11/10/2022 11:00
Eclecticism and artistic flair are the words that define the work of Emanuele Svetti, the Founder of Studio Svetti Architecture. Great connoisseur of Italian craftsmanship and creative personality in ongoing research, with his projects he reinterprets in a modern key what he defines "New Tuscan Style".
In this interview Emanuele Svetti gave to Medelhan he recounted us about his journey to discover new realities, places and perfumes that create that melting pot that is his way of doing architecture and interpreting interior design and that led him to realize projects around the world, from California to North Africa, from Russia to China.
Emanuele Svetti , Founder of Studio Svetti Architecture
In your approach to work you define yourself eclectic and non-traditional. What attitudes, passions and trends converge in this definition?
The principle which I have made the starting point of all my projects is that doing a job that you love and that daily stimulates novel passions is already a first step towards being able to define yourself competitive. The fact that I love my work, a job that allows you to develop interests of various nature, from traveling to discovering new realities, places and scents, creates the melting pot that is my way of making architecture and interpreting interior design in general.
My work begins with a neutral shell, inside which I experiment and insert objects, from the furnishing element to the furniture itself, playing with cuts, combining unusual materials and different textures and working on shadows rather than on lights.
Private House, Arezzo, Italy, Studio Svetti Architecture
Image copyright:@Francesca Pagliai
This way, I craft volumes both inside the architectural part and the interiors, giving new light to spaces that already have their own existence, rather than creating new ones. Through his work the architect must – and here I use the imperative 'must' because it is an integral part of his role – impress a sign, give exclusivity, without stepping on the habits and needs of those who will inhabit the shell.
At the heart of the project remains the human being, with the qualities and imperfections that distinguish him. Today, if we talk about hospitality and retail, the human being is a customer but also a critic who may influence the decision of others. The relationship between architecture and men must be the basis for any project.
Private House, Arezzo, Italy, Studio Svetti Architecture
Image copyright:@Francesca Pagliai
What approach do you adopt when you first meet the customer to define the project? How does this approach change from residential to retail?
The house is where every person’s heart resides. The heart of each of us is strongly rooted in our homes and even when traveling, one of the most beautiful moments of the journey itself is the return home, the rediscovery of furniture, books, fragrances that create the amalgam that the scent of your home is, namely that fundamental part residing in everyone that reveals one’s taste and personality.
Thus, I listen carefully to my customers, sometimes I criticize the quirks that may stall the realization of the project in its own fluidity. A residential project cannot be a step-by-step work, otherwise it means that there are too many obstacles to the work. However, I cannot impose dictat, but only make proposals and show my vision, to help give a precise flair to the ambience without changing their habits.
Umami - Fusion restaurant, Cortona, Italy, Studio Svetti Architecture
Image copyright:@Andrea Bartolozzi
The process is different when I have to deal with a retail or hospitality space, where I can somehow alienate myself and criticize the customer who affirms “I like it this way”. If the fact that the owner feels comfortable inside the place where he works is important, it is equally fundamental that it pleases the clients, and such an equation is not obvious. Therefore, when talking of retail and hospitality, we must separate ourselves from situations that can lead to a subjective design choice, while we must be more open to the customer when it is about their future home.
Umami - Fusion restaurant, Cortona, Italy, Studio Svetti Architecture
Image copyright:@Andrea Bartolozzi
Among the elements that most characterize your work there is the study of the Tuscan artisan tradition and its contemporary reimagining. This revisiting can be found, for example, in the residential project of Castiglion Fiorentino (Casab104). Can you tell us more about it?
The residential project of Castiglion Fiorentino is one of the first ones in which I undertook a work of strong introspection in the relationship between client and architect, which in this case evolved in a relationship of friendship. Indeed, this is also one of the fundamental projects from which the definition of “New Tuscan Style” was coined as a high-level intellectual work has been carried out within it.
The house was almost completed following a full renovation, when I was contacted by the owner, who had realized that the house lacked charm and style. It was an unfurnished wrapper completely detached from the client’s personality. What I brought with the New Tuscan Style was a mix of sophistication, materiality, colours and contrasts, created with attention to detail and aimed at balancing furniture, design and art.
Private House - Castiglion Fiorentino (Casab104), Arezzo, Italy, Studio Svetti Architecture
Image copyright:@Francesca Pagliai
The result is that of a truly recognizable home. When you enter the house it is impossible not to be amazed as no one would expect to enter a country cottage and find such a level of sophistication. From the bespoke interiors to the furniture in series, up to the vertical green that completely covers the living area, everything is designed to be unique. This is my stamp. In fact, the same object never repeats in two of my projects.
It happened only in this project, for which the client's wife specifically requested lamps seen in one of the restaurants that I designed and that is also one of her favourites. This is an exception that I had to make in the perspective of listening to and meeting the needs of those in front of me. It was like placing a photograph inside the house, as a portrait that frames a moment. Well, I interpreted it as such: in that case it was no longer an object but an icon that she wished to have in front of her in a moment of conviviality such as that of the meal.
Private House - Castiglion Fiorentino (Casab104), Arezzo, Italy, Studio Svetti Architecture
Image copyright:@Francesca Pagliai
The research and choice of unconventional and avant-garde materials is among the aspects that you most emphasize in the description of your projects. What are the steps that characterize this choice?
Generally, a project does not arise from materials or specific needs, but rather from the study of environmental situations, from the research of the social logics that frame the space, and this applies to residential, hospitality and retail. First, we try to understand what the needs are, where we want to go, what we want to achieve and, based on that, we start the “formulation”'.
Un Diavolo per Capello – Hair Salon, Cortona, Italy, Studio Svetti Architecture
Image copyright:@Andrea Bartolozzi
Each project is, indeed, the creation of a new recipe, it is an amalgam of sensations, it is the encounter between two souls and it is a sentimental relationship. In many cases, the architect becomes a confidant of his client, whose taste and habits he seeks to unveil . Later on, comes the analysis of the materials and colours, with respect to which a skimming operation is necessary, otherwise we would enter into an infinite universe. We need to find the right constellation within the universe of possibilities. In this way we can confine the choice and give, based on that choice, a sense of the demands of the customer himself.
Taking a step back, What we always do before we start the dialogue, whoever comes to the studio, is show him or her what we do. The architect cannot be taken, he must be chosen, and the difference is huge. I can take something with my eyes closed and find myself holding no matter what. On the contrary, choosing means observing with eyes wide open, conducting an intellectual process of analysis in order to be able to say with confidence "this is the person who suits my case".
Un Diavolo per Capello – Hair Salon, Cortona, Italy, Studio Svetti Architecture
Image copyright:@Andrea Bartolozzi
The architect who seems to be the best from the point of view of historical and iconographic analysis, that is, of the image he transmits of himself, may not be stylistically akin to the project. A wrong matching can lead to disasters, especially in retail, where it can result in projects that do not work.
I wanted to make all these specifications because the choice of materials and their combination are a fundamental part of the project together with the control of flows, namely, how certain environments can be experienced and how you can manage the space. Therefore, the relationship with the customer in the choice of materials is fundamental. The material is a reading of the customer, of what the architect understands of him. If the architect works only for himself, beautiful containers are created but with poor performance from the functional point of view.
Your projects represent a new typology of luxury in a sustainable way. What technologies and systems do you use to make your projects more sustainable?
For a certain period I considered technology a fundamental part within the architectural shell. Over time, however, I have greatly attenuated the preponderance of the technological factor. As I tell my clients, you cannot go to extremes. Technology must be an easy-to-understand smart aid about which we should never ask ourselves "Will it work today?". In this case it is no longer a factor of use, but something that, on the contrary, limits you.
The Braccialini Store, Florence, Italy, Studio Svetti Architecture
Image copyright:@Varvara Verbitskaya – Covermax Resine
Today almost all companies in the sector, such as Casaclima or CliMaus, provide forced air exchange systems which are functional in borderline climate situations. Indeed, the demands for insulation from the weather work with a climate strongly shifted to the two opposites of hot and cold, where the pre-eminence of a certain type of microclimate obliges not to open the windows or to have to create climate bubbles inside homes or commercial spaces.
Speaking of the climatic zone where we live, I think it still performs well the good old method of opening the windows in the morning and controlling the light with buttons. Having said that, I agree with systems that function via apps that allow you to save energy, as for the heat pump controlled by the app, which can be turned off and on from the office in order to find the ideal climate once arrived at home. However, it must not be an element of detachment from the human being, but rather a facilitation.
The Braccialini Store, Florence, Italy, Studio Svetti Architecture
Image copyright:@Varvara Verbitskaya – Covermax Resine
Your studio has carried out many projects internationally, including Europe, the United States, North Africa and China. How does the approach to the project change when you move outside of Italy?
The approach to the project does not change, everything that has been said so far applies to Italy as to China, USA or other parts of the world. What changes, and I say this reluctantly, is timing. It is one of the fundamental goods in life, on which we tend to speculate. Even if we never know how much we actually have, we always waste a lot of it. The time of making, then, is even more difficult to manage because it is that time that we should try to optimize.
However, in Italy it is impossible to define the timing within which we will be able to complete a project, and this is the big difference with the other countries. Whether I go to Spain, the United States rather than Turkey or China, the project starts with set times – between 20 and 30 days even for the most complex projects, for which permits and documents are necessary. While in Italy the same degree of complexity requires around one year and a half.
Private Villa, Los Angeles, California, USA, Studio Svetti Architecture
Image copyright:@Studio Svetti Architecture
Reasoning within this logic, the fundamental problem when working in Italy is getting investments from abroad. However, I believe that, instead of making strategic investments, it would be necessary to encourage the responsiveness of administrations and attach less weight to the superintendencies and institutions. It is indeed no sense to give tools to municipal administrations to increase the response speed when the superintendencies stop the project for landscape or constraint reasons. Every corner of Italy has its problems, which in some cases are absolutely understandable and plausible, in others are beyond the limits of rational mind. Thus, on the one hand I have sure times, on the other I have not.
One more point that we have not touched but that is part of the design process is the fear of deciding, which today also concerns the entrepreneur. The word entrepreneur itself should comprise taking risks, but the tendency is to work with a form of security that would not be part of his role. Outside Italy, they tend to be much more decisive because they know that their time is certain and the more they lose it in decision-making the more that time dilates.
Private Villa, Los Angeles, California, USA, Studio Svetti Architecture
Image copyright:@Studio Svetti Architecture
We must therefore abandon fears and approach any type of project as a child would do in front of a blank sheet. The child makes a scribble in a more or less decisive way, without doubts about where to start, while we think "What do I draw? Where do I start?" – and that is time we waste.
Someone could argue that this way we do not risk making mistakes. Sometimes it is the case, sometimes, having wasted time, we miss opportunities and we are no longer able to act with the same power that we could have had by abandoning ourselves to the gesture, going towards an instinctual decision. Today more than ever, time, besides being a fundamental value, is “less full”, that is to say that a second of today is not a second of 30 years ago. Time flies faster and we have to be much more determined and convinced of what we do.