A 16th-Century Monastery Turned Hotel in Abruzzo, Italy

Despite its Adriatic Sea coastline and Apennine Mountains, the Abruzzo region in central Italy lies mainly off the beaten tourist path. The town of Castel di Sangro in the province of L’Aquila is the exception. A destination for gastronomes, aspiring chefs, and intrepid travelers, it exerts a siren call via the three-star Michelin restaurant Reale, housed within Casadonna, the 16th-century former Benedictine monastery that’s now a hotel. The renovation and conversion of the 32,300-square-foot property into a 10-room getaway and culinary academy entailed intense client-architect collaboration. Brother-sister owners are acclaimed chef Niko Romito (who also helms Bulgari restaurants in Paris and Milan) and Cristiana Romito, a multilingual translator turned accredited sommelier and maître d’hôtel. The architect is Leonardo De Carlo of Pescara-based Studio Leonardo Project, who characterizes his style as “clean and minimal, with strong character.” That translates here to “simplicity and synthesis,” Niko Romito affirms. His sister adds: “Every detail creates a coherent, authentic whole.”

Behind the Design of Casadonna, a New Hotel in Abruzzo 

Hospitality doesn’t end at the property’s ancient walls. Casadonna’s site includes a high-altitude vineyard producing primarily Pecorino (the white grape, not the cheese), an orchard, and rose and botanical gardens, and 10 beehives supply homegrown provisions. All paint an enticing scene encouraging us to—presto!—make reservations.

Explore Casadonna, Inside and Out

flexform: sofa, lounge (reale suite).

flexteam: bed.

artemide: bedside lamps.

cassina: chair (reale suite), lounge chairs (lounge), chair (hall).

flos: table lamp (reale suite), floor lamps (lounge).

imperfetto col­lection: bookshelf, tables, mirror, bench (reale suite), mirrors (poesia bathroom), coffee table (lounge), doors, sinks.

pallucco: floor lamp (restaurant).

knoll: side tables (poesia suite).

louis poulsen: lamp.

cristina rubinetterie: bathroom fittings.

glass: bathtubs.

Cersaie Announces 40th Anniversary Event in Italy

Who doesn’t love a celebration? Especially when it’s in Italy. This year the festa is Cersaie’s 40th, taking place, as always, in Bologna, Italy, where international tile manufacturers and distributers converge with a global coterie of designers and architects to discover the industry’s latest offerings from both aesthetic and technological standpoints. Dates are September 25-29.

Along with products, including bathroom furnishings, come events, all of which hopefully can overcome some of the tragedy perpetrated by the May flooding of Emilia Romagna. Cersaie’s Building Dwelling Thinking cultural component, which has seen 12 Pritzker Prize laureates give keynotes, promises involvement by major figures in the design world, while the Press Cafes situated throughout the exhibition halls present venues for conversations between magazine editors and members of the design community. On view, too, will be Cersaie posters over the years, created by such super luminaries as Ettore Sottsass, Alessandro Mendini, and Interior Design Hall of Famer, Antonio Citterio.

Additionally, visitors can venture off-site to discover the charms of Bologna with its 21 towers, frescoed portici, and, of course, the city’s famous food starring tortellini, ragu, and prosciutto as headliners. Join in on the festivities.

Highlights from Cersaie 2022

Though little more than a month ago, Cersaie, the world’s largest exposition of ceramic tile manufacturers promoted by Confindustria Ceramica boasted big news on all fronts. A consortium of designers, architects, and manufacturers first experienced five sun-filled days in Bologna taking in the city’s delights—and tiles. Next came official facts and figures. Cersaie counted a 50% increase in visitors from last year, the number totaling 91,296. But perhaps the best news of all were the tiles themselves, which showed the industry’s vitality.

Here, Interior Design cites highlights from the event. Who knows when these introductions may find their way to walls, floors, and outdoor settings in the most artistic manner?

Ceramic Tiles in Bloom at Cersaie 2022

Color bloomed, especially in glazed brick formats, with blues and greens predominating. For example, Interior Design Hall of Famer Paola Navone of Studio Otto seemed to have had a psychic meeting with David Hockney. The studio’s addition to ABK’s Poetry House includes a range of new shades, like popular blush. Ferruccio Laviani made a statement with Pigmenti, a 12-color system available in various slab shapes for walls, indoors and out, for Lea. Meanwhile, Drip Lines brought color to linen-like and bronze textures seen in room settings at Sant’Agostino. For hand-painted tiles aglow with glazing and depth, Cerasarda’s Yacht Club collection, emanating from Sardinia was a standout. “The Hermès of ceramics,” noted the rep, who also pointed out a brand-new texture, Sughero, Italian for cork.

Tiles Inspired by the Natural World

Of course, biophilic patterns reigned supreme. While fetching blossoms were on hand per years past, palm fronds appeared new to this year’s stage. Greenery was executed in a range of techniques ranging from monochromatic as in Ceramica Fondovalle’s Dream to hand-painted watercolor looks at Caesar’s Deco Solutions to bold strokes, exemplary at Ceramica del Conca’s Studio and Jungle groups.

Versace Takes a Maximalist Approach

At Cersaie 2022, some of the stones may have been grounded in reality, but most appeared to be larger than life. Call it nature on steroids. Leave it to Versace to make the point. One collection, Maximus, says it all, whether the inspiration was classic statuario white marble, hints of lapus lazuli, tiger’s eye, touches of pink and green, and, of course, black and gold. Some of Versace’s inimitable textile prints were transferred to large ceramic slabs in its Manifesto group, while believe it or not, some of the more discreet logo images were found, too, in Icons as tiles for wall coverings. Check out the classic Medusa medallion, or better yet, the Versace name embedded in a subtle 3-D trompe l’oeil.

For real 3-D, Michele Pasini, Barbara Ghidoni, and Marco Donati, co-founders of the esteemed, Milan-based design firm Storage Associati hit it out of the park for Bardelli with Volume. Go cool and neutral, bold black and white, or vibrant fashion colors. Any choice makes a must-see statement.

Other big-name, international architecture firms weighed in as well. HBA, the hospitality giant, collaborated with Atlas Concorde to create the Marvel Travertine Collection, tweaking the “stone” with such shapes as Origami and Tesselation, and even adding a girl’s best friend to Diamond panels. Meanwhile Kohn Pedersen Fox and Casalgrande Padana subtly captured the unique energy of New York, London, Shanghai, and Hong Kong with its City Collection.

Channel ’70s Chic With These Palettes and Patterns 

Surprisingly Cersaie 2022 took a step back—to the ‘70’s. References to the decade came through with googly patterns such as Piemme’s Honey Flower and Trend in navy and sage, Naxos Ceramica’s Chromatica Mosaico Glee, and the erstwhile popular ochre shade as presented by La Fabbrica in an installation of its Small collection. 

Finally, one of the best aspects of this immense show, especially for this long-time Cersaie aficionado, is just letting our eyes wander, appreciating the variety and range of graphics. We saw calming clouds, ie Nuages, from Papier. Faded frescoes that could have come from any ancient palazzo were plentiful. Francesco di Maio took us to the fabled Amalfi coast drawing inspiration from its Cathedral of Sant’Andrea with the hand-painted majolica tiles of its Duomo Collection, a contemporary counterpart to the church’s medieval roots. Meanwhile the company’s Cevi division presented Melody, a jazzy, rhythmical group derived from piano keys, staves, and metronomes. The end results? Harmonious patterns adjoining floors and walls. Again, each tile was hand painted. As for colors, were we partial to Napoli and sky blues? You betcha.

Finally, we come to Davide Tonelli’s ultra-contemporary black and white graphic extravaganza, Riggiole for Ceramica Fioranese. To which we add a favorite Italian phrase, venite con noi nel 2023, and the overall description of Cersaie 2022: ottimismo.

Molteni&C Expands its Headquarters With a New Pavilion Designed by Vincent Van Duysen

What does the future of the workplace look like? For Molteni&C, the answer is constantly evolving. The brand’s headquarters in Giussano, Italy, just north of Milan, features a new hospitality pavilion by creative director Vincent Van Duysen—his first architectural addition to the grounds. The Molteni Pavilion, which sits within the Molteni Compound, expands the brand’s space by more than 15,000 square feet, reflecting its growth and global reach.

“We are proud to host within our compound a piece of architecture designed by our creative director, a new contemporary which is integrated into the historic site and signals the company’s new path towards the future,” shares Carlo Molteni, chairman of the Molteni Group, in a statement.

The Pavilion, which includes a new reception and dining area, builds on earlier site reconfigurations from the mid-1980s and ’90s, including the brand’s showroom, designed in-house by Luca Meda. Original midcentury details remain visible throughout the Compound, such as the façade cladding and window frames. 

“The expansion of the Compound represents the Molteni Group’s determination to provide an all-round holistic experience for visitors. The new annex areas bring a breath of innovation and modernity to the headquarters,” shares Van Duysen in a statement. The project “stems from the idea of creating a continuous dialogue between domestic and open spaces. This is why, in addition to the new Pavilion and the transformation of the existing ground floor, I wanted to place great value on the exterior,” he adds.

Visitors en route to the Pavilion encounter paths punctuated by dark columns engulfed in greenery—a collaboration with landscape architect, Marco Bay—while the structure’s concrete roof and ground-level platform anchor the space within its surroundings. With custom furnishings throughout, the new Molteni Pavilion emanates an elegant yet understated sophistication, showcasing the brand’s roots in Italy with an eye toward the future.

This Napoli Home by Giuliano Andrea dell’Uva Architetti is a Hidden Gem

Italy’s third largest city, Naples, is not exactly known as a locus of peace and quiet. “The city is certainly chaotic,” says architect Giuliano Andrea dell’Uva, who has lived most of his 41 years there. “Its charm also comes from managing to find the serene and calm in that chaos.” That is precisely what he accomplished with his redesign of a three-bedroom, four-bath flat in the upscale Posillipo quarter for art/design collectors Irene and Teodoro Falco and their teenage daughter and son.

In a twist of fate, the 3,400-square-foot apartment, located in a 1956 building by Davide Pacanowski, has roots in dell’Uva’s youth, when he first became acquainted with the work of the Polish-born architect, a student of Le Corbusier’s. “I lived in a stretch of the Posillipo hill and was fascinated by the sight of Villa Crespi, a bold project of rationalist architecture that Pacanowski designed in 1955,” he recalls. The cliffside residence, with cantilevered slabs wedged between ancient pine trees, “was, for me, a symbol of the direct relationship between architecture and sea.”

Alas, his clients’ flat, though retaining some historical elements like porthole windows, had been restored in the 1990s “to a more neoclassical taste that eradicated its original charm,” dell’Uva recounts. “I really tried to get it back.”

Doing so entailed reconfiguring the floor plan around sea views, so that the public areas and main bedroom face the Gulf of Naples. Dell’Uva forewent corridors and divisions in favor of making the space as open as possible. The entry leads to conjoined living and dining areas (the Falcos requested a statement salon in which to receive guests) separated from the eat-in kitchen by full-height brass-frame glass doors. To the left of the living area’s fireplace—a steel marvel designed by the French sculptor Robert Ascain in 1972—a curved wall subtly directs foot traffic to a row of sleeping quarters: first the main suite, followed by bedrooms for the kids, as well as their own youthful sitting room. The son gets a custom berth tucked into a space-age aluminum enclosure.

The gulf also inspired the color scheme: sparsely deployed yellows and blues (see the cipollino marble paving the entry and cladding the primary bath walls) against a background of sparkling white. The city’s world-class cultural scene also figures prominently in the form of the couple’s blue-chip art collection as well as covetable vintage furnishings from a cadre of specialist dealers. Elements by maestri of design invariably factor into any dell’Uva project. He grew up surrounded by the work of Gio Ponti, Franco Albini, and others, which instilled a love of design in him from an early age. “Even as a little boy I would draw houses and interiors,” he recalls. (Dell’Uva was certainly precocious: his first project, at the tender age of 17, was the renovation of a family home his architect great-grandfather had designed in 1924; and he launched his own studio at 23, shortly after graduating from the Università di Napoli Federico II.)

cc tapis: rug (living area)

la cividina: sofas

through galleria francesco: coffee table

tacchini: armchairs

rezina: resin floor

through dimore gallery: floor lamp

through robertaebasta: chimney breast (living area), chandelier (dining area)

Nilufar: custom table, chairs (dining area)

paola c.: glass centerpiece

through galleria massimo caiafa: leather armchair (son’s room)

cassina: chairs (kitchen)

abimis: island

B&B Italia: sofa (kids’ lounge)

through galleria rossella colombari: vintage ceiling light

alimonti milano: marble (bathroom)

Dornbracht: sink and shower fittings

galleria elena: tilework (primary bedroom)

Nilufar: sofa

Don’t Miss Out on This Design Competition for a Trip to Cersaie in Bologna, Italy

From major cities to charming villages, Italy is a visitor’s perennial delight. Come September, a highly anticipated trip to Bologna for Cersaie is a standing date for Italophiles, designers, and architects seeking to explore the innovations proffered by the global tile industry. Take it from us, long-time Cersaie attendees, the fair never ceases to amaze and inform. As for Bologna, the country’s gastronomical, cultural, and vibrant haven with the world’s oldest university and burgeoning design scene, it becomes a personal favorite for all who experience its wonders.

As part of Cersaie’s initiative, Confindustria Ceramica (the Italian Association of Ceramics) and EdiCer SpA, its organizer are sponsoring Destination Cersaie|Bologna Program, a design competition organized by Ceramics of Italy, open to all North American professionals. A concurrent competition, the Young Distributors competition, initiated in 2019, invites distributors and importers, also in North America, to apply.  Winners are awarded a five-day, CEU-accredited trip to the fair where they will be part of a collegial delegation of journalists, designers, and architects. In addition to guided tours at Bologna’s Exhibition Centre, they will experience such extra-curricular pleasures as trips outside the city to a tile factory and historic balsamic vinegar producer. Dates are September 25-29, and the application deadline of July 15 is rapidly approaching. Along with their projects, applicants must complete a questionnaire and state why they would like to attend Cersaie. To which we add, in bocca al lupo or good luck.

FNA Concept Designs a Stylishly Heady Venetian Apartment on the City’s Grand Canal

“I design everything,” states Francesca Neri, founder of Milan interiors studio FNA Concept as she dishes on her latest project during a visit to New York earlier this month. “Stairs, wardrobes, beds, doors, handles, windows, fireplaces, tables. I call it ‘from arch to ashtray’.” The interior designer, who lives in the Swiss-Italian alps, encourages her studio’s 10-person team (“more a family,” she demurs) to travel for inspiration. “It pushes the eye,” she says. “If we all only look at the same things online, design will become flat.” There’s nothing flat or derivative about her recent Venice apartment for a family of five. Originally, the historic home was one large apartment located on the Grand Canal. FNA concept split it in two and the family retained one side as a pied-à-terre. The structure was in dire need of a refit: heating, cooling, mechanicals, the lot. What remained were the original design features, like the living room’s circa 16th-century terrazzo floor that has become a rich palimpsest of eras as it has been added to over the centuries.

Unusually, Neri starts with materials before layout, and prefers to work with what is available locally rather than dream up an item then attempt to source it globally. “I’m lucky, because Italy is home to craft excellence,” she says. “I describe the project to the craftspeople then invite them to interact with one another. This is the only way for everyone to tell a single story.” Working with local and often antique goods helped with the project’s on-time delivery—even though it took place at the height of the pandemic and across two lockdowns, with every material ferried in by boat (the only modality in watery Venice).

Neri is the former creative director of luxury linen company Frette but she also spent three formative years in architect Alessandro Mendini’s studio, and counts the icon as a mentor. “He taught me the importance of detail and color,” she notes. That legacy is apparent in the Grand Canal apartment’s carefully balanced eclecticism of styles and objects. Most furnishings, like the living room’s golden Vienna wicker settee, were selected with the client on trips to Mercanteinfiera in Parma and Marché aux Puces in Paris. Other items are custom, such as Murano glass objets or FNA’s own brass and bamboo cocktail tables, and contemporary (see the sculptural Draga Obradovic console). Bedrooms are what Neri calls a fantasy of color: one red, one green, one blue, with lamps made from one-off antique fabrics painstakingly collected over time. It’s all very Venice, but hardly stuffy. In the social spaces, Rubelli silk damask wallcovering and Pierre Frey fabrics pair with rugs from Morocco and a chanced-upon rare gilded Japanese screen that just happened to be the perfect size for the dining room wall. “Asian touches are often found in Venetian interiors,” Neri notes. “That’s the history of Venice: a port where everyone all across the world comes together.”

13 Highlights from the 2022 La Biennale di Venezia 

Postponed by one year and overcoming the uncertainty of the global pandemic with a bang, the 2022 edition of La Biennale di Venezia recently opened its doors. Titled “Milk of Dreams” and curated by Cecilia Alemani, the 59th International Art Exhibition runs through November 27 in Venice and has pivoted to account for the ever-shifting global climate. 

The Ukrainian pavilion prepared for 2021 was replaced with a more current response to the invasion of the country. Nearby, the Russian pavilion lies empty—the participants resigned following the invasion of Ukraine—and protestors against the war gather daily. However, the 213 artists from 58 countries featured in the Central Pavilion (Giardini) and in the Arsenale offer more than a dash of escapism, with a dreamy alternative reality frequently found among the 1,433 works on view. From larger-than-life sculptures intended to empower Black women to hyperrealistic centaurs, here are 13 of our favorite finds.

1. Sentinel and Facade

Several new sculptures by Simone Leigh with a narrative intended to empower Black women and address history, race, and gender dominated the U.S. pavilion. Sentinel is a large-scale bronze sculpture.

2. We Walked the Earth

We Walked the Earth, the hyperrealistic Danish pavilion, follows the life of a family of centaurs—exposing the drama of the half-human, half-animal creatures in striking detail.

3. Earthly Paradise

Pleasant aromas waft from what appears to be chest-high soil in Delcy Morelos’s Earthly Paradise, a site-specific mixed-media installation in Arsenale composed of soil, clay, cinnamon, powder cloves, cocoa powder, cassava starch, tobacco, copaiba, baking soda, and powdered charcoal.

4. Chun Kwang Young: Times Reimagined

Hanji or sustainable paper made from the bark of the Korean mulberry tree, is the medium of choice in “Chun Kwang Young: Times Reimagined,” on view in Palazzo Contarini Polignac. This organic-appearing spiky mulberry paper ball is one of 40 reliefs, sculptures, and installations by Chun in the site-specific installation curated by Yongwoo Lee.

5. Hanji House

Visible from Venice’s Grand Canal, an origami-like structure sprouts between Venetian buildings in contemporary contrast. Constructed in dialogue with “Chun Kwang Young: Times Reimagined,” the timber and textile membrane on soil Hanji House is an example of temporary foldable architecture by Italian architect Stefano Boeri, with geometry consisting of four pyramids on top of a parallelepiped. Inside, with a virtual presentation of Chun Kwang Young’s work, is an interactive art installation by Calvin J. Lee. At night, the building is transformed into a glowing landmark. Photography by Alice Clancy/courtesy of CKY Studio. 

6. Gõegõe

It’s not the first time that Bronwyn Katz has incorporated mattresses into her work. Gõegõe, featured in the Giardini venue, is made of repurposed bedsprings.

7. Pastel Sculptures

Zsófia Keresztes, celebrated for her pastel sculptures—moulded shapes clad in shiny glass mosaic—takes over the Hungarian Pavilion with a solo show of her work. Keresztes is one of just three female artists presented by the country since 1982.

8. How Do You Feel When Your Body Says Yes?

Artist Melanie Bonajo—who is also a “filmmaker, sexological bodyworker, somatic sex coach and educator, cuddle workshop facilitator and activist,” according to press material—is behind this year’s Dutch pavilion, a video installation presented at an alternative location. “How Do You Feel When Your Body Says Yes?” fills the Chiesetta della Misericordia of Art Events, a deconsecrated 13th-century church in Venice’s Cannaregio district, exploring intimacy from a backdrop of soft upholstered shapes in soothing colors.

9. Piazza Ucraina

At Giardini, near the empty Russian pavilion, is Piazza Ucraina by Ukrainian architect Dana Kosmina. The open-air installation presents Kosmina’s immediate reaction to Russia’s invasion of her country with sculptures including a burned piece of architecture that forces reflection on the destruction of war.

10. For Dreams Have No Titles

Drawing attention to the militant movies of the 1960s and 70s, Zineb Sedira’s For Dreams Have No Titles transforms the French pavilion into a film studio and video installation.

11. Sunset Light

Works by electric artist Laura Grisi (1939-2017) are a highlight in the Technologies of Enchantment gallery in Giardini. Her plexiglass Sunset Light series (1967)—surprisingly modern for the time—are light pillars that glow like the sun via a yellow neon core.

12. Shooting into the Corner

Among the more notable off-site events held in parallel with the Biennale is a retrospective exhibition on British artist Anish Kapoor. The canon-powered installation Shooting into the Corner, which shoots blood-red balls of wax, is among 60 works on view at the Gallerie dell’Accademia and Palazzo Manfrin.

13. White Cube

A series of Akari lamps by sculptor Isamu Noguchi overtake a ceiling in Danh Vo, Isamu Noguchi and Park Seo-Bo, an off-site installation coinciding with the fair filling the rooms of Fondazione Querini Stampalia, a 16th century historic palace.  Curated by Danh Vo and Chiara Bertola in collaboration with White Cube gallery, the installation offers a peek at the home of the royal Venetian family Querini Stampalia.

A Look Back at 90 Years of Timeless Design

Modern projects from as early as the 1930’s are still relevant today, proving that form, function, and the pursuit of innovation can endure for nearly a century—just like Interior Design.

City of Tresigallo, Italy, 1939

Masterminded by Tresigallo native Edmondo Rossoni, then minister of agriculture and forestry, the city’s “refounding” began around 1930, when Rossoni ordered a road connecting it to Ferrara be built, to improve trade, and enlisted young professionals—engineer Carlo Frighi, sculptor Enzo Nenci, and landscape architect Pietro Porcinai, among others—to design a rationalist urban plan, with pastel-colored buildings and clean, essential lines, resulting in a tenfold increase in population then and a must-see destination for architects of today.

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La Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul de Vence, France, 1964, Sert, Jackson and Associate

Led by architect Josep Lluís Sert, a former Harvard GSD dean (1953– 1969) and friend of fellow Spaniard Joan Miró, the institution founded by art-dealer couple Aimé and Marguerite Maeght is France’s first devoted to art, the in situ modern works by the likes of Miró, Alexander Calder, Marc Chagall, and Diego Giacometti, as well as the temporary exhibitions it currently hosts, in harmony with the natural surroundings and the building’s architecture, done in a welcoming Mediterranean village style of white poured-concrete impluviums, earthy brick, and myriad patios.

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Spiegel Gruppe, Hamburg, Germany, 1969, by Verner Panton

The publishing company perhaps most known for its news outlet Der Spiegel enlisted the Danish architect, who cut his teeth at Arne Jacobsen’s studio, for its then new headquarters, his purview encompassing the lobby, lounges, and conference rooms, palette and furniture selection, including the Harry Bertoia chairs in the canteen (which graced the cover of our 75th anniversary issue), and the design of all textiles and lighting; today, the Spiegel sconce has been reissued by Verpan and the canteen is under heritage protection.

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Cartiera Burgo, Turin, Italy, 1981, by Oscar Niemeyer

The headquarters of the paper-manufacturing company now called Burgo Group was designed by the venerable Brazilian architect during his exile years, about a decade after he’d completed the company’s editorial offices in Milan, and one of only two buildings he built in Turin, appointing this one with furniture by Eero Saarinen and him and his daughter Anna Maria; the building stands today unoccupied but there have been recent proposals for its adaptive reuse.

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Casa Orgánica, Mexico City, 1985, by Arquitectura Orgánica

Founder Javier Senosian, now 73, is an early practitioner of organic architecture, this house reflective of the movement, its ferro-cement, or reinforced cast concrete, formwork sprayed with polyurethane and then partially covered with soil for grass to grow directly on the facade, and interior conceived to evoke a mother’s embrace or the sensation of entering the earth, the latter emphasized by an all-over sand-colored palette; first designed with a single bedroom, when the house was expanded, workers dubbed it “the shark” for its appearance and a fin was added.

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Benedetta Tagliabue-EMBT Designs a Contemporary Church in Northern Italy

Sinuous and sculptural, San Giacomo Apostolo Church is capped by deconstructed planes of thin copper panels. Topping the ground-up parish complex in the northern Italian city of Ferrara, the roofscape was inspired by a hot-air balloon after it falls flat to the ground. “When we were coming up with ideas, we found this image of a balloon festival in the skies of Ferrara, struck by what impressive, colorful, and light structures they were,” architect Benedetta Tagliabue recalls. “At the same time, we were looking at the beautiful city, its brick and monochromatic hues, medieval and Renaissance architecture, and thinking Why should we go back to history and mimic it? Let’s be inspired by something else.” Inspired she was. The unique roof is just one of several contemporary standouts in the decade-long project masterminded by Benedetta Tagliabue-EMBT, the Spanish studio Tagliabue cofounded with her late husband Enric Miralles and of which she is now CEO and head architect.

Commissioned in 2011 by the Conferenza Episcopale Italiana, Italy’s official assembly of bishops, San Giacomo Apostolo is part of a pilot program to erect three new Catholic parishes throughout the country where growing congregations made new facilities necessary. Composed of a 7,600-square-foot church and rectory, plus a 9,000-square-foot annex with meeting and classroom spaces, it shares a plot with the former church, now a nursery and kindergarten.

Beneath the wavy roof, a striped undulating exterior of red brick and white concrete underscores the church’s modern expression. “Using two materials was partly about not wanting to be overly assertive with one,” Tagliabue explains, “but it was about giving the building visibility, too.” The materials also contribute to the project being contextual: The brickwork, a three-point pattern in some sections, nods to the carved marble “diamond” exteriors of the 15th-century Palazzo dei Diamanti nearby.

Inside the church is equally impressive and unexpected. Light, both natural and artificial, is a defining characteristic. It pours in through a central oculus and surrounding clerestories, encouraging congregants to look ever heavenwards, and is supplemented by Tagliabue’s domelike beech pendant fixtures. Also in abundance is concrete. She and her team had wanted to build the church out of wood but couldn’t because of budget constraints. When they settled on concrete, they’d planned to treat it but realized, despite initial client opposition, that it was more beautiful in its raw form, particularly as a backdrop to site-specific artwork.

Collaborating with sculptor and painter Enzo Cucchi is one of the reasons the project endured for so long. The works of Cucchi, who’s part of the Transvanguardia, a neo-Espressionist movement, gave pause to the CEI’s more conservative members. “They were afraid of what he would do, so it got stuck for a while,” Tagliabue reports. But the artist kept his impulse for the provocative at bay, choosing instead to adorn eight walls of the church with large crosses in pietra serena, a noble gray sandstone, installed either vertically, slanted, or along a curve so that “you see the sculpture going around the edge,” Tagliabue notes. Each cross has a black ceramic base carved in bas-relief with verses from the Old and New Testaments.

Behind the altar, a dramatic monolith carved from a single block of unpolished white limestone, is another, even larger cross devised by Cucchi. Its cues come from the early Christian and medieval tradition of the crux gemmata, Latin for jeweled cross, Cucchi studding the sculpture not only with golden ceramic elements but also surrounding it with glazed ceramic “gems” in colors that represent “the stars, saints, and angels in the sky,” Tagliabue enthuses. “I love that Enzo saw that, by enhancing the walls with a simple cross, they would become something else entirely. It’s a fantastic integration between art and architecture—the art ties right into the materiality of the project.”

EMBT was keen to use timber where it could, so the firm created a vaulted ceiling of thin pine slats that encompasses a suspended metaphorical baldachin. The vault, which was fabricated on-site with intended and poetic gaps that “let something of the original structure emerge,” was about creating this “idea of being in a humble cabin that keeps the community together,” Tagliabue says. Wood, along with stripes, reappear in the furniture, for the pulpit, the chairs for the priests and acolytes, and the plinths, all made by the studio from alternating sections of mahogany and beech laminates.

One of the studio’s concerns was not having the building look too new. “It’s terrible if a church looks as if it’s just landed there,” Tagliabue states. The plan was to break some of the points on the exterior bricks so the facade looked older, but that was deemed too complicated and, Cucchi thought, “manneristic.” However, the copper roof will help provide that desired patina, morphing from orange brown to matte green over time. For a sense of gravitas inside, the team inserted found objects with previous, preferably religious, lives: a baptismal fount Tagliabue’s father sourced in an antiques shop, a Virgin Mary from a derelict church in Ferrara, an old monstrance and reliquary. In the concrete flooring, rectangular stone slabs with patterns reminiscent of old tombs have been inlaid to recall the floors of grand, centuries-old cathedrals.

Floating above the entire nave is a flat horizontal cross of fir beams salvaged from Ferrara’s town hall. Since they’re at least 500 years old and dilapidated, they couldn’t be used structurally. Instead they’re joined together on metal beams to create a crowning crucifix that doesn’t overawe or oppress, but rather imbues San Giacomo Apostolo with history and presence.

Benedetta Tagliabue-EMBT: joan callis; valentina nicol noris; nazaret busto rodríguez; julia de ory mallavia; daniel hernán garcía; camilla persi

artec3 studio: lighting consultant.

studio iorio: structural engineer

falegnameria loro: custom furniture workshop

idealwork: concrete work

concordia sas; costruzioni tiziano geom: project manager

Add tag via side panel: costruzioni tiziano geom

bover: pendant fixtures

3G Lighting: iguzzini illuminazione; stingers illuminotecnica

idealstile: paint, plasterboard

ideal work: flooring

falegnameria lucietti: windows, doors

gela: copper supplier

san marco terreal: brick supplier