The city of Rome is as vast and sprawling as it is ancient. And while the centre may feel like a living archaeological museum, once you move outward, the urban fabric shifts into a patchwork of modern housing blocks, Fascist Era monuments and lesser-known deposits of crumbling Roman ruins. Equidistant from the historic centre and the Lazio coastline is the small suburb of Tor de’ Cenci, a green lung on the metropolis’s southern periphery. It’s here, far from the hectic heart of the Italian capital, that a Sicily-born couple who work as a criminal lawyer and a financial consultant chose to set down roots in a 1980s apartment building.

After discovering the Rome-based firm StudioTamat — made up of Tommaso Amato, Matteo Soddu and Valentina Paiola — on social media, the pair tasked them with reviving the 120-square-metre space, once defined by lifeless white tile floors and bulky built-in wardrobes. “The transformation of the apartment balances angular geometries and curved shapes within large open spaces,” says Amato, who demolished the home’s tired finishes to reveal its rough concrete bones. “We could call it modern brutalism, given the presence of raw reinforced concrete pillars and natural, textured materials such as terracotta, marble, iron and wood.”

According to Amato, incorporating natural materials such as these was high on the client’s priority list. In the kitchen, they turned up in the form of a multi-functional 2.5-by-2.6-by-2.0-metre pale birch storage system that hides a pantry, wardrobe and TV unit. The hulking cuboid volume acts as a foil to the room’s oval central island. “The island was designed with a curved shape to contrast with the angular architecture of the building,” he says. “It was made of masonry, then covered with rough terracotta tiles, while the horizontal surface is made of Patagonia marble with a contrasting glossy finish.” The same dramatically patterned stone was used as a backsplash along the rear wall, where it is framed by flat-fronted white cabinetry for a crisp look.

The kitchen’s custom furniture was also envisioned as a play of shapes. “The dining table was designed as the architectural synthesis of the entire apartment project,” explains Amato. “The angular form of the cross-shaped iron leg is reminiscent of the concrete pillars and beams, while the glossy cylindrical ceramic leg recalls the sinuous kitchen island.” StudioTamat then topped the table with a shou sugi ban burnt oak wood plank, which, they say, increased the wood’s resistance and, similar to the apartment’s stripped-back aesthetic, “accentuated its natural veins and imperfections.”