Focus on Massimo Adario

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Casa in Santa Maria Formosa, Venezia, ph. Barbara Rossi

The Rome architect’s interiors transport us into cinematographic atmospheres, welcoming and special, where soft colours and assertive materials often rub shoulders with antique pieces just as easily as with ingenious design solutions.

Name: Massimo Adario

Where do you work? In Rome.

Your Instagram account: @massimoadarioarchitetto

Describe what your studio does: architecture, interiors and product design.

Where did you study? In Rome, then two years in Spain.

What are you working on right now? We are working on several different projects simultaneously, and right now in particular we are preparing to deliver a villa in Ponza.

Your dream project? There are so many projects I’d like to carry out! Certainly, one of my dreams is to acquire international visibility through a large-scale project, a hotel for example, that would truly be representative of me.

ART_01_MassimoAdario_2 — Massimo Adario, ph. Barbara Oizmud

The project that’s influenced you the most: The Castelvecchio Museum by Carlo Scarpa in Verona. Every time I go there I’m surprised by some detail I hadn’t noticed before; Scarpa’s sensitivity in tackling ancient things has to be a point of reference in Italy.

A crucial detail in all your projects: Experimenting with materials.

City centre or far-flung places? Impossible to choose.

Something you have at home designed by you? My sofa. It took me three goes before I got it right!

What gifts do you like giving? Something that has really been chosen with the other person in mind, rather than a projection of my own desires.

If you could build a secret passage in your house, where would it lead? Into a patisserie! A very good one, obviously …

ART_02_MassimoAdario_3 — Casa in via de Bardi, Firenze, ph. Cortili photo

What do you usually do on Sundays? I try, often in vain, to take a break from work.

Your favourite place in Milan: The Sforzesco Castle Museums by BBPR.

UBALT studio would like to ask you what is your favourite period in history and why? The post-war period with the experimentation that went on throughout the Seventies, when Italian design worked closely with industry.

Would you like to ask the next interviewee a question? Yes, I would like to know what they think of Italian design right now!