Post by waterslide on Jul 17, 2022 4:32:39 GMT
Buzzing up to architect Luca Cipelletti’s latest residential project in Milan, it’s impossible not to notice two other names on the door: Nathalie Du Pasquier and George Snowden. The designers (who happen to be husband and wife) were founding members of the 1980s radical design movement, the Memphis Group. And when Cipelletti first set foot in the Porta Nuova building’s windowless, L-shaped attic space, which he’d had been hired to make more habitable, the door was labeled with the names of the movement’s founding father, Ettore Sottsass, and cofounder Marco Zanini.
“They were the first radicals,” Cipelletti says of the group, known for their irreverent use of zany shapes and colors that challenged notions of good taste. As a teenager in Milan in the ’80s, Cipelletti had seen many of their first shows and decades later he would design a 2006 Sottsass exhibition in Tokyo as well as the 2021 reconstruction of a Sottsass interior, Casa Lana, at La Triennale Museum, in Milan. “They didn’t always need to think of a function. That freedom helped me a lot in a way.”
But if you’re thinking this apartment is a blatant homage to radical Italian design, think again. Cipelletti is a different kind of crazy, he insists, “my craziness is in compulsive obsession—it’s more severe; it’s about deleting things.” He likes to use the word millimetric to describe his work. And indeed, this project is about as detail-obsessed as it comes. Table surfaces are cut at 45-degree angles to give them a paper-thin appearance. Marble is book-matched on floors and walls to look like one large sheath. And a linear motif, like the frets of a guitar, runs horizontally across the apartment from ceiling to walls, across the bookshelves and onto the floors with almost painful precision.
The 400-square-meter, L-shaped volume had tall, pitched ceilings, but no natural light, so to make it more habitable Cipelletti made a series of incisions on the front, side, and ceiling to create a windows and skylights and added about 100-square-meters of terrace (planted by landscape architect Derek Castiglioni) just beyond. Everything balances on asymmetric, plaster-coated pillars that repeat every 36 meters, for an effect that is, in Cipelletti’s words, “a bit neo-Gothic and brutalist.”
“We wanted to add a lavish layer,” to temper brutalist elements, Cipelletti explains. Walls and floors were clad in Canaletto walnut. The primary bath was wrapped in more than 17,000 pounds of forest green marble and the powder room in Brazilian fossil marble. Around the house, Cipelletti installed panels of his take on Venetian mirror, which gets its smokey reflective quality from layers of oxidations applied to stainless steel. His client, an art collector, brought an impressive collection of photography, but little else, leaving it to Cipelletti to curate a mix of blue chip art and furniture that would compliment the gravitas of both the architecture and the photos. Cipelletti canvased galleries, auctions, and shops to find prize 20th-century treasures like a Franco Albini rocking chair, Gio Ponti desk and dining chairs, and a stunning, bubblegum pink vase by Carlo Scarpa. Some of the pieces do nod to the home’s radical Italian roots, like two totemic Alessandro Mendini sculptures and, perhaps most obviously, a set of ten Sottsass glass Vistosi vessels, snagged altogether at auction.
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The art selection was just as much a part of the equation. Important works by Mario Schifano and Jannis Kounellis draw the eye through the volume. A Dan Flavin piece illuminates the dining room. And the unquestionable pièce de résistance: A site-specific James Turrell light sculpture commissioned for the primary bedroom operates as a pseudo-headboard. “I was thinking, what is a new kind of baldacchino?” he explains of the daring move. It all mixes in with the owner’s photo collection which is displayed thematically—portraits in the living room, gazing out from the walls; nudes in the guest bedroom. Cipelletti devised a hanging system in the living room that allows the pictures to be easily moved in and out when the client buys something new or wishes to switch things around.
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Lest the place become too stuck in the 20th century, Cipelletti selected some contemporary gems for the mix—an artwork-slash-light fixture in the kitchen by Argentine artist Tomás Saraceno, another by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, in the dining room, and several of his own superminimal furnishings, like his paper-thin concrete shelves and a dining table hewn from 3.5 meters of solid fossilized oak. In the primary bedroom, a pair of 18th-century marquetry cabinets by Giovanni Battista Moroni nod to the rich history of Italian furniture making—a predecessor to so many of the other Italian greats, scattered around the house.
“I’m an architect and a museum designer,” Cipelletti reasons. Designing homes is not something he does so much of. “It’s a joy to interpret the work of someone else in an unexpected way. I’ve never seen [Vittorio] Zecchin like that. I’ve always seen Flavin in a white room. And I don’t think Saracino would be offended that he’s in a kitchen. There’s a theatrical way of displaying things within an idea or structure. You have these parentheses or alignments, but inside them there is freedom.”
To make windowless attic space in Milan’s Puerto Nuevo neighborhood—the erstwhile warehouse of Italian radical Ettore Sottsass—into a habitable space, architect Luca Cipelletti sliced through the walls, bringing in light and creating terraced spaces beyond. His client, an art collector, had nothing but an extensive collection of photography so Cipelletti combed through galleries, shops, and auctions to create a lively mix of blue chip art and design, shown here. Highlights include armchairs by Pierre Jeanneret, a rocking lounge by Franco Albini, a desk by Gio Ponti, a sofa and armchairs, facing off, by Jorge Zalszupin, and a suite of ten Vistosi vases by Ettore Sottsass. The rug was commissioned from Allegra Hicks. Portraits from the client’s photo collection mix in with paintings by, from left, Ha Chong Hyun, Jannis Kounellis, Mario Schifano, and table-like sculptures by George Mohasseb.
The living room, looking out towards the front terrace, features a Branco e Preto sofa, an Ico Parisi cocktail table, two Alessandro Mendini sculptures, and an Ettore Sottsass lamp. Another Mario Schifano hangs next to the onyx green marble wall, which contains a subtle door to the stainless steel-wrapped working kitchen.
The bottom line of this L-shaped apartment hosts dining area, where a light fixture by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor crowns a dining table by Cipelletti hewn from 3.5 meters of solid fossilized oak topped with a bubblegum pink vase by Carlo Scarpa and surrounded with chairs by Gio Ponti. Cipelletti’s concrete shelves, mounted on the wall sheathed in oxidized mirrored stainless steel, are filled with vases by Vittorio Zecchin. The Dan Flavin light piece on the far wall hangs alongside works by Lucio Fontana and George Condo.
The kitchen island is cut from Tortuga marble, a natural material that has a not-accidental resemblance to Ettore Sottsass’s iconic Bacterio pattern, used as laminate on some of his designs. The kitchen storage is by Boffi, the stools are by Konstantin Grcic for Driade, the floor length mirror is by Sottsass and the show stopping light fixture is an artwork by Tomas Saraceno.
The powder room, featuring a light by Joe Colombo for Oluce, is wrapped in Brazilian fossil marble.
Cipelletti worked with Pace Gallery and the artist’s studio to commission the James Turrell artwork, which functions in the primary bedroom as a pseudo headboard and emits light and color on a one-hour loop. The dresser, one of a pair, is an 18th-century marquetry masterpiece by Giovanni Battista Maroni, and the set of armchairs and stools by the window is by Giuseppe Pagano.
More than 17,000 pounds of forest green marble wraps the primary bathroom, bookmatched to perfection. The pair of floor lamps is a rare design by Gino Sarfatti and the Nero Marquina marble tub (so big it required two taps) is by Antonio Lupi.
Nudes from the client’s photography collection gather in one guest bedroom, alongside a sculptural side table by George Mohasseb. The wall and cabinet are sheathed in nabuk leather and the bath, beyond, is clad in emerald green quartzite.
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“They were the first radicals,” Cipelletti says of the group, known for their irreverent use of zany shapes and colors that challenged notions of good taste. As a teenager in Milan in the ’80s, Cipelletti had seen many of their first shows and decades later he would design a 2006 Sottsass exhibition in Tokyo as well as the 2021 reconstruction of a Sottsass interior, Casa Lana, at La Triennale Museum, in Milan. “They didn’t always need to think of a function. That freedom helped me a lot in a way.”
But if you’re thinking this apartment is a blatant homage to radical Italian design, think again. Cipelletti is a different kind of crazy, he insists, “my craziness is in compulsive obsession—it’s more severe; it’s about deleting things.” He likes to use the word millimetric to describe his work. And indeed, this project is about as detail-obsessed as it comes. Table surfaces are cut at 45-degree angles to give them a paper-thin appearance. Marble is book-matched on floors and walls to look like one large sheath. And a linear motif, like the frets of a guitar, runs horizontally across the apartment from ceiling to walls, across the bookshelves and onto the floors with almost painful precision.
The 400-square-meter, L-shaped volume had tall, pitched ceilings, but no natural light, so to make it more habitable Cipelletti made a series of incisions on the front, side, and ceiling to create a windows and skylights and added about 100-square-meters of terrace (planted by landscape architect Derek Castiglioni) just beyond. Everything balances on asymmetric, plaster-coated pillars that repeat every 36 meters, for an effect that is, in Cipelletti’s words, “a bit neo-Gothic and brutalist.”
“We wanted to add a lavish layer,” to temper brutalist elements, Cipelletti explains. Walls and floors were clad in Canaletto walnut. The primary bath was wrapped in more than 17,000 pounds of forest green marble and the powder room in Brazilian fossil marble. Around the house, Cipelletti installed panels of his take on Venetian mirror, which gets its smokey reflective quality from layers of oxidations applied to stainless steel. His client, an art collector, brought an impressive collection of photography, but little else, leaving it to Cipelletti to curate a mix of blue chip art and furniture that would compliment the gravitas of both the architecture and the photos. Cipelletti canvased galleries, auctions, and shops to find prize 20th-century treasures like a Franco Albini rocking chair, Gio Ponti desk and dining chairs, and a stunning, bubblegum pink vase by Carlo Scarpa. Some of the pieces do nod to the home’s radical Italian roots, like two totemic Alessandro Mendini sculptures and, perhaps most obviously, a set of ten Sottsass glass Vistosi vessels, snagged altogether at auction.
WATCH
Lionel Richie's Home Is So Welcoming, You'll Want To Stay a While
The art selection was just as much a part of the equation. Important works by Mario Schifano and Jannis Kounellis draw the eye through the volume. A Dan Flavin piece illuminates the dining room. And the unquestionable pièce de résistance: A site-specific James Turrell light sculpture commissioned for the primary bedroom operates as a pseudo-headboard. “I was thinking, what is a new kind of baldacchino?” he explains of the daring move. It all mixes in with the owner’s photo collection which is displayed thematically—portraits in the living room, gazing out from the walls; nudes in the guest bedroom. Cipelletti devised a hanging system in the living room that allows the pictures to be easily moved in and out when the client buys something new or wishes to switch things around.
Buy now for unlimited access and all of the benefits that only members get to experience.
This image may contain Logo, Symbol, Trademark, and Text
Lest the place become too stuck in the 20th century, Cipelletti selected some contemporary gems for the mix—an artwork-slash-light fixture in the kitchen by Argentine artist Tomás Saraceno, another by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, in the dining room, and several of his own superminimal furnishings, like his paper-thin concrete shelves and a dining table hewn from 3.5 meters of solid fossilized oak. In the primary bedroom, a pair of 18th-century marquetry cabinets by Giovanni Battista Moroni nod to the rich history of Italian furniture making—a predecessor to so many of the other Italian greats, scattered around the house.
“I’m an architect and a museum designer,” Cipelletti reasons. Designing homes is not something he does so much of. “It’s a joy to interpret the work of someone else in an unexpected way. I’ve never seen [Vittorio] Zecchin like that. I’ve always seen Flavin in a white room. And I don’t think Saracino would be offended that he’s in a kitchen. There’s a theatrical way of displaying things within an idea or structure. You have these parentheses or alignments, but inside them there is freedom.”
To make windowless attic space in Milan’s Puerto Nuevo neighborhood—the erstwhile warehouse of Italian radical Ettore Sottsass—into a habitable space, architect Luca Cipelletti sliced through the walls, bringing in light and creating terraced spaces beyond. His client, an art collector, had nothing but an extensive collection of photography so Cipelletti combed through galleries, shops, and auctions to create a lively mix of blue chip art and design, shown here. Highlights include armchairs by Pierre Jeanneret, a rocking lounge by Franco Albini, a desk by Gio Ponti, a sofa and armchairs, facing off, by Jorge Zalszupin, and a suite of ten Vistosi vases by Ettore Sottsass. The rug was commissioned from Allegra Hicks. Portraits from the client’s photo collection mix in with paintings by, from left, Ha Chong Hyun, Jannis Kounellis, Mario Schifano, and table-like sculptures by George Mohasseb.
The living room, looking out towards the front terrace, features a Branco e Preto sofa, an Ico Parisi cocktail table, two Alessandro Mendini sculptures, and an Ettore Sottsass lamp. Another Mario Schifano hangs next to the onyx green marble wall, which contains a subtle door to the stainless steel-wrapped working kitchen.
The bottom line of this L-shaped apartment hosts dining area, where a light fixture by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor crowns a dining table by Cipelletti hewn from 3.5 meters of solid fossilized oak topped with a bubblegum pink vase by Carlo Scarpa and surrounded with chairs by Gio Ponti. Cipelletti’s concrete shelves, mounted on the wall sheathed in oxidized mirrored stainless steel, are filled with vases by Vittorio Zecchin. The Dan Flavin light piece on the far wall hangs alongside works by Lucio Fontana and George Condo.
The kitchen island is cut from Tortuga marble, a natural material that has a not-accidental resemblance to Ettore Sottsass’s iconic Bacterio pattern, used as laminate on some of his designs. The kitchen storage is by Boffi, the stools are by Konstantin Grcic for Driade, the floor length mirror is by Sottsass and the show stopping light fixture is an artwork by Tomas Saraceno.
The powder room, featuring a light by Joe Colombo for Oluce, is wrapped in Brazilian fossil marble.
Cipelletti worked with Pace Gallery and the artist’s studio to commission the James Turrell artwork, which functions in the primary bedroom as a pseudo headboard and emits light and color on a one-hour loop. The dresser, one of a pair, is an 18th-century marquetry masterpiece by Giovanni Battista Maroni, and the set of armchairs and stools by the window is by Giuseppe Pagano.
More than 17,000 pounds of forest green marble wraps the primary bathroom, bookmatched to perfection. The pair of floor lamps is a rare design by Gino Sarfatti and the Nero Marquina marble tub (so big it required two taps) is by Antonio Lupi.
Nudes from the client’s photography collection gather in one guest bedroom, alongside a sculptural side table by George Mohasseb. The wall and cabinet are sheathed in nabuk leather and the bath, beyond, is clad in emerald green quartzite.
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