Calling on his encyclopaedic k nowledge of design history, architect Pierf rancesco Cravel has craf ted an ultra-luxe pad
STYLING Chiara dal Canto
KITCHEN/ LIVING AREA
The show-stopping cook space includes an island and extractor crafted from patinated brass and units made from Lepanto marble.
When, at a party, architect Pierfrancesco Cravel was introduced by a mutual friend to fashion entrepreneur Giorgio Dantone, it was a lucky meeting of minds.
‘We liked each other straight away and sensed in each other a passion for seeking out the new and says Pierfrancesco. And so began the ‘long, crazy and extraordinary’ project to renovate the Milanese apartment Giorgio had bought for his family in ‘a building that looked like a hospital,’ says Pierfrancesco. ‘The first thing I asked Giorgio when I saw it was, “Why did you buy it?”. The layout alone was a challenge, but it is often the difficult houses that give the most interesting end results.’
To get under the skin of his client, Pierfrancesco visited Giorgio at his influential, forward-looking fashion store, Daad Dantone. ‘Together we looked at the clothes he loved the most and he explained them to me one by one. Then I went around to the house for dinner.’ It was to be the first of many. ‘“We need big wardrobes and I don’t like green” was Giorgio’s brief.’
This interesting start to the project carried through the whole renovation, with Pierfrancesco and Giorgio collaborating closely. The key space to sort was the living area. ‘The floor space was absurd: it was absolutely devoid of any regular geometric shape,’ says Pierfrancesco. To resolve this, he divided the room up into three different ‘islands’, each of which is marked by a spectacular piece of iconic lighting. Thus, the oversized silk velvet Jean Royère sofas are grouped under a chandelier by Gio Ponti, originally designed for the famed Parco dei Principi hotel in Rome. A Max Ingrand pendant hangs over the custom dining table – ‘made following the irregular pattern of the floor plan as if it was cut out of the space in which it is placed’ – while in the more intimate spot tucked into the bay, three Paavo Tynell lights are hung at different the beautiful,’ heights over a pair of Finn Juhl chairs and a Mogens Lassen table.
Pierfrancesco puts some of his magpie ability to mix inspiration and pieces from different eras down to his father’s influence. ‘He was also very involved in fashion, and when I was a
