projects | Viabizzuno progettiamo la luce

a famous milanese industrialist, a collector of seventeenth-century and contemporary art, asked me to undertake the renovation of his new home. after a survey to verify the present state of things, I realised that it would be possible to build a most fascinating house… I remember too that I was greatly surprised by his calling me, because I happened to know that until then he had lived in a house designed by mongiardino, a very well-known and brilliant professional figure in a field which was not at all mine. when I explained that the style of my work was diametrically opposed to mongiardino's, I asked my client if he was quite certain of his choice. it was then I realised that he was perfectly familiar with my style; moreover, he explained to me that he intended to start a new life with this very house, a life more luminous, less formal, and above all as a single person. I must confess that the idea of being a party to such a radical change of lifestyle aroused my curiosity to fever pitch, and I accepted this new commission enthusiastically. I had to take into account that my client was a highly cultivated man, most refined, most correct, gifted with considerable irony and joie-de-vivre, and that his new home definitely had to reflect his personality. so I began to design this extremely beautiful attic space, trying to translate the client's wishes into my architecture. the house was redesigned throughout in terms of distribution of spaces: two master bedrooms with large bathrooms, one of them with a turkish bath adjoining; a gym; a huge living-room cum dining-room. giancarlo morelli, a chef much admired by my client, was my adviser for the advanced technologies in the kitchens designed ad hoc and created by bulthaup: one highly-technological kitchen for food only and another, equally advanced, devoted exclusively to the preparation of drinks. in an attempt to recover heights unusual for an attic, I discovered wonderful ceilings which were for the most part hidden or in any case not exploited to the full. my choice of materials too was determined by the need to marry a very male style with just one whim, the use of a colour, red, which we both adore. the project was then sent at once to london for the approval of a famous feng shui expert, who to my great joy did not wish to alter anything, except for the positioning of the fixtures in one bathroom. i chose parquet in solid sucupira wood, and had it laid in a most original way in the living room, to reflect the design of the vaulted ceiling lights which crossed one another, bordering the parquet with a line of red mosaic work. for the bathrooms too I chose mosaic, combined with santafiora stone, also used for the terraces. these were lit with cubo 15 fixtures positioned level with the skirting boards to enhance the prestigious flooring. the furniture and doors were also made from sucupira or in some instances corian coupled with bronzed steel. the corridor leading to the bedroom area has become a sort of gallery for three outstanding seventeenth-century paintings, illuminated most precisely by means of the dichroic kit mounted on an 094 system positioned both horizontally and vertically, a system which enhances the paintings without intruding on them, giving them depth in silence. in the bedroom, above the headboard, a wooden veil has been built, in which are positioned m2 spotlights angled at 38°, to give soft lighting at the sides, and angled at 10° with narrow beams above the bed for reading. in the daytime living area a series of ‘bamboo' fixtures light and furnish the rooms; especially atmospheric is the positioning alongside one of the great circular openings designed in one of the arched walls of the house: these huge portholes which overlook the city of milan give an effect of fade-out, perfectly in keeping with the emotional impact of this house.