The Dialogue Between Architecture And Design

Right from the outset, Locatelli Partners has worked in every area of design and in the most varied contexts. These include private homes, showrooms, shops and exhibitions, ranging from the construction of new buildings to the restoration of monumental complexes and historic homes and combining a contemporary rationalist style vision with inspiration and respect for tradition. The spirit of the city of Milan, the home of excellence in Italian design, is re-interpreted between beauty and rigor in an all-encompassing approach to thinking about the whole design project which goes from the direct relationship with the client to a dialogue that is constantly alive and unique with spaces and materials all in the ever-present name of art.

Miss Sixty Store

The project, applied to all four floors of the store, revolves around the idea of leather as a changing and interactive concept. Large strips of fabric covered with metal plates are applied like magnets to the walls, the furnishings are colorful, assemblable and fun. To give height to the entrance floor, the upper mezzanine was opened in the center and a section was cut out on three sides which the bar overlooks. The lower mezzanine houses the special collections but the largest and most representative space of the store is on the lowest floor, minus two below ground level.

Clorofilla Nursery School

The double height of the dome of the original building is highlighted by the striking arches that run along the interior courtyard of a 19th Century house like a cloister. On the ground floor, there is a large covered square, used for meetings and encounters which the classrooms overlook. The heart of the design is a closed garden with glass windows in which a large tree reaches up and out to the terrace of the upper floor. Around the square are two sections of the school, as well as the kitchen, the swimming pool and the offices.

Onward Luxury Group Shoe Factory

The only access to the building is via a ramp that goes directly up to the roof where the staff canteen, a meeting room and a representative space are located together with a garden and a small village inspired by Palladio. A large staircase descends into the bowels of the factory that has been built using technological concrete. The view of the exterior is softened by the variable rhythm of the custom-made horizontal panels that create functional storage spaces and compartments inside. The design was presented at the 13th Venice Architecture Biennale.

Hôtel Particulier

This four-story private residence, built during the 19th Century inside the courtyard of a 17th Century hotel particulier has been restored to unity and its original splendor by a significant cleaning process and a lightening of the environments. The idea of making the spaces both transparent and communicating was combined with the decision to re-establish the relationship with tradition by reinterpreting a number of decorative motifs from classical French residences ranging from plaster moulures to hexagonal mosaic tiles. On entering, one has the feeling that the house has always been like this.

Penthouse GC

The hallmark of this project on the top three floors of a 1950s building is light and an ongoing relationship between inside and outside. A bookshelf staircase connects the entrance floor to the upper floor, originally the building’s terrace which has now been redesigned as a greenhouse and which houses the study while from the roof of the glass-enclosed space another terrace has been created. The renovation project also creates continuity between the contents and the container of which the most interesting construction elements such as the original windows and the Venetian blinds have been carefully preserved.

Pinko Store

A neutral space like a minimalist art gallery where a black iron profile runs along the perimeter of the walls. The thick black line frames the white spaces like monitors which house the hanging clothes and within which a chromed steel tube reflects the surrounding environment almost like a burst of liquid energy. Inside the steel frame which bends and creates eccentric movements compared to the walls, are works of art by Jonathan Binet.