The Milanese pied-à-terre that Giampiero Tagliaferri designed for a young art collector offers a mini master class in Italian modern design. The idiosyncratic duplex penthouse is chockablock with treasures by a pantheon of 20th-century design titans on the order of Mario Bellini, Osvaldo Borsani, Angelo Mangiarotti, Gae Aulenti, Gio Ponti, Afra and Tobia Scarpa, Joe Colombo, Tito Agnoli, and others. Works by laudable but lesser-known talents—Pia Guidetti Crippa, Giovanni Travasa, Gigi Sabadin—pepper the heady mix. All those melodious names sound like toothsome items on an Italian menu: “I’ll have a plate of Mangiarotti with a glass of your best Gio Ponti.” Delicious.
But there’s much more to the apartment than a mere accumulation of objets de vertu. Tagliaferri has lovingly evoked the spirit of those avant-garde Italian interiors of the 1970s that quicken the hearts of design junkies and Instagram influencers—the felicitous marriage of past and present; the palpable frisson of sex appeal; the air of nonchalant chic. The distinctive vibe is buoyed by the juxtaposition of sleek and sensuous materials, epitomized by the voluptuous new staircase of lacquer and rosewood, and the pairing of upholstered velvet walls with a brushed stainless-steel dado in the primary bedroom. “It feels like the ultimate bachelor pad, even though the client’s fiancée had a hand in the process,” Tagliaferri says of the design scheme. “We started with function, how they actually use the space. It’s fitted out like a big hotel suite, a comfortable, easy place where they can host friends or just hang out.”
The designer opened up the floor plan to create a more gracious spatial flow between the public entertaining areas and the private bedroom zone. He also retained the existing beam configuration, celebrating the irregularity of the composition rather than attempting to conceal it. Tagliaferri designed custom built-in sofas that float in the living room, providing a variety of spots for conversation, listening to music (on a stereo system by Mario Bellini, of course), and watching television. A sculptural glass fireplace with a chrome hood anchors a corner of the capacious space. “This is not traditional Milanese decorating. It’s more of a laid-back, California approach,” explains Tagliaferri, who, like the Italian homeowner, is based in Los Angeles but keeps one foot planted in Milan. “Merging influences from these two cities is part of my design lexicon,” he adds.
