Why attics hold such an irresistible allure in the world of living spaces
This attic renovation project transforms a technical space—originally designed to insulate and protect the roof of the house below—into an attic suspended between sky and sea.
An attic is a living space located under a sloping roof. This type of dwelling has always evoked a sense of protection, as if the roof itself were embracing those who live there, creating a sort of nest. The inclination of the roof not only defines the character of the environment but plays a fundamental role in the balance between light and shadow. Windows of unconventional shapes and sizes paint the light, transforming every moment of the day into a luminous, almost meditative experience.
Attics have always had a particular allure. Perhaps this fascination stems from literary and artistic references that, over time, have shaped the collective imagination of this unique living space.
Painted attics
Attics have often been depicted in art—especially in painting—as spaces rich in symbolism linked to poverty, intimacy, isolation, creativity, and dreams. Many of the slightly shabby interiors painted by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, one of the most famous Post-Impressionist masters, show modest Parisian homes, often in artists’ neighborhoods like Montmartre, where attics were the typical homes of struggling painters and writers. His works evoke bohemian atmospheres characterized by precariousness but also by creative freedom.
Cinema on the rooftops
Cinema, too, has fallen under the spell of these magnificent spaces. Three iconic examples:
In Disney’s animated film The Aristocats (1970), the family of cats, after returning to the city with the help of alley cat Thomas O’Malley, takes refuge in an attic, where romantic scenes unfold between Duchess and Thomas on the rooftops of Paris. One of the film’s most memorable sequences takes place here, during the musical number “Everybody Wants to Be a Cat,” where the attic transforms into a lively jazz club with a jam session led by Scat Cat.
The perspective on the city in Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire (1987), where rooftops become places of observation, reflection, and suspension between heaven and earth.
Baz Luhrmann’s dazzling Moulin Rouge! (2001), set in bohemian Paris, draws on the attic’s poetic imagery as a space of passion and creativity.
“Una vecchia soffitta vicino al mare”
Music has also helped reinforce the attic’s symbolic power of intimacy, dreams, solitude, and creativity. Gino Paoli perhaps wrote the most iconic italian song connected to the attic’s imagery: La Gatta (1960). That space above becomes a symbol of youth, simplicity, and lost happiness. Here, the attic is a place of freedom, love, and carefree joy, contrasting with a more comfortable but less happy present.
The famous opening lines of La Gatta:
“C’era una volta una gatta
che aveva una macchia nera sul muso
e una vecchia soffitta vicino al mare
con una finestra a un passo dal cielo blu…”
The image of an attic by the sea, with a window facing the sky, has thus entered the collective imagination as one of the most poetic representations of attic living.
The attic as a mental space
The attraction to attic living has even deeper roots, blending psychological, symbolic, and aesthetic elements. An attic is perceived as a refuge—a cozy, protected space, almost separate from the rest of the home and the outside world. The sloping ceiling and smaller windows create a sense of a “nest” that fosters warmth and security. The elevated view turns the landscape below into something picturesque and poetic. This distance becomes not just physical, but psychological too—a perception of detachment from hectic daily life: you are “above” the world, away from the noise, closer to the sky. The attic becomes a mental, personal, and intimate space.
The nostalgia of the nest
For many, the attic was the place of childhood games, of discovering old objects, of afternoons spent exploring. The slanted ceiling was like the first fort made with a blanket. This emotional connection resurfaces in adulthood as nostalgia and the desire to recreate that atmosphere.
The ambivalence of an imperfect space
Although attics were once poor, unrefined spaces, today—thanks to design—they have been transformed into charming lofts that blend vintage and modern styles. It must be said that the allure of the attic often coexists with practical inconveniences: low ceilings, heat in summer and cold in winter, awkward spaces to furnish. Yet it is precisely this ambivalence between beauty and discomfort that fuels the attic’s appeal: an imperfect, unconventional space where you can truly create something of your own.
A project for a space protected from the everyday
This renovated attic has become a place of refuge: a barrier against bad weather, but also an embrace that contains family life within a cozy space. The heart of the project lies in the attic’s ability to welcome everyday life while offering a sense of intimacy and security.
The attic volume visually detaches from the building below by adopting the earthy color of the terracotta roof tiles. The external staircase, set between white walls, accentuates the feeling of detachment from the surrounding space, leading up to a small balcony where the entrance door opens. From here, the last view of the outside world is the limestone rock wall framing the house’s foundation and a small forest of agave plants.
The entrance functions as a decompression chamber from the outside world: a place to shed the heavy layers of outdoor life—coats, shoes, accessories—into wardrobes, drawers, containers, and hooks. Hidden inside one of the wardrobes, almost symbolically, are the washing machine and cleaning tools.
Next comes a gallery of books, a kind of tunnel washing away anxious daily thoughts, with your gaze fixed on the sky beyond the desk window.
Crossing an ideal threshold, marked by colorful mobiles and cascading plants, the disconnection from the outside world becomes complete: you reach the heart of the attic, suspended between sky and sea.
Most of the windows face north, overlooking the sea: from the living room and bedroom, all you see is water and sky.
Only the children’s room welcomes the warm midday light.
A process of “self-design”
Originally conceived as a summer home for one person, this attic became the place where a couple formed and a family grew. Many parts of the home existed first only as plans on paper, before coming to life through a process of “self-design”.
For example, the bookcase and desk were based on precise drawings we prepared on request, then “interpreted” by the owners themselves using raw wooden boards selected and treated one by one.
The same process shaped the customized Ikea kitchen.
“The house must be made by those who live in it”
The project’s role was to maximize the potential of the existing elements, working with the site’s constraints and the clients’ needs—an approach that is a hallmark of our way of designing. The project evolved gradually over time, adapting to the changes in the inhabitants’ lives, measuring them, and modifying the space accordingly. We like to think we put into practice what one of the architects we admire, Vico Magistretti, once said:
“The house must be made by those who live in it. My job, in this perspective, is not so much to propose furnishing solutions, but to remind those who seek my collaboration of the deep structure of their relationship with the space they wish to create around themselves. I merely suggest a framework, a kind of structure in which functions can develop and articulate.”
This attic between sky and sea is not just a physical place—it is the container of an entire life experience, where designing the environment coincides with building family bonds, daily life, and memories.
Behind Riusourbano
Every article you read here comes from real design experiences. We are architects at Architetti Gianuario Ustica, and through Riusourbano we share our way of living, thinking, and transforming spaces. If you have an idea in mind, or a place you’d like to change, we’re ready to listen.
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