16 hours ago
Across the ages: a Milanese architect follows in his grandmother's footsteps
Photography by Helenio Barbetta
Before architect Luigi Morandi began the renovations on his turn-of-the-century Milanese apartment, he let the past do the talking. 'This was my grandmother's house,' says Luigi, who co-founded the design studio Concepta with interior designer Alice Frana in 2019. 'As with all my renovations, I listened.' A building's past life, its 'pre-existence', is always uppermost in his mind. It is essential, he says, to pay attention to what a house has to give, whether that's through its period details, finishes or ambience. This conviction took shape when Luigi studied conservation in the architecture department of the University of Genoa.
When Luigi was a child, workshops designed by the Italian artist and graphic designer Bruni Munari were used in school classrooms. Known as the enfant terrible of 20th-century Italian design, Munari believed, among other things, in the democratisation of art and that beauty and function should be combined, without recourse to rule books or tradition.
Recalling his first Munari workshop, Luigi says, 'They put a blank sheet of paper in front of us and asked us to tear off the edges because a design, an idea, does not have to be circumscribed within a rectangular perimeter.' Even now, the importance the Italian polymath placed on freedom of form and expression informs Luigi's work.
As a design team, he and Alice bring an openness to their projects, which include the renovations of buildings from the early 1900s and new designs for villas or country houses. They allow period features to co-exist with any traces of prior inhabitants, no matter how innovative the design solutions they bring to a space.
'I have a passion for irregularities,' says Luigi, 'and a desire to see things, and houses, from unusual perspectives.' Alice, on the other hand, who trained in interior design, is led by colour and the combination of unexpected elements.
This apartment is in the vibrant Porta Romana neighbourhood, near the Franco Parenti theatre, an important Milanese cultural institution famous for its experimental work. A fitting neighbour then, for Luigi and his wife, Benedetta, and their two daughters, Matilde and Nora, who moved into the family apartment in 2019. Once a quiet neighbourhood, in the last decade independent shops, bookshops, restaurants and cafés have sprung up, while the iconic art nouveau Bagni Misteriosi lido, behind the Franco Parenti complex, remains a particular draw.
A formal purity is at play in Luigi and Alice's renovation of the apartment, the introduction of colour and contemporary and 20th-century objects and furniture shaped by the energy and needs of a young family. Luigi wanted the entire space to function as a 'dream machine', a concept that gestures to Bruno Munari's early love of futurism. 'We had fun creating a living machine capable of responding to the needs of two teenagers, with ladders that move as they do in Harry Potter's Hogwarts castle, or suspended nets like those of catamarans for the girls to lie up in the air and read or think.'
The interplay of the playful and practical is celebrated in the bespoke 'floating' kitchen, where geometrical planes of colour define the space, as they do throughout the home. 'The iron pipes of the heating system dictated the theme of the suspended kitchen,' explains Luigi. 'The pipes used to sit against the dividing wall of the old dining room.'
In the new design, the dividing walls between living room, dining room and kitchen have gone and the exposed pipes, painted tangerine, are mirrored by matching ironwork above the free-standing counter. The tangerine is picked up in vintage wallpaper in both kitchen and living space. Luigi and Benedetta like to have friends and family to supper. Ingenious design solutions reflect this, including a frosted-glass panel. 'It can be opened and oriented in various positions to screen the cooking area,' says Luigi. 'A small pantry behind it allows you to store all the essentials while leaving the counter space free.'
The elegantly délabré walls of the living space were a happy accident. 'While we were in the middle of demolishing the walls, we discovered older wallpaper, hidden under the various layers of plaster,' says Luigi. 'Initially everything was supposed to be more neutral, but instead we played with palette interventions that could interface with the old walls.' They kept all the original cement floor tiles.
Benedetta used to run a vintage furniture shop – 'She's always on the hunt for pieces with a strong identity,' says Luigi – and there is a lively mix of ceramics, artworks and statement lighting. In the living space, a 1962 blue Square Sofa by Marco Zanuso for Arflex holds the room, with texture and accents of white provided by a white lacquered 1968 Foglia wicker chair and a pair of white logs made by Concepta for an installation at the Salone del Mobile a few years ago.
The jaunty stripes on a painted metal table lamp by Mario Botta holds its own against both a 1970 square metal wall lamp by Kazuhide Takahama and a larger, signed metal wall lamp, the 1970 Accademia by Cini Boeri.
This Milanese home may be filled with art works and notable design pieces, but there is nothing precious about it. 'When we are at home we always gravitate to the living area, where there is the hustle and bustle of teenage friends,' says Luigi. There is also a much-loved pet – a huge black retriever. 'When Matilde and Nora decreed that they couldn't live without a dog, Blu was added to the gang.'
The principal bedroom is somewhat calmer. Planes of blue, white and gold on walls, windows and wardrobe are picked up in floor tiles and in the contemporary Lisa Corti quilt on the 1960 Vanessa metal double bed, made by Tobia Scarpa for Gavina. Surfaces are shiny, matt, metallic, everything jiving, exuberance and restraint, past and present co-existing.
