A MILANESE PALAZZO… is stripped back to its true intent
If Italian architect and sculptor Vincenzo de Cotiis attributes his love of art and architecture to his mother’s impeccable taste, then her inflfluence is apparent in his 18th-century palazzo apartment in the heart of Milan. Originally from the north of Italy, de Cotiis set up his design practice more than 20 years ago and has become known for the interiors he creates for high-end stores such as Excelsior Milano and Antonia, as well as his sculpting and, more recently, a limited-edition furniture collection. His aesthetic has an intensely raw quality yet retains the sumptuousness one expects from highly designed interiors. His own home is a perfect example. It was two years ago when de Cotiis and his wife, Claudia, discovered their apartment in the old neighbourhood of Magenta. “We’d previously lived in Brera, a very central, busy district,” he explains. “I’d always hoped to live in this area, but the right spaces are very hard to fifind. I wanted somewhere that retained original features, but still needed a lot of work. We were lucky. It was love at fififirst sight when we viewed this place.” Magenta traditionally attracted nobility and has long been known for its small artisan workshops. It feels like an oasis, just 10 minutes from the touristy centre of the Duomo. The palazzo stands behind discreet gates on a quiet street, its wide, soaring stairwell leading from the central courtyard to de Cotiis’s fifirst-flfloor home. The 300-square-metre apartment — with its grandly proportioned, interconnecting rooms, high ceilings and rich parquetry flfloors — is awash with the most glorious natural sunlight that flfloods every room from the street-side balcony back to the courtyard. De Cotiis, who made no major structural changes to the place, »
« reflects on the sad decorative state he found when he took possession of his home. “We spent a lot of time carefully peeling away what had been added by previous owners: years of paint and paper, false ceilings, ugly moquette flfloor coverings. What was beneath, in a wonderfully imperfect, worn state, was far more incredible,” says de Cotiis. “Mostly I wanted to preserve the history and positive atmosphere that already existed here. The idea was to maintain its character, but uncover the original paint colours, the ceiling and especially the light. I then worked out what needed my intervention in a contemporary way.” To that end, each room reveals beautifully crumbling plaster and gently vaulted ceilings with original mouldings in an evocative state of disrepair, all in soft colours bleached by decades of sunlight. The effffect is at once warm and inviting; it feels lived-in but luxurious — a trademark style for the designer, whose work reflflects his love of surface texture, organic forms and light. The interiors were treated with such clever devices as a deep, protruding brass skirting to reflflect the light upwards; the apartment proved the ideal canvas for de Cotiis to display his own furniture designs and artworks, which make up the Progetto Domestico collection. »
“We spent a lot of time carefully peeling away what had been added by previous owners... What was beneath... was far more incredible”
« The room-sized, resin-topped platforms that feature in both his bedroom and a second living/library room add a great sense of drama. “It’s like capsizing the ceiling and creating a fresco on the flfloor,” he says. De Cotiis created a continual flflow by removing all the doors within the apartment. “I like things to be really open,” he says. “This place has a lot of intimate corners, so it doesn’t need doors. Also, I love disorder, but a calculated, curated disorder, which at the same time creates a sense of order.” His love of imperfection shows in his design work too, with a deft use of reclaimed, repurposed materials. Aged wood and a glowing patina intrigue on a chair in the mirrored dressing room he shares with his wife, while the rough surface of old fifibreglass appears precious on a long, low cabinet in the dining room, which sits comfortably alongside his organically shaped, highly polished dining table and mismatched chairs. “I have a vision that’s more about art than luxury itself. When I design, the space comes fifirst and then I work out where I will put artwork, which should tell a story. I like to create things that are imperfect, but that still offffer a sense of luxury — that is my intention.” Having moved home often, do de Cotiis and his wife intend to stay longer in this apartment? “Yes, maybe, I’m not sure,” he says. “I don’t get very emotionally attached to a place or things, so after a period, I want change.”