The architecture
of quietrooms.

A Milan architecture and interior practice working on houses, retail, and small cultural buildings in Europe since 2009.

Index

Fifty-two completed projects across nine countries.

Current

House in Umbria, in model. Café in Antwerp, under construction. Gallery renovation, London.

Office

Via San Vittore 36, Milano 20123, Italy

Issue №14 Milan · Antwerp · London Est. 2009 SIA / RIBA / BdA
A quiet modernist living room, late-afternoon light through linen curtains
Plate I Casa Vetro · Living hall, late September. Studio reference image. Perugia, 2024
Position
We design small, deliberate buildings. We measure success in decades, not quarters. We work with the kind of client who reads every drawing and keeps the model on their desk.

Selected work

Index · 06 of 52
01 / 2024
Casa Vetro living room with travertine walls and south-facing study

Casa Vetro — Perugia

Private house for a family of five. Three courtyards, one chimney, and a south-facing study walled in travertine.

Year2024
Area420 m²
RoleLead Architect
StatusCompleted
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02 / 2023
A library with linear shelves and warm tungsten light

Library on the Water — Zürich

Small public reading room beside the Limmat. Oak, lime plaster, and a 14-metre reading table lit from above.

Year2023
Area280 m²
RoleArchitect of Record
StatusIn Use
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03 / 2023
Minimal retail interior with white plaster walls

Rue des Petits-Carmes — Brussels

Flagship retail interior for a Belgian leather atelier. One room, one counter, two long benches, and a ceiling painted the colour of old paper.

Year2023
Area110 m²
RoleInterior Lead
StatusCompleted
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04 / 2022
Chapel-like gallery space with concrete walls

Gallery Nordeste — Lisbon

Conversion of a 19th-century carpenter's workshop into a two-room contemporary art gallery. We kept the roof trusses; we added nothing we could not remove in a day.

Year2022
Area190 m²
RoleLead Architect
StatusCompleted
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05 / 2021
Stone house in the countryside

Casa Olmo — Umbria

A stone farmhouse rebuilt for a book collector. Two storeys of library, a long kitchen table, and one window that frames exactly one elm.

Year2021
Area560 m²
RoleArchitect
StatusCompleted
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06 / 2020
Minimal cafe interior with a stone counter and warm pendant light

Café Augustin — Antwerp

A twelve-seat coffee room with a counter cut from a single slab of Belgian bluestone. We designed the stools, the shelf system, and the paper menu.

Year2020
Area58 m²
RoleInterior Lead
StatusIn Use
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What we do, in order.

Six services, offered as separate contracts or as a single integrated commission. We work with developers, private clients, cultural institutions, and small brands who care about rooms more than renderings.

  1. i

    Private houses

    From a one-bedroom alteration to a complete new-build on a difficult site. We draw every detail ourselves.

  2. ii

    Interiors & renovation

    Full interior architecture for apartments, offices, and small retail. Usually furniture, lighting, and millwork included.

  3. iii

    Cultural buildings

    Galleries, reading rooms, chapels, and the occasional museum extension. We think slowly.

  4. iv

    Hospitality

    Small restaurants, cafés, and boutique hotels. We treat the napkin and the staircase as the same project.

  5. v

    Retail & brand spaces

    Flagship stores, showrooms, pop-ups. Usually in collaboration with the client's graphic designer.

  6. vi

    Furniture & objects

    Low-volume editions in bronze, oak, and marble. Sold by our Milan workshop under the Oggetti Aureus imprint.

The studio

Twelve people, one long room, and a courtyard full of plaster models.

Aureus was founded in 2009 by Giulia Marcanti and Pietro Donà after seven years with Studio Albini and Vogt Landschaftsarchitekten. We practise together, draw together, and keep every project model on the central table until the day the keys change hands.

We don't take more than seven commissions a year. We don't publish renderings. We don't bid against other studios. Every project is the whole studio's project.

— Giulia Marcanti & Pietro Donà
Interior of a long bright architecture studio with drafting tables, scale models, and a central courtyard view
Studio, Milano Via San Vittore 36. 180 m² plus courtyard. Monday to Thursday.

Press & publications

Recent

Write to us.

Enquiriesstudio@aureus.studio
Telephone+39 02 5123 4567
Office

Via San Vittore 36 · Milano 20123 · Italy

Press & speakingpress@aureus.studio