Piano and voice
P. 146
Centuries-old frescos and modern mirrors, historic and contemporary design. For a fascinating voyage
Once, during a candlelight party, Michele Pasini, architect and co-founder of the studio Storagemilano, with Barbara Ghidoni and Marco Donati – close ties to fashion, including important projects for Dolce&Gabbana, Dsquared2 and Bally – attacked the suspended ceilings of his apartment with a hammer, finding miraculously conserved frescos. Traces of other lives, voices from the past. Pasini listens to the voices and reinvents spaces. That was probably his eleventh home since arriving in Milan to study, until the need for another house took charge, leading him to sell the place. His new address is closer to the studio. «Not exactly the house of my dreams», he says, but voices from the past were lurking here as well, as in the case of a photograph found in a drawer, showing the previous owners at the castle of Brescia, Pasini’s native city. Michele bought the flat and began to listen to his own voice, the voice of an architect. «I’m used to deciding everything on paper, in advance, in an orderly sequence. But I’ve lived here for four years in a provisional way, constantly reorganizing until everything finally fell into place». The house is full of autobiographical touches: two chairs by Ico Parisi found at a junk shop when he was still a student, or the T-chairs by William Katavolos, Douglas Kelley and Ross Littell, saved from a pile of trash on the street.
Where necessary, Pasini creates the desired tone, relying on the allure of metals, warm brass, reflecting steel for the dining table, a balancing act where the third leg – apparently supporting the weight of an enormous top for 14-16 guests – suddenly moves to become a pillar for a vase of flowers. After dinner, guests gather on a magnificent terrace, with citrus and olive trees, and a large pine. Yet another dimension: a corner of Capri, but in Milan.
«This historic building in Bologna is of venerable age,while the depiction is contemporary, an erudite, eclectic divertissement.In keeping with the spirit of the owner,an interior designer»