On the top floor of a historic building in Bolzano, a residential project is taking shape, interpreting contemporary living with restraint, culture, and a keen focus on day-to-day life.
This newly renovated apartment is spacious and bright, benefiting from dual aspects: the bedroom area opens onto a quiet, secluded internal courtyard, while the living space overlooks a tree-lined avenue through large windows and a small terrace that graces the 19th Century façade.
The home belongs to a couple of South Tyrolean entrepreneurs from the wine industry, united by an authentic passion for cooking. In reimagining the spaces of this family residence, the brief to the designers was clear: functionality, simplicity and elegance. Most importantly, they required a spacious, high-performance kitchen capable of maintaining an open dialogue with the living room. “Our passion for cooking is second only to our passion for wine”, they explain.
The designers met these specific requirements through a fluid yet precisely calibrated distribution of space. Two low arches without doors create a direct link between the kitchen, the dining area and the living room, defining an open-plan layout where each area retains its own identity. This strong, recognisable architectural element connects the rooms while keeping them distinct.
The formal inspiration draws from the elegance of the Art Deco period, reinterpreted with a contemporary twist: the mouldings adorning the ceiling, the light oak herringbone parquet floor, and the mahogany-clad archways create a coherent ensemble that is refined but never ostentatious. The selection of furniture echoing 20th Century style completes the architects’ stylistic vision, noted for its ‘silent elegance’.
At the centre of the space stands the bespoke Abimis kitchen, crafted entirely from stainless steel. A stainless steel peninsula kitchen from the Atelier line, orbitally polished by hand, defines the operational area and becomes the true focal point of the room. A polished mirror-finish stainless steel wall-mounted side panel amplifies the natural light streaming in from the windows, reflecting the space and visually lightening the volume of the kitchen.
The worktop houses a flush-mounted induction hob system with a hood integrated into the worktop, and a stainless steel sink: solutions that are reminiscent of the professional world while fitting perfectly into a domestic setting. Beneath the worktop, the oven and a series of storage units organise the space effectively and efficiently.
Like all professionally derived kitchens by Abimis, this Atelier peninsula kitchen stands out for its structural solidity, ergonomic workspaces and attention to functional detail: seamless surfaces, ease of cleaning and materials designed to withstand intensive use. It is a kitchen conceived as a genuine ‘cooking machine’, yet one that harmonises beautifully with the home’s styling.
Open to the living room, this Abimis stainless steel kitchen also becomes a favoured meeting place. The generous peninsula provides ample space used not only for cooking but also as a preparation area, a cocktail bar, and a social hub during the dinners and parties the owners enjoy hosting for friends and family. In this context, the monobloc kitchen appears almost like a neutral and elegant minimalist stainless steel sculpture, adapting naturally to the architectural language of the home.
When required, however, it reveals its full professional soul, allowing the hosts to express their passion for fine food with reliable, high-performance tools. It is precisely this balance between form and function that makes the Abimis kitchen an integral part of day-to-day life rather than a mere piece of furniture.
On the wall, a wall-mounted cabinet in a high gloss, vibrant cherry-red lacquer introduces a bold chromatic note that reflects off the stainless steel and livens up the room’s pale hues. Between the windows, a minimalist and almost invisible open-fronted aluminium bookcase ensures that the books themselves – a vibrant collage of colours – take centre stage.
Here, every detail tells the story of the couple’s character and the way the home is lived: a cultured yet informal space where the kitchen is not separate from domestic life but constitutes its beating heart. It is a project where refined style, the warmth of home, and the performance of an Abimis kitchen come together.