This Minimal Apartment in Positano Is Inspired by the Colors of the Sea

The town of Positano, overlooking a cobalt blue sea and warmed by the sun, has often been called the pearl of the Amalfi Coast. This minimal apartment, created by the young designers of the architecture and design studio AtPiuC, is on this enchanting strip of coastline. The magical 1,300-square-foot apartment is infused with an unmistakable Mediterranean style thanks to a palette of colors typical of this corner of Italy.

Natural materials and pieces in navy—including many with navy-and-white stripes—provide a decidedly nautical feel to the team’s design. The same palette is continued in the many blue ceramic tiles with their diversity of textural effects. The apartment embodies a joyful Mediterranean style, an especially beloved and sought-after look, especially in seaside European holiday homes. It’s especially fitting for an apartment in one of the prime locations on the Amalfi Coast. It was “an old family home,” the partners at AtPiuC explain, “located in the upper and panoramic part of the village of Positano. It has been transformed through an intervention that highlights the spirit of this particular place through the use of contemporary materials and colors typical of the area: the yellow of the sun and the charming lemon groves located on the terraces of Amalfi; the blue of the sea and the sky; and, finally, the snow-white houses typical of the village.”

Inside the apartment there is a clean and minimal environment in which the color white dominates. It is seen both outside on the walls of the historic building and inside, on the white walls and the continuous white microcement floor. This monochromatic backdrop provides a canvas for the contrasting elements in blue and other colors. The architects say the effect echoes the “the play of light and color found in the landscapes of Amalfi.”

The blue bathroom located inside one of the two suites is designed to combine the traditional materials of the Amalfi Coast, such as Vietri ceramics, and more novel innovations like a resin epoxy. “The result is a design grounded in a contemporary language,” AtPiuC’s architects explain. In another room, the sea view has guided the design with a prominent white volume embracing a window with a black iron frame grafted into the interior of the large vaulted-ceiling room. The black bed, placed in the center of the room and facing the sea, “seems to float atop a microcement floor which incorporates Vietri ceramic tiles.”