Living for the city
The bright lights, the busy streets, the buzz… This fantastical Milanese apartment is an ode to the rebirth of metropolitan excess
With its bright neon lighting and metal details, this decadent Milanese apartment is an ode to the rebirth of Metropolitan excess
Milan is a city waking up. The Salone del Mobile (5-10 September), dubbed the ‘Supersalone’, aims to make up for what we missed last year – when the pandemic forced the furniture fair’s cancellation – and remind us all of the thrill of this Italian centre for design. It’s exactly this sense of renewed excitement and buzz that this apartment, belonging to fashion guru Riccardo Grassi and entrepreneur Giorgio Podimani, taps directly into.
When the couple first approached architect Luciano Giorgi to help them breathe new life into their 250-square-metre city-centre flat, which is located within a 1930s bourgeois building in a busy shopping district, the brief was suitably cosmopolitan. ‘The Milan we wanted our home to evoke is made of bright neon lights, metal details, the busy underground and art proudly exhibited in public squares,’ explains Luciano.
This vision takes shape as soon as you step through the front door. In the dimly lit entrance, the floor is covered in ‘Silipol’, the stone-like composite slabs made by Mariotti Fulget that were used to decorate the Milan subway system in the 1960s. The walls, meanwhile, are painted in a deep green reminiscent of the shade often used by Italian designer and architect Luigi Caccia Dimonioni. The stretch of red that leads the eye to the kitchen will remind design aficionados of the great Vico Magistretti’s bold chromatic signature. It’s a dramatic first impression that speaks to the very best of Italian excess.
The originality and cultural references continue in the main living area, which in many ways resembles a contemporary urban loft. Dominating the openplan space is a giant, snaking neon light fixture created by Luciano. It falls over the dining table like an elaborately modern chandelier and its glow glints in the many custom-made pieces of metallic furniture that sit alongside designs by Arne Jacobsen, Charles and Ray Eames and Gio Ponti. The most dominant of these creations is the extra-large wardrobe requested by homeowner Riccardo, who runs an eponymous fashion showroom in the city. A huge vault covered in galvanised steel, his personal fashion cupboard sits between the dining area and bedroom, acting as both an architectural and decorative feature.
‘The presence of this volume is essential to the development of the house and the design of the rooms,’ says Luciano. ‘They are all arranged along its perimeter.’ His description brings to mind a metallic spine, holding the many delights of this property together. Traditionally, the kitchen may be the heart of the home, but it feels right that in an apartment dedicated to all that is great about Milan, fashion is, rightly, at the centre of everything. lgb-architetti.it
‘THE MILAN WE WANTED OUR HOME TO EVOKE IS MADE OF NEON LIGHTS AND METAL DETAILS’
COVERED IN GALVANISED STEEL, THE CUPBOARD ACTS AS BOTH AN ARCHITECTURAL AND DECORATIVE FEATURE