The House on Via dello Sprone

On Via dello Sprone in the Oltrarno stands a house designed by Giovanni Michelucci. This building of modern forms, near Ponte Vecchio and Piazza Pitti, followed the destruction of everything previously on the site by the German army in the final months of the Second World War. Michelucci designed it in 1954 for the INA company, arranging it in an L shape around an internal courtyard. The building contains apartments, with shops on the ground floor. These help explain Michelucci’s architectural spirit. The café, for example, occupies around 220 square metres on two connected levels, with elegant tones and a restrained aesthetic dominated by wood, marble and concrete, typical of the post-war years. Although the present furnishings take inspiration from the 1950s and Michelucci’s rationalist architecture, the refurbishment preserved the pre-existing, large, light-filled windows. At the entrance, a console table, probably made by Michelucci himself, has been put to another use. Clad in pietra forte, a typically Florentine stone, the house on Via dello Sprone is a particularly successful example of modern architecture integrated into a historic setting.