Tucked away in the quiet backstreets behind Piazza Navona, this historic building houses our client’s apartment on the first floor. The small windows and proximity of the buildings opposite keep the rooms cool but limit light. This, combined with the fact that we were not permitted to connect any structure to the vaulted ceiling, led us to design all internal walls at 2.8m high – just short of the ceiling. In this way, light could pass over the walls and filter deep into the apartment’s inner rooms. The visual effect of this is also to accentuate the modernity of the new installation in contrast to the rustic ceiling and uneven exterior walls. All walls appear to float off the new Pietra Serena stone floor.