All through historical past, Rome and Paris might have competed by way of creativity, historical past, gastronomy, vogue and artwork, however on the five-star Bulgari Hotel Paris on Avenue George V, they’ve known as a truce. Uncommon Gio Ponti ceramics, interlacing Pinecone lamps by Paola Navone for Fontana Arte, Dedar materials in garnet, amethyst and gilded topaz, and glossy Antonio Citterio-designed furnishings by B&B Italia, Flexform, Flos and Maxalto rub shoulders with tall varnished eucalyptus doorways crafted by one of the best cabinetmakers and straw marquetry ornament by Ateliers Lison de Caunes. Italian refinement is present in each element, such because the bookmatched Arabescato marble within the lavatory – a technical feat to chop the blocks with symmetrical veins – whereas the Parisian artwork of residing is seen within the carpets’ chevron sample, a sublime nod to French herringbone parquet, or a glass artwork piece engraved with the Bulgari Serpenti Constellation motif utilizing the identical historic method as France’s grasp glassmaker, René Lalique.
Upon entry, guests uncover a portrait of Italian actress Monica Vitti painted by Franco-Chinese language artist Yan Pei-Ming, a black-and-white {photograph} of Sophia Loren and a signature eight-pointed star in black Zimbabwean granite on the ground echoing the one in Bulgari’s historic boutique on Through Condotti in Rome. The creation of the Milanese structure and inside design agency ACPV Architects Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel, the decor of the Bulgari Resort Paris with its 76 rooms and suites showcases an expensive “Italianness” particular to the well-known jewellery model impressed by Roman artwork and structure. Answerable for designing all Bulgari inns worldwide, Patricia Viel, architect, co-founder and CEO of ACPV Architects Antonio Citterio, shares her artistic course of in designing the latest outpost of the Bulgari resort household.
Describe your design language and philosophy, your sources of inspiration and what makes your strategy distinctive. How has your strategy formed the interiors and façades that you just created for the Bulgari Resort Paris?
We strategy architectural or inside design tasks by finding out the constructing website, its context and historical past, and we contemplate them because the uncooked supplies of our tasks. We search options that construct a robust relationship with the environment by engaged on the architectural language and the design articulations of the areas. The intention is all the time to boost the values that govern the lifetime of the placement. For Bulgari Resort Paris, our observe was accountable for the inside design that covers 76 rooms and suites, together with the 400-sqm penthouse. We additionally labored on the constructing and façade of the resort in collaboration with the French architectural agency Valode & Pistre. A key side of our challenge was to design with an architectural language that responds to the inspiring location within the Golden Triangle of Paris. It was about establishing a stylistic continuum with the geometry of Haussmann’s Paris and its Grands Boulevards, with the neat rows of bushes and with the Artwork Deco views of the Trocadéro in direction of the Seine. Bulgari Resort Paris integrates elegantly into this duality between bourgeois and bohemian identities with its personal expression of luminosity and purity.
What was your transient and crucial consideration once you first began designing the resort, and the overarching most important thought you tried to attain?
We aimed to attain a synthesis between this specific Parisian id and the Roman spirit and meticulous craftsmanship of Bulgari. The style for colours, the tone of voice and the esthetics that distinguish the Bulgari model are translated within the inns in an structure that’s not enthusiastic about creating trophies however, as an alternative, goes past the architectural challenge itself to create distinctive experiences. The design additionally makes use of a cautious choice of supplies, for instance, with the selection of typical Parisian limestone that reinforces the constructing’s relationship with the city context.
How did you bear in mind the structure and character of the constructing when doing the inside design, and what authentic components did you retain and alter?
One of many challenges was the design of the façade that dates again to the Nineteen Seventies. What we saved from it was its authentic attraction and timeless contemporaneity. The outside traces had been pared again to subtly reference Italian Renaissance structure by creating elongated window openings that cowl two flooring, which is a component that recollects aristocratic palaces designed by Andrea Palladio. With this façade design, Bulgari Resort Paris resembles the inns in Milan, London and Beijing, whereas on the similar time integrating native traditions, resembling ashlar masonry within the case of Paris. The interiors reiterate this particular bond amongst Bulgari Inns by reinterpreting luxurious as a brand new notion of high quality that’s expressed by means of the choice of supplies and materials.
How did you mix Italian design and French craftsmanship on this resort?
It was actually about choosing the textures and colours that characterize the opposite Bulgari properties. Silk wall coverings, varnished eucalyptus woodwork, tapestries and using granite had been the defining options of the interiors that accommodate designer furnishings. The Italian design is then enriched by the collaboration with the best French artisan studios that work in lacquer, parchment and straw marquetry within the fashion of well-known French inside designer Jean-Michel Frank. So, in a sure sense, Bulgari Resort Paris turns into a wedding between “la dolce vita” and “la vie en rose”.
Inform me concerning the supplies, furnishings, lighting, artworks and coloration schemes you included, going by means of every of the primary areas of the resort.
The choice of all design components was geared in direction of evoking thriller, intimacy and shock. Actually, it’s the Bulgari Penthouse that stands out essentially the most with its spectacular interiors that stand for a completely new sort of resort expertise. Its eating room has an vintage hand-woven Altai carpet and is lit by a glass-and-gold chandelier by Barovier & Toso. It additionally has two kitchens, its personal bar, a really massive bed room aligned with the Eiffel Tower, a rest room clad in bookmatched Arabescato marble, an adjoining personal health room, a hammam, a pantry, a non-public studio with its personal cigar cellar, a front room and a daylight-lit dressing room. The Penthouse additionally options leather-based bookcases, partitions completed in marble and parchment, vases by Gio Ponti, photos by photographer Irene Kung, Turkish kilims and a uncommon Angora wool filiki, whereas the soundscape is formed by Devialet expertise.
That are the personalized items of furnishings or particular design components within the resort that stand out specifically, and who had been the craftsmen?
The lounge space welcomes visitors with iconic items of furnishings already firstly of their keep. Right here, we chosen items by Flexform (just like the Really feel Good chairs), B&B Italia and Maxalto (the Pathos tables and Leukon flooring lamps) – all designed by Antonio Citterio. There’s additionally a Pinecone lamp by Paola Navone for FontanaArte, carpets by Altai and plates by Gio Ponti for Richard Ginori above the fireside. By way of bespoke furnishings, for instance, in the main bedroom of the Penthouse, we now have a custom-designed mattress and desk, complemented by Febo chairs designed by Antonio Citterio for Maxalto and drapes by Dedar. The interiors of the suites are designed in concord with this choice, for instance, the Government Suite with Terrace options furnishings by Maxalto (Pathos desk and Febo chairs designed by Antonio Citterio) and lights by Flos (Kelvin LED lamp by Antonio Citterio). The curtains and couch materials are by Dedar.
Which is your favourite room within the resort and why? How is it designed?
It must be the Bulgari Penthouse that, along with its fascinating interiors, additionally includes 600 sqm of terraces and gardens that remember the enjoyment of spending time outdoor. Your complete place was designed to supply an ideal setting for a rare keep within the coronary heart of Paris at each step of the visitor expertise. The roof backyard, with its backdrop of Parisian roofs, offers panoramic views over the world’s most lovely metropolis. It’s an alluring place the place you may casually wander at sundown amongst oaks, magnolias, redcurrant bushes, apple and pear bushes organized in a cottage backyard fashion, the place you may take pleasure in a variety of out of doors actions, resembling yoga. It a extremely distinctive, intimate and welcoming place.