Architectural Digest

I like to believe that AD “thinks globally, acts locally” when it comes to presenting the most exciting design projects around the world. With editions based in the US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, China, India, and Mexico and Latin America, plus a freshly relaunched Middle Eastern version coming soon, AD is internationally unified. Our expert teams work closely to share the compelling stories we find, and the result is broader horizons for all of us, from our own staff to the wider print and digital audiences. This issue represents that wide-ranging spirit beautifully, as the spectacular Venetian palazzo featured on this month’s cover, which belongs to the influential Milan-based AD100 designer Vincenzo De Cotiis and his wife, Claudia Rose De Cotiis, also lands the cover of the four European editions. “I…

Free-tilting cuddle bowl.” That was the delightful description given to a radical new chair by Lina Bo Bardi in the November 1953 issue of Interiors magazine. The Italian Brazilian modernist architect was pictured on its cover, reading in the hemispherical seat, legs crossed, feet dangling casually over the edge. And indeed, the plastic shell lounge with foam rubber padding, nestled in (but not attached to) a four-legged steel frame, could easily adapt to a range of positions. That’s what Bo Bardi called “absolutely new” about her design, conceptualized in ’51—“[it] can achieve movement from all sides, with no mechanical means whatsoever.” Suitable for reading, napping, or casual conversation, the chair could be easily adjusted with slight downward pressure from a hand or leg. The magazine article even suggested that, removed from…

Just over the Guadarrama mountains north of Madrid, where Spain’s royal family once retreated for hunting weekends at the Palacio de Riofrío, sits the quaint village of La Losa. “It’s just wild enough,” designer Pablo López says of the town, which is situated within a forested state park, a mere hour drive from the capital. Four years ago, he and Iñigo Aragón, his partner in business and in life, bought an early-20th-century town house in the area. The couple wanted a laid-back weekend escape from the city, a country pied-à-terre, so to speak. “It’s not too secluded,” López continues. “The back and forth is so easy we sometimes come just for the day.” It was another home away from home, a late-19th-century country house in the Rioja wine region, that got…

I’ve always been fascinated by an element of discovery,” says Sir David Adjaye. Just consider the AD100 architect’s 1999 Elektra House in London, whose windowless front façade belies the bright and airy family home within. Or take the 2016 Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC, mysteriously veiled in lacelike metallic brown aluminum panels. At the time of our conversation, he’s referring to Yaawa, his new collection of bronze furnishings (the latest addition to his Monoform series). Smooth and sleek on top, the seemingly delicate forms bear rough, gestural backs and underbellies. Comprising a dining chair and tables, the pieces debut on April 28, christening the new London flagship of Carpenters Workshop Gallery. Adjaye Associates helped mastermind the three-year-long renovation, transforming the east wing of Notting…

Tapped to revive the 18th-century Palazzo Salviati Cesi Mellini as the new Six Senses Rome hotel, Patricia Urquiola did a deep dive into the history of the Eternal City. “The research started from materials, colors, and details that speak of Rome,” says the architect. “The heritage, the classicism, and the original architecture guided the whole concept.” Interiors feature local mainstays like travertine, cocciopesto, and mosaics, all the while calling to mind a tranquil garden oasis thanks to the abundant plantings, splashes of green marble, and a digitally printed landscape mural. (Hung above the reception desk, that artwork is based on the frescoes at Livia’s ancient villa.) Meanwhile, the spa’s baths, encompassing a caldarium, a tepidarium, and a frigidarium, nod to the myth of Apollo and Daphne in bas-relief. As part…

In a city of hills, it’s all about the views. That’s certainly how architect Monica Sanga approached her recent redesign of the 1886 Victorian house in San Francisco that she shares with her husband, software engineer Arjun Banker. From the street, the home appears to be a one-story cottage atop a bluff. But inside, original doors open onto three levels of terraces, with panoramic vistas of the city and the East Bay. “It just feels like this little antechamber that takes you to another world,” says Sanga, who founded her own firm in 2017 after cutting her teeth at Snøhetta and Spiegel Aihara Workshop. Banker and Sanga purchased the home four years ago, living in it for a year before embarking on a renovation to emphasize the surrounding natural beauty. The…