India Mahdavi enlivens Rome's Villa Medici with daring geometric furnishings

Architect India Mahdavi has up to date six rooms inside Rome’s Sixteenth-century Villa Medici to function an array of latest and vibrant furnishings.

The intervention comes as a part of a three-year venture referred to as Re-enchanting Villa Medici, which was launched in 2022 to amplify the presence of latest design and craft inside the Renaissance palace.

Whereas the primary part of the venture noticed style model Fendi revamp Villa Medici’s salons, Mahdavi was requested to clean up rooms on the constructing’s piano nobile or “noble degree”, the place the primary reception and the bedrooms are housed.

She labored on a complete of six areas together with the Chamber of the Components, Chamber of the Muses and Chamber of the Lovers of Jupiter, which as soon as served as an condo to Cardinal Ferdinando de Medici.

The three different rooms – titled Debussy, Galileo and Lili Boulanger – had been previously used as visitor quarters.

Within the Chamber of the Muses, which is topped with a dramatic coffered ceiling, Mahdavi inserted sea-green editions of her Bishop stool alongside an unlimited hand-tufted rug by French workshop Manufacture d’Aubusson Robert 4.

Its geometric design options inexperienced, purple, crimson, and rosy pink shapes, recalling the flowerbeds that seem throughout the villa’s sprawling gardens.

Solely refined alterations had been made to the Chamber of the Components and Chamber of the Lovers of Jupiter, the place Mahdavi has repositioned an present mattress to sit down in opposition to an expansive wall tapestry.

Among the chairs right here had been additionally reupholstered in raspberry-hued velvet.

A cluster of shiny yellow sofas and armchairs sourced from the French conservation company Mobilier Nationwide was included into the Lili Boulanger room, named after the primary feminine composer to take up residence on the villa.

The furnishings sit on high of a blush-pink rug by French producer La Manufacture Coglin and are accompanied by octagonal tables designed by Mahdavi.

A Renaissance-style four-poster mattress was added to the room named after astronomer Galileo Galilei, who reportedly visited Villa Medici twice in his lifetime.

The mattress’s tiered wood base and headboard had been inlaid with graphic, berry-toned marquetry by cabinetmaker Craman Lagarde. The sample, which additionally seems on the curtains that enclose the mattress, takes cues from the design of the villa’s flooring.

An analogous mattress might be seen within the room named after French composer Claude Debussy. However this time, the marquetry accomplished by French furnituremaker Pascal Michalon is executed in additional “acidulous” colors that Mahdavi mentioned reminded her of Debussy’s piano piece Clair de lune.

Mahdavi has lent her distinctive colour-rich aesthetic to quite a lot of vital venues. Current examples embrace the lavish London restaurant Sketch, to which she added sunshine-yellow and golden furnishings.

The pictures is by François Halard.