He also works for a local newspaper since he’s really good at writing and wants to become a journalist (maybe..). This is not really his room, it’s a sort of living room on the first floor of his house,  since her grandma sleeps in his room, he moved here 5 years ago. Even though it’s a long time that  it  has become his room, this space doesn’t seem an “official bedroom” and has a very temporary appearence. He doesn’t mind sleeping here, he doesn’t spend much time here anyway, he only sleeps and reeds. Here we have Jacopo, he’s not always as serious and melancholic as in this picture though ; ) 

 

 

 

Alessandra’s bedroom #

This is Alessandra’s room. She’s a cute 20year old girl who lives in Milan with her family, she studies Foreign Languages and Literatures in Università Statale. She loves music, travelling and she’s really good at drawing. She shares her room with her sister Daniela, who is 2 years younger, they love each other but they sometimes fight, Alessandra claims that she’s always the one who cleans up the room!! Ale’s side of the room is completely covered by posters (mostly music posters but also paintings and other random stuff), the shelf above her bed is so overloaded with books, cds etc. that she fears one day it will fall on her head while sleeping. Alex spends a lot of time in her room, on the computer, playing guitar, reading, eating…when she’s at home she’s practically always there! She would like to paint the room walls in a different colour but her father has never permitted her, he says it doesn’t let the light come in! Anyway I don’t think that she and her sister would agree on a colour 🙂

Annamaria’s bedroom #

This is Annamaria’s room. She’s an artist who lives in Albissola Marina, a town on the seaside near Savona, she mainly works with ceramics also because in Albissola there’s a great pottery tradition. She lives by herself in a tiny apartment in a characteristic “carruggio” in the centre. Her room is quite small and has an ancient window that connects it with the living room. Since she’s a very active person she doesn’t spend much time in her room and that’s why the room it’s also quite bare, she chose to decorate other parts of the house instead. However the entire house is quite simply decorated and all in blue and white shades. In the same building where her apartment is, there’s also her little laboratory where she has a ceramic oven and all the objects and materials she uses for her work; she is really good at doing artistic portraits and everyday objects such as gloves, puppets  etc (www.annamatola.com ). And this is her having a coffee in the morning.

Albina’s bedroom #

This is Albina’s room. Or, to be more accurate, it’s Albina’s and Martino’s room (her cat!). Albina is 87 and lives in small town near the Lake Maggiore; since she became a widow she lives alone in an apartment, but in the same building where she lives, live also most of her relatives and friends, so she’s got always a visitor coming.  However  she never ever wants to go out of her house, not even to go to her neighbours, or to the doctor. Since she has friends, two daughters and four grandchildren she is never left alone! And she also has her cat Martino, who is 10 years old but looks very young, like Albina, he hates to go out because he’s afraid of other cats, he loves to stay in her bed, aspecially under clean sheets 🙂 Albina doesn’t spend much time in her room, but she’s very affectionate of the old objects and furnitures that are in her room. She would never change anything in this room since it has been this way for nearly all of her life. And this is Albina on her rocking chair, isn’t she adorable?!

Simone’s bedroom #

This is Simone’s room. He’s 20 and studies economics in Bocconi, he comes from Imperia and moved to Milan to attend university. He’s a very brilliant guy, passionate in journalism, literature and art. He lives in the Navigli area with his flatmate Andrea, with whom he shares this spacious and lively room. Consisting the 80% of the area of the apartment this room is vital for Simone, he often invites friends for dinners and parties, and this is the room where everyone can stay! The room-walls are full of posters (some really cool!) or drawings (above his bed there’s Simone caricature!).  Simone decorated it with the photos,pictures and cards he finds in the city or that he collectected in his travel. Every guest can add post-it note with his message, a sort of colourful guestbook 🙂 and this is him brushing his teeth in the morning!
 

 

 

 

 

Nadia&Federico’s bedroom #

This is Nadia & Federico’s rooom. They have been married for 17 years, they have two children and  live near Milan. Federico is 53 years old and works as a manager for a multinational company, he travels a lot and when he’s in Milan he comes home only late in the evening. He enjoys his room mostly in the weekend, when he can relax reading a book or the newspaper in bed. Nadia is 57, she’s a medical doctor but she retired, therefore she has now lots of free time, in which she volunteers and dedicated herself to her hobbies. She likes to spend time in her room reading, studying, making phone calls or any other thing. She likes the fact that the room is very bright( because of a large window) and has warm colours: the parquet flooring and the light green go very well together. The room is quite formal but at the same time cosy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Federico and Nadia have very different personalities and they have both contributed into the style and character of the room, to portray they’re different life-styles I may show you they’re bedside table: Nadia’s confusing one ans Federico’s very tidy bedside table. And underneath you can see the  two owners of this room:

Paolo’s bedroom #

This is Paolo’s room. He’s a dreamy 20 year old student who lives in Laveno, a small charming town on the Lake Maggiore, with his family. This is his tiny room that was added in the apartment when he was 6 (before he had shared a room with his two older sisters). The room is really narrow and Paolo has to keep it tidy otherwise there wouldn’t be enough space. Nonetheless this room has a lot of character because he has accumulated a lot of interesting posters, pictures, cards etc from his various life-stages: from satanic devils to cute cats 🙂  Paolo spends a lot of time in his room and, especially when he was younger, this was the most important place in the house, his little nest.  He used to study in a small desk that is at the end of the bed but now it has become too crowded: in fact he has millions of cds on it!!! In his room he loves listening to music (and he always listens to it!!) and reading books and music magazines. On the bed you can see at least 6 different covers (!!) because he likes to feel warm while asleep.