Deniz Önel

Part of Sky-Line · Process ·

Making it

The long room stripped back, the slanting window wall on the left and the roof beams overhead

Sky-Line took six months on site, from June to December 2024, and these are the photographs we took along the way: two flats taken back to their walls, the drawings and the samples, the workshops where the joinery and the metal were made, the library going up piece by piece, the marble and the onyx arriving.

Guarducci ran the works; SM Falegnameria, D’Aleo and Massimo Cecconi made what was drawn, and Comet lit it. The pairs below show a few of those places then and now.

Specified

Before and after

Before

The window wall before the room was built around it, the city beyond

After

The round table on the blue rug, the bust on its plinth

Dining and the window wall →

Before

The patterned wallpaper going up under the roof beams

After

Chesterfield sofas and a tufted ottoman against the patterned wall

The Open Space →

Before

The bedroom's velvet wallpaper, one wall hung, the ladder still up

After

The bedroom after dark, the bedside lamps alight

Master bedroom →

Before

The library standing and lit for the first time, a ladder still against it

After

The library seen down the length of the living room

The library →

June–July 2024

Taking it back

Measuring up in the stripped room under the roof beams
Steel framing rising beside the window wall, the river front beyond
Floors up and cables everywhere
The length of the apartment, walls opened and services hanging
Rubble below a pair of French windows
The demolition heaped in the middle of the room

July–September 2024

Drawing and choosing

Two marbles side by side, a hand for scale
A brass sample laid on dark veined marble
A study in 3D of the built-in joinery
A line study of built-in cabinetry
An onyx slab standing at the stone yard
The library in elevation, first version
The library in elevation, second version
Onyx, bronze and wood laid together
Two wood finishes compared

October–November 2024

In the workshops

Metal profiles for the library laid out on the workshop floor
Matteo Pieri of Borzalino and a colleague checking an upright of the library
Matteo Pieri, Borzalino
An upright with its light channel, held for inspection
The kitchen island taking shape in the workshop
Upholstered wall panels, ready to go
Frames for a joinery piece on the bench
A dark wood frame assembled on the bench
A black stone top being prepared
The kitchen island complete in the workshop, still in its film
Bronze cladding for a column, checked by hand
Bronze trims waiting on the bench

November–December 2024

The library

The first lit bays of the library, at night
Bronze, light and shelf: one bay of the library
Assembling the base of the library in the living room
Wiring the lights into a bronze upright
The library filling out, the Duomo in the window
Fitting the last pieces by the window
The library lit against the dusk
Evening along the library, the city through the glass
The library finished, still in its protective tape

October–December 2024

Marble

The bathroom with the Duomo view: marble up, the bath platform waiting
Violet-veined marble covering a bathroom wall
Douglas Atkin and Deniz Önel in front of the new marble
Douglas Atkin and Deniz Önel
“D&D were here”, written into the fresh plaster among the footprints
The vanity shelf in dark marble, notes taped to the wall
The gold basin set on the dark marble
A brushed-brass tap out of its packaging
The round mirror above the gold basin
The bathroom seen through a doorway in the wood panelling
The master bathroom nearly finished

November–December 2024

Onyx, wood and paper

Simone D'Aleo, left, and the team assembling the kitchen island
Simone D'Aleo, left
Stefano Duradoni of SM Falegnameria among the wardrobes
Stefano Duradoni, SM Falegnameria
An onyx slab, its bands standing upright
Hanging the branch-pattern wallpaper
A copper sheet taking on its green patina
Cladding the island in onyx
Fitting the office panelling, the marble bathroom beyond the doorway
Deniz Önel on site
Deniz Önel
The onyx island clad and still wrapped
Along the onyx top towards the library
An onyx corner, the bands meeting
The copper globes unpacked on the floor

December 2024

Nearly there

The Duomo and Palazzo Vecchio framed at sunset
A brass chandelier waiting on a table by the window
The copper globes lit over the marble table, the library beyond
Christmas Day: the living room finished, the Duomo in the window

More process

The barn floor during the works, the stair standing in raw concrete between the brick piers

Making it

in Il Fienile

Process →