A Spirited Adventure - Taking an old house and bringing the decor into modern design

Interiors of Claudio and Maria Luti's Belle Epoque house in the residential center of Milan are the product of rigorous planning. Carved boiseries, a William Morris–inspired mural, mercury-stained mirrors, the iron housing that surrounds a nineteenth-century-style elevator, and a good deal of high-tech plastic furniture suggest a well-focused strategy to create a highly contemporary kind of refuge. Open-minded owners made this project a reality, says Milan-based designer Roberto Peregalli, who, together with the Lutis and his business partner, architect Laura Rimini, created the interiors. "At Kartell," Claudio Luti says, speaking of the family firm he has transformed into a multimillion-dollar business specializing in plastic furnishings, "we design products that can be at home in any setting." This house is living proof of the Lutis' willingness to demonstrate the compatibility of furnishings of the past and the future.

Maria Luti greets me in a living room where the walls are painted with vines and floral motifs. Despite the ornate surfaces, characteristic of Peregalli and Rimini's discerning eye for exquisite craftsmanship, this room is one of many compromises between Peregalli's sometimes grandiose taste and the Lutis' preference for simpler solutions. "Roberto found some rare eighteenth-century panels of Cordoba leather and was determined we should buy them for this room," Maria Luti says. "So my husband and I went to London to see them. They were beautiful, but we weren't convinced. They were too grand. Roberto didn't give up, however. He had them reproduced on canvas, and here they are: a simpler, painted version," she says, pointing at the wall decorations.

Although her house is infused with a faded, pre–machine age atmosphere, Luti—a cardiologist—and her husband are not people who live in the past. To the contrary, they have long been immersed in design and technology. Maria's mother, Anna Castelli Ferrieri, a well-known Rationalist architect and designer, created all the family homes. Her father, Giulio Castelli, is a chemical engineer who in 1949 founded Kartell, one of the first companies to specialize in household furnishings in plastic. "The world's first plastic bucket," says Maria Luti, "was a Kartell creation." Today the company, which now specializes in plastic furniture and accessories designed by renowned international designers and architects, is owned and managed by Claudio Luti. "All my life," says Maria, "I have lived in ultramodern surroundings." So how did this house happen? "Places have an aura of their own," she explains. "When I first saw this house I was touched by its peculiarly remote atmosphere." Luti also says that after living all her life in all-white, minimally furnished interiors, she was interested in adding another dimension.

Peregalli and Rimini were ideal candidates to help the Lutis create a different setting. He is a family friend who had already done work for Maria's brother. As a favored disciple of Renzo Mongiardino, the late architect and decorator, who created some of the most original interiors of the second half of the twentieth century, Peregalli inherited the old master's legacy of putting ancient techniques in the service of visionary schemes. Rimini is an architect; Peregalli is not. "As a young man," Peregalli says, "I asked Mongiardino what I should study in order to work with him. He replied: `Whatever you do, don't study architecture.' So I studied philosophy instead." The result of the collaboration between architect Rimini and philosopher Peregalli is a style rooted in traditional craftsmanship that eludes contemporary categories.

Peregalli and Rimini were fascinated by the challenges the house offered. According to Peregalli, there were two main problems to solve: "The first was a desperately ugly staircase and no elevator." The solution was to create a generous staircase that, like a huge winding column, envelops the decorative iron-bound elevator shaft. The structure of the house, with its many smallish rooms on four floors, was another complication. Peregalli characteristically found a solution in philosophical paradoxes. "In a small room," he says, "a sense of space is created through fullness." In a similar vein, light is evoked through darkness. "If you have a dark room," Peregalli muses, "the worst thing you can do is paint it all white. It just looks sad. A single ray of sun in a black room, on the other hand, vibrates with light." "At first I worried where the compromises between Peregalli's and my husband's visions would lead us," Maria Luti admits. "But then I realized that the timeworn atmosphere they created is an ideal setting for our Kartell pieces. Many of our designers have an attachment to classic shapes even though the mate- rials used are high-tech." As she speaks she points toward Philippe Starck's transparent Louis Ghost chairs, which fit perfectly into the eighteenth-century-inspired dining room. She also mentions the sinuous lines of the Ron Arad bookshelves in the space used by the Lutis' two grown children. "It took some time to get used to all this," Luti says, "but it continues to be an interesting adventure." Peregalli has clearly worked his magic well.