Firm Description
The firm has designed residential and retail projects in US and abroad striving for a rigorous approach to design and construction delivering sensitive responses to program requirements and context.The residential projects show a progression from organic compositions based on modernist rectangular geometries, to more complex and dynamic forms as in the “Caribbean pavilions”.
In all these projects volumes are branching out to incorporate nature often through the dissolution of boundaries achieving a fusion between architecture and landscape.
Raffaella privileges warm yet spare interiors that are characterized by subtle sophistication, rich texture and clean lines. Each element however minor plays an important role in achieving the overall crispness and completeness of the project.
In the residentialprojects, as well as in the retail ones, it is clear her attraction to innovative materials and to new building techniques.
She likes to mix earthy elements (like stone, marbles, wood, masonry) versus artificial ones (like fiberglass, epoxy, Plexiglas, phenolic resins).
A good example of this commitment to “articulation through materiality” is the villas she designed in the Caribbean islands.
Traditional vernacular and innovative contemporary features are equally used throughout the houses as for example the contemporary shape of the translucent fiberglass reinforced master bathroom module of the “Caribbean residence” contrasting somehow with the vintage ipea wood floors, the masonry walls of corridor and patios and the vibrant colors of the glass canes used inside the traditional wood carabottino structure of gates, railings and doors.
She enjoys challenging exchanges with artists that she often tries to get involved in her projects as in the “Pomellato” jewelry store in New York city where the existing brick wall is animated by three oversize clear Plexiglass panels sandblasted with a work by Michael Lynn.
