Overarching inspiration: Antoniolupi

Antoniolupi, the Italian manufacturer of bathroom fittings and furniture for the home, has redesigned its Milan showroom in a way that mirrors its adventurous spirit. The new interior has been enlarged, too, reflecting the growth of the company and its desire to maximise its impact in Milan, an increasingly international city.

The striking 500 square metre space occupies a unique site in the Porta Tenaglia neighbourhood — the ground floor of an elegant 1950s high-rise building designed by distinguished architects Piero Portaluppi, who collaborated frequently with Gio Ponti, and Guido Baselli. While deliberating on how to redesign the showroom, Andrea Lupi, son of the brand’s founder Antonio Lupi, faced a tough dilemma. Should he call on the company’s able creative and planning teams to undertake the task — or hire external professionals?

Andrea ultimately plumped for option two, entrusting the job to Fabio Calvi and Paolo Brambilla of Calvi Brambilla, a practice with extensive experience in creating design showrooms. This ‘enlightened’ decision, as Andrea puts it, encapsulates the outward-looking mindset of Antoniolupi, whose products shake up preconceptions of bathroom fittings, offering radically innovative alternatives and expanding the horizons of bathroom design. What’s more, the architects’ outlook mirrors Antoniolupi’s. ‘Our works are characterised by the constant search for non-obvious solutions,’ states the practice’s website.

When Antoniolupi first contacted them, the architects responded, perhaps modestly, ‘You don’t need us’. But, determined to try a new approach, Andrea convinced them to collaborate.

Calvi Brambilla’s most dramatic intervention is a new vaulted ceiling, which playfully disrupts the symmetry and regularity of the interior since the sides of the arches don’t line up precisely with the window frames. Yet this feature is functional, too: it cleverly draws the eye up to the dimly lit ceiling, whose boundaries are not clearly visible, and makes it look higher.

However, the vaults also play a functional role — they help to create different zones in which to showcase Antoniolupi’s innovative products, such as its sculptural, marble Intreccio washbasin, to name just one.

The showroom — which is filled with light, thanks to 14 full-height windows punctuating its façade — now counterbalances a large, open space with more intimate areas. A wood staircase also descends to a lower level where the brand’s unique showerheads are displayed.

The remodelled showroom is also informed by Calvi Brambilla’s interest in other architectural traditions and styles, notably the spectacular Kiliç Ali Paça hammam in Istanbul. Built in 1577 by Mimar Sinan — a contemporary of Michelangelo and Andrea Palladio — it’s in one of several buildings in the Süleymaniye Mosque. Its connotations are of wellbeing — of great relevance in bathroom design today, too — and of a sociable space. The showroom’s interior mirrors the way a hammam is divided into vaulted ceilings above and baths at floor level.

In fact, the showroom’s cultural references are multi-layered: it alludes, too, to modernist architecture, since Calvi Brambilla also admires the work of Louis Kahn and Philip Johnson, who often made a feature of soaring ceilings.

While the showroom’s design is highly considered, the overall impression it creates is of simplicity. This is no accident: it was important that the redesigned space was also neutral, not too dominant, placing the main focus on the products. To this end, finishes are sober and homogeneous, although some are textured. Large-grained cement plasters, for example, line the walls. The floor is made of a local, grey-blue stone called Ceppo di Grè, which has been used in Milanese architecture since Roman times — adding a further cultural layer to the project.

That said, the showroom looks forward in time as well as back: it boasts its own outdoor terrace with plants, benches and a fountain — a soothing haven in the city centre — that contributes to the current movement for making Milan a greener place.

© Architonic