Fluidity in Design

Project: House by the Bailucchi, Genoa, Italy Architects: llabb, Genoa, Italy Designed by the young studio llabb, this apartment for a young couple reflects the dynamics of contemporary art intertwined with everyday life

- Anna Positano, Gaia Cambiaggi

Located on the highest hill in the historic centre of Genoa, right where the first stronghold was established, the House by the Bailucchi is a renovated apartment for a young couple, designed by Luca Scardulla and Federico Robbiano of studio llabb. The house reflects the lively cultural heritage of the city and the eclectic tastes of the couple—he, a music lover of Italian origin who grew up in France and now owns a gallery in Berlin, and she, of Sicilian origin and now a freelance graphic designer working between Barcelona and London. Flooded with light reflected from the sea, the apartment fits into the intimacy of the neighbourhood and opens up to views of the large machinery in the commercial port that it overlooks.

The port of Genoa has always been a crossroads not only of goods, but most importantly of people and cultures. The Genoese word ‘bailucchi’ defines a specific hook used by the cranes at the port. The hooks are composed of two claws, which by means of a central traction tighten the load to lift it. After all, ‘bailucchi’ is a distortion of the English words “by hooks”, and it sums up the history of Genoese culture made up of port life, labour, meeting places and linguistic thefts. A culture of exchange and creative contamination that, say Scardulla and Robbiano, underlines the projects of the young Genoese studio llabb.