We have already shared  part 1 of the bespoke interior we recently designed and realised for a London home, including the whole residence, to harmonize the Arts-and-Crafts style of the house with the new extension in concrete, in the backyard.

While in the first post of this series we described the bespoke interior of the kitchen, today we get closer to a significant particular of the living room: the wall panelling for wine.

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• WALL PANELLING FOR WINE – PART OF THE BESPOKE INTERIOR FOR THE NIGHTINGALE LANE HOME IN LONDON

The young couple loves wine and they asked for a space where they can really enjoy this. 

We chose a dead corner between the kitchen and the dining room.

There we designed a hand-lacquered niche for the decanter and wine glasses with a wine cellar underneath and a  honeycomb effect made of solid wood for bottles above.

This niche was incorporated into  wall panelling made of engraved oak.  

The lacquered  niche is prominent  and a wide horizontal strip emphasizes the grain in the wood.

• Z AREA – PART OF THE BESPOKE INTERIOR FOR THE NIGHTINGALE LANE HOME IN LONDON

Inside the bay window we designed a cosy seating area with
asymmetrical leather chairs and  a small  one-leg table in between.

The table top was of pure grain leather cut at an angle of 45 degrees.

We’ll share more soon about this bespoke interior project in London:  keep an eye on us!

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The news is out, and is a beautiful one:

Zaha Hadid won the Royal Gold Medal 2016 for Architecture, first women ever to win this prestigious prize.

It was back in 1995 when we first saw a building by Zaha Hadid – her first – the famous Vitra House Fire Station.

We were studying architecture in Florence in those days and we were absolutely fascinated by the breaking-out of that architecture, totally and beautifully out of contest… what a sight!

And then, in the same location, amazing buildings by outstanding masters: Herzog & de Meuron’s VitraHaus showroom, the Vitra Design Museum by Frank Gehry and the conference hall by Tadao Ando…

Some twenty years later, the Baghdad-born architect wins the most important Arichitecture prize, the Gold Medal, personally approved by the Queen of England.

A few points that caught our attention, from her speech during the Award cerimony, and why we at Ermesponti feel particularly close to her and her views.

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1.
” Part of architecture’s job is to make people feel good in the spaces where they live…”
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Rightly so, the final aim of architecture is the internal space, and this is exactly our strong belief, too.
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2.
“So we must be committed to raising standards of housing, schools and other vital public buildings…”
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We like to think of architecture, rather than someone’s lifestyle expression, more as an active tool to raise quality standards, on a functional, structural, esthetical point of view… this was an idea of our master Gio Ponti and of course totally agree!
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3.
“It’s a honour for me and my practice, but equally also for our clients.”
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Which is to say that clients are included in the working team. When you are committed to design and realize a custom design and custom made architecture, the client is  in the middle of the creative process. Shall we say that at Ermesponti the client is always our paramount concern.
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Feeling so near to Zaha’ views, it’s easy for us to dream for a moment, and imagine to be called by the Royal Gold Medal winner to realize the interiors of one of her outstanding building!

We’ve recently come across the initiative “Living Architecture – Holidays in Modern Architecture“, renting an archistar-designed home to enjoy the experience of staying in a place designed by a famous architect. We’d like to consider this starting from a different point of view. Alain De Botton published a new book  a few years ago “The Architecture of Happiness” (please note that the famous philosopher is one of the founders of Living Architecture). De Botton’s views express the idea that the quality of the architecture we live in every day  influences the quality of our lives. This is the essence of the book.

This notion applies to living  from a global perspective, which of course goes beyond the “vacation” you can take for a limited period of time in a place that doesn’t belong to you, and to which you don’t belong.  From here we can move straight to the opposite approach  of “design-by vs designed-for”. There  is a way of conceiving the quality of interiors not as something guaranteed by a famous signature, but rather as a true expression of the personality of the person who lives there.

Historically speaking, architecture is something anonymous, which derives its sense and function from everyday use by someone it is designed for.

At Ermesponti bespoke interiors, we strongly believe in design-specific projects like those of Living Architecture, but most of all we are focused on the brief of the client. Our projects are always tailored to the client ‘s exact needs. Our aim is always a custom-designed project.

Every project must reflect  100% the personality of the customer, and does so through the architect’s design  and the making by the craftsman.  Our team work together- from first scratch to turnkey delivery – throughout the whole process so that we can guarantee the excellence of the results. In this way, the architect “brings out” of the customer his own dream-house, and makes it become true. Leon Battista Alberti – author of what is considered the Bible of Architecture – used to say: “The architect is the mother of the building, but the customer is its father”.

We very much appreciate the idea of “Living Architecture” as a one-shot experience of an archistar’s architecture.  Possibly  you should consider taking the next step and having more than a short vacation in someone else’s home. You could definitely  try the Ermesponti experience and live it in a more permanent way. For example, you can have your own home redesigned with a 100% custom-destined project by Ermesponti bespoke interiors and enjoy a lifelong architectural experience. You can’t imagine how your quality of life could be changed for the better!

A few weeks ago we had the chance to visit some of the most important venues of the London Design Week, such as Designjunction, Tent,  Superbrands and – of course- 100% Design.

In London, we found a completely different approach. There is not a specific fair but many different venues scattered around all the city.

They are completely focused on  “made to measure” production and  “just in time” for each client. They have specific software for their online shop where you can decide to customize a piece of furniture by changing the measurements, materials or colour to your exact needs and tastes.

We custom design and produce each interior as a unique interior. Each piece of furniture is unique for its owner.

Each artisan or artist has developed  a personal way of making his own products by learning from old techniques and know-how. This is exactly what we do.  The product is completely different but the approach is the same.

“We are like dwarfs on the shoulders of Giants”

( Bernard Chartres)
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In Milano, on Oct. 15th 2015, something important for all the people who care about Italy’s economic and cultural growth…

Egea publishing company is going to unveil the Open Book “Autori di Crescita, during professor Morace’s Festival della Crescita to be held  in Milano on October 15-18 .

We have always been convinced about  the “happy growth” theory of professor Francesco Morace – who has already stated how ermesponti is a company able to show a growing attitude – but this time there’s one more reason to save the date…

We are among the book authors, thanks to Paolo Ponti’s contribution, which we like to quote in the following paragraph.

Growth is never simple, but a HAPPY GROWTH is an even more ambitious  goal.

To be truly “happy” the growth must bu such for everyone involved… for instance, speaking of a company, all stakeholders need to be happy about growth: the clients, the working force, the entrepreneur, the government.

As an anrchitect and an entrepreneur, I always work to achieve this simple goal: everyone’s happy growth through the excellence of our end-to-end process, from the very first sketch to complete realization.

The first one that has to be happy about it is the client: every project of ours is a very personal portrait.
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