Jul

Meet Marco Piva: a top Architect and Designer from Italy

Marco Piva is currently one of the world’s top references regarding Italian design and architecture. Known for having an exciting, fluid and functional language transpire through his architectural creations, product design and interior design, his studio is a good example as a project that values differentiation and innovation in many areas of design. Milan Design Agenda will be showing you a little interview we had with the interior designer regarding his career as well as his points of view regarding the future of the industry he’s inserted in.

Piva is a top reference regarding Italian architecture, interior design and product conceptions. He was a part of the establishment of Studiodada Associates (known for its impact as one of the most representative companies of the period of Radical Design) having thereafter moved on to open his own interior design studio during the 80s. From this time period to today, Marco Piva’s work has had an impact worldwide, proving once again that the Italian touch, when done right, is always special for an interior design project.

“I do believe that the roots of the Italian approach to Architecture and Design come from giants like Leonardo Da Vinci, Brunelleschi, Leon Battista Alberti, Palladio.“

More than an architect or an interior designer, Marco Piva is an innovator who describes himself as being very much in love with what he does. He has a typically Italian approach to everything he touches, by giving his all in directing the many projects he has. Be it the project or the conception of the furniture and complements for many a-listers in this industry Studio Marco Piva manages to play and fuse a series of elements in a successful Italian take.

“Architecture, interior and product design merge in a synchronous process to reach a unitary work, that assures continuity and fluidity of language in both stylistic and functional terms. I feel like a “director of an orchestra “, where music ” the project ” it is conceived creatively. That’s what I love most of my job.”

Marco Piva is known for having a careful approach to his projects, by studying and creating innovative design solutions best described as having unique compositional sobriety and stylistic freedom to them. Of course, he always has the care to adapt to the culture of the location of the project in order to create a relationship of respect with the client. We are talking of locations such as China, United States, India, Montecarlo, United Arab Emirates, Algeria and Albania. However, despite the differences in location and culture, all of Piva’s clients contact him for the same purpose:

“What they expect from us is a “special touch“ some “genetic design contribution” generated by our Italian Culture, link to an idea of life Style that is exclusively Italian.

Our studio develops its activities starting first from the “background”of a specific territory if we talk about Master Planning, of a specific character of the surrounding city if is an architecture, of the mean of a new product if is the case of a piece of industrial design.”

When it came the time to pick a marking project in Marco Piva’s career he knew the answer straight away: Excelsior Hotel Gallia in Milan. The main reason the architect gave for this choice was related to the fact that it was the one project where he had the chance of working on it as a whole, more specifically in factors such as its Architecture, the Interior Design, the Landscape, the Lighting, its Industrial Design and even on the choices for Artworks.

“The biggest challenge was to preserve its historical background, formally linked to the Belle Epoque architectural style, and at the same time connecting it to the modern buildings around, such as the Pirelli or Torre Galfa, symbols of modern Milan architecture and to the new development of Milano Porta Nuova in the background. My intention since the beginning was, respecting the design timeline, to bring back this famous Hotel to its past splendor, launching it in the contemporary era, searching for a balance between the old and the new within a dynamic relationship of shapes, spaces and materials. ”

When asked about what changes he predicts or would like to see in the design industry his answer left no doubts: the fusion of technology and creativity is a focal point for the survival of contemporary design. He also pointed out that concepts such as sustainability, alongside sobriety and simplicity, are concepts that will remain essential regarding present-day design concepts.

“It does not make anymore sense, today, to talk about design as an end in itself. The trend of the future will be to put creativity and technology at the service of the more general expectations creating new cities, architectures and design products that will be conceived and realised starting from ethic to achieve aesthetic and function.The all world is here to be redesign for better.”