Pinned to the aura of design excellence that surrounds its Via Durini location, the B&B Italia flagship store occupies 1,700 sqm of ground floor and basement within a famed building dating back to the ‘60s. The skillfully structured double-height spaces of the ground floor and the numerous connections to the basement are prefaced by front-facing crystalline glasses.

While the Maxalto Collection is presented in a cantilevering volume towards the facade, the offices are located towards the back, contained on the mezzanine level that visually guides customers with its chiaroscuro surface. The materials of the interior play an intricate drama of contrast and opposition. The black cement floor clashes with the frameless colored glasses and the off-white gauze surface of the walls.

The interior design for the Milan apartment extends over the sixth floor of the building, surrounded by a terrace and a loft divided in two areas by the communal stairway, with the living room on one side and the sleeping area on the other. The design adds wide openings to the side walls and creates a steel and glass veranda which merges the outside space with the interior. Presenting a contrasting addition to the urban fabric, a unified palette unfolds in the interior’s completely white finishing, in the use of Sivec white marble and in the panel work in Corian.

The design proposal for the villa evolves from the inside out, making the kitchen the center of the building around which all architectural and interior design elements are organized. A perimeter wall defines the inhabited portion of the site by bending around the house in a protective gesture. The residence is clad entirely in limestone, only interrupted by wood and glass panels that insert points of harmony and transparency into the robust design. An entrance lounge functions as the domesticated portion of the outside space, while the second floor’s four bedrooms overlook the sunken pool and the garden.

Consolidating new architectural and interior design solutions in the 1970s factory design by Tobia Scarpa, B&B Italia’s new research and development center occupies an area of 3,500 sqm. The reduction of the original design was achieved by devising a rough concrete wall that joins the two existing formations in a new corner composition. Behind the wall the program elements are distributed over three floors, including a 6m-high underground floor that stores plyurethane drum presses, a ground floor for prototyping, and a first floor for internal showroom, design office and terraces. The first two floors are made from prefabricated concrete elements, while the showroom and the offices are made from a metallic structure with a slightly regressing perimeter.

The core of the factory complex was built using mixed traditional technology, a concrete structure, brick curtain walls and trusses. The new warehouse, with its simple, classic pre-fabricated volume, reaches slightly above the old construction. The part of the façade which was originally in reinforced concrete panels has been painted in tar black, as have the existing transformer station and the meter housing near the entrance. Black has also been used for the external paving in slate gravel, so as to provide continuity along the surfaces and through the color palette of the interiors.

The architectural project was to renovate the two existing office buildings respecting the limitations of the volumes, the ground layout, and the load-bearing reinforced concrete structure. A single metal curved roofing gathers the two buildings and the porter’s lounge. In the new scheme, the facade of the printing plant harmoniously echoes the northern facade of the office building. The need to protect the plant interior from direct sunlight while still ensuring access to natural light, led to the creation of sun screens in Serena stone, offering a color contrast with the front-facing brickwork.

The restyling of the flagship store on Via Montenapoleone (Milan) exemplifies the indivisible integration between architectural space and product display, in line with the ever-lasting value of the Valentino trademark. The design concept brings chromatic materials with a tone of delicate brilliance, engaging the senses with skillfully computed precision and rigor.

Adorned with the decorative elements of a period building, the interior bears the plentiful yet sparse compositional spirit of a contemporary setting. Slender bronze borders on the wall fabrics’ lining, together with the long and fluid horizontal line of the hanging display fixtures, leave impressions of a pleasing visual experience.

B&B Italia’s London flagship store, with areas dedicated to Arclinea, proposes a close correlation between the living area and the kitchen. The interaction between the high-end kitchens of Arclinea and the furniture of B&B Italia and Maxalto is housed in a fluid sequence of spaces, illuminated by a new and efficient LED lighting system. The 1,200 sqm showroom opens to Brompton Road through a passage of smoothly suspended gallery space demarcating the entrance. The spatial arrangement centers around the “working area” which is dedicated to a lavish selection of fabrics, to the visualization of personalized products, and to the champions of furniture design.

The design of Duomo metro station’s mezzanine level establishes optimal connectivity between underground commercial spaces. The station restyling takes place at the very center of Milan, within an infrastructural hub that serves the city as a place of interchange between multiple modes of transport. Positioned between the city and the underground platforms, the concept of the mezzanine is inserted in the cultural world of commercial spaces, rather than in the world of infrastructural necessities and technicalities. The space allows people to experience the new surroundings not only as users of public transport, but also as consumers in the busiest cultural and commercial hub of Milan.

The factory building of Aspesi evokes a farm-like atmosphere. Even though the foundation of the building faces the outside with solid brick walls, air holes lend a granary character to the building. The view to the outside woods and the continuity of the operational rooms on the first floor are at the core of the architectural and interior design. A 15 m wide ring runs around the perimeter containing the administration, sales, and logistics departments and the creative R&D area. The ring on the first floor looks onto an internal court from which the production area on the ground floor takes its natural light.

The competition entry for “Ansaldo – City of Cultures” localizes architectural interventions within the existing building complex in order to create spaces and flows for cultural exchange. Following a sort of acupuncture procedure, the body of the building is not only an architectural reaction with an contemporary theme, but also an attempt to reorganize the relationship between interior and exterior spaces. While conserving the area’s industrial character, the project offers spaces for informal gatherings that extend the meanings of the spaces beyond its physical contents.

In collaboration with Cino Zucchi architect, Milan

The competition entry represents the reuse of a rather crude hospitality facility from the ‘70s, marked by aluminum verandas. The project re-immerses the building in the picturesque mountain-locked landscape where the building distinguishes itself with its slender clock tower. The sequence of stone walls defines artificial surfaces that create a natural fortification on an elevated point of the city. Within the building, labyrinth-like paths and access ways cut though the orthogonal axes of the layout.

Echoing the solemn elegance of its trademark, the Milan flagship store of Cerruti radiates contemporaneity with its minimalist aesthetic that signals introspection and authenticity. The environment showcases clothing items as the protagonists, with supporting acts from the mannequin and from the surrounding space. The space is transformed into a linear and neutral volumetric system with subtle lighting and stone flooring in natural cool shade. Female and male universes combine in the harmony between the white drapes’ feminine gesture of privacy and the rugged masculine structure of hardwood used for the men’s section.

On the vivid south side of the Bergamasco hills in northern Italy where the landscape folds and changes its nature, the villa complex houses individual members of the family in disjoint buildings. High and turreted, the core building’s living room becomes the center of an intricate composition, the heart of family’s life. The plans and volumes of the building are both reminiscent of a small medieval town, distilled in the clean formulations of the exterior architecture and the interiors.

The architecture and interior design for the private residence in the town of Lurago Marinone features an unbroken continuity between exterior and interior space with a tight sequence of inner rooms and patios. With a blend of abstraction and realism, the sharp lines of the walls penetrate the form of the building and organize the interiors of the building, while a traditional roof structure crowns the villa. The interior and the exterior architecture – featuring intricate frames and sliding shutters in the facade for optimal light control – provide a pure setting for exhibiting the remarkable art collection of the residents.

The redevelopment of the 16,000 sqm site previously occupied by an old cotton mill creates new commercial, residential and administrative buildings following the traditional architecture of the Brianza region. The site is divided in three distinct but interconnected areas: the first area provides access to the other two inside the complex, laid out as a main plaza and gardens. The redevelopment inserts stairs, ramps and pedestrian-circulation routes, creating a complex on the urban scale, a minuscule city fragment within the thriving town of Seregno, on the northern edge of Milan.

The 4,000 sqm production complex for Antonio Fusco is situated in Milan’s industrial periphery, in an area that developed during intensive industrial expansions. Its 1,200 sqm of office space is distributed over two volumes of the front that open to the enclosed garden and frame the circular hall. In addition, core production functions are carried out on the four levels of the 3,400 sqm of production area and warehouse space, and the 800 sqm of mechanized depot. A sense of architectural inseparability between the main front and the road side is fixed by the elongated horizontal articulation achieved by the reinforced concrete structural elements.

Comprising six repurposed industrial buildings around two courts, the Milan headquarters of Esprit is dominated by their grey concrete facade, perforated by large frameless window-panes. The visual screen of the main entrance leads to a zigzagging route that goes through the buildings by means of ramps, bridges and hot-wrought galvanized steel staircases. The choice of galvanized steel, usually used in sheet form for making eaves and roofing, represents a bold element in the interior architecture, along with the waxed grey concrete flooring and the visible air-conditioning system.