A little more than a month before the opening of "Red in Progress. Salone del Mobile.Milano meets Riyadh", the Salone del Mobile.Milano’s event in Saudi Arabia, the celebrated architect and designer explained to us what the Business Lounge he has designed for the occasion will look like, and what stories its interior will tell about Italian design
Real estate and natural assets
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Nature Rocks, MVRDV Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs, Nathalie de Vries
From concept houses designed by Tadao Ando to structures immersed in nature in Taiwan, taking in biophilic shelters and sustainable architecture: a journey through homes that become places of the soul, where nature and dreams meet in perfect harmony
“If I were asked to name the chief benefit of the house, I should say: the house shelters daydreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the house allows one to dream in peace.”
In her latest book “Real Estate”, Deborah Levy quotes Gaston Bachelard as she wonders what properties we would own towards the end of our lives.
My list would certainly include the Hadar residence (owned by the Italian-Israeli designer Lorenzo Hadar) in the hills of West Hollywood designed by Tadao Ando: a building with large windows laid out along a slope with cascading levels perfectly integrated into the land.
A protected and minimalist haven for the soul in a conceptual style, where the aesthetics are dominated by neutral tones that make everything more elegant.
Fully immersed in nature - and equally wonderful - are also the new tourist infrastructures in Jialeshui, in Kenting National Park, in the southern part of Tawain, known for its extraordinary zoomorphic rock formations, presented by MVRDV (an acronym comprising the initials of the three partners Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie De Vries).
By presenting a network of new paths and public spaces as well as three new facilities (a reception centre with cafeteria and souvenir shop, an exhibition space and one devoted to services) camouflaged in the area’s jagged geology, the effect created is of a total symbiosis between nature and artifice, with environmental sustainability clearly at the centre of everything.
Nature Rocks, MVRDV Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs, Nathalie de Vries
This symbiosis is the common thread running through The House of Green (Gestalten, 2024), a book that brings together the most extraordinary architectures and interiors that incorporate nature into their projects, exploring the benefits that greenery confers on living spaces and workplaces. The authors include Carlo Ratti, and experts in biophilic design and gardening. To name some of the projects described and analysed, there is Villa Achioté: the first rammed earth project in Costa Rica, with clay dug from the jungle used to build it and its outer load-bearing walls. Carlo Ratti also collaborated with Bjarke Ingels on the design of the CapitaSpring skyscraper in Singapore.
Another example is the Green Tower of the Shiroiya Hotel in Maebashi City, not far from Tokyo. Once a historic ryokan, it has been renovated by Sou Fujimoto Architects. Made up of glass blocks covered with a layer of vines and topped with frangipani shrubs, Labri is a pavilion house in Huế, Vietnam, by Nguyen Khai Architects & Associates which resembles a forest.
CapitaSpring a Singapore, Carlo Ratti e Bjarke Ingels - The House of Green, Gestalten
Green Tower del Shiroiya Hotel di Maebashi City, Sou Fujimoto Architects - The House of Green, Gestalten
Labri, Nguyen Khai Architects & Associates, Huế, Vietnam - The House of Green, Gestalten
Finally, thanks to Franco Raggi, I came across the small, well-kept holiday home of the architect Gianni Pettena on the Island of Elba. This was the setting for part of Francesca Molteni’s film about the Milanese designer, Fare... Franco Raggi presented at the Triennale Milano last April.
A small museum of art and designer pieces (starting from the metal coat rack in the form of a Doric column designed by Raggi himself), the house was an old shelter for fishermen’s nets, explaining why it is completely immersed in the Mediterranean scrub. According to Pettena, “The important thing was to stay there, spend time there and understand the rules that nature or the pre-existences already dictated.” Where you can dream in peace.
