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How can architecture express the concept of luxury, particularly in residential settings?
Etymologically, the word luxury means overabundance, excess. But, as Mies van der Rohe demonstrated, the word can also apply to absence, empty space, subtraction. The plaza in front of New York’s Seagram Building, for example, was deliberately left empty to ensure an unobstructed view of the bronze-and-glass skyscraper – a case of less is more.
In the early 20th century, Adolf Loos’s essay Ornament and Crime caused an uproar for denouncing the appliquéd ornamentation on imperial Vienna’s façades as nothing but a screen and symptom of the loss of the core of architectural language in the 20th century. Today more than ever, luxury is freeing itself from ostentation to connect with deeper, more personal values. This shift is translating into authentic, tailor-made homes that truly reflect how their occupants live. Although premium materials and impeccable finishes are still important, true luxury today is more about how we experience space: the peace and quiet of a city home, natural light filtering through interiors during the day, air quality, the sense of privacy and safety. It also encompasses the option of extreme personalization, in the sense of a fusion of the needs and desires of the people who inhabit those spaces.
From this perspective, luxury in architecture translates into attention to detail, materials, context, and time. A successful luxury residential project is both essential and profound, technologically advanced yet easy to live in, elegant yet timeless. Ultimately, today luxury living involves inhabiting a space that intimately resembles us, that enhances our daily life, and, in particular, needs no explanation to be understood.
What role do materials play in this?
Materials are the words that compose architectural sentences, the tools for expressing the language of architecture. Every material has its own weight, voice, and perceptual temperature. Nothing is neutral; nothing is superfluous when chosen with intent. As Frank Lloyd Wright wrote, “If I must design a corridor two yards wide, I line it with rammed earth; if one yard wide, with lime plaster; but if only six inches wide, I gild it with gold leaf”. These words reveal one of architecture’s best-kept secrets: the use of materials as an amplifier of spatial perception.
Could including snow in interior spaces be an example of this design approach?
In a private spa or wellness resort, indoor snow can provide an extraordinary sensory window onto nature. The feeling of cold on warm skin after a sauna, the scent of crystalline air, and bare feet on soft snow reconnect us with nature. It can be a return to childhood, to the primordial, to play – but done with all the scenic and sensory care that architecture can offer.
Where does your fascination with indoor snow come from?
It started with a visit to TechnoAlpin in Bolzano, one of the world’s leading producers of technical snow for indoor and outdoor use. That meeting led to a series of projects, including Snow Diamond, a large structure suspended among rocks in Trojena, Saudi Arabia, which celebrated nature’s two perfect crystals: the diamond and the snowflake. The project is currently being reviewed for construction in one of the Gulf’s most exclusive locations. It is a scenic, immersive space designed for up to 1,000 visitors at a time to experience a unique, poetic, sensory paradox – that is, to watch the night sky or the blazing desert sun through a skylight, while fine snow falls from above like an apparition.
How important is talking with future occupants during the design phase?
Ultimately, every project is a journey into people’s minds. As Martin Heidegger wrote, “Building a house means to order the world”. The design then reveals itself gradually, arising from a deep need through a silent, emotional, almost intimate process.
A few years ago, we designed a private residence for the CEO of one of the most important international luxury brands. His idea of luxury was surprisingly different from what we expected. No showiness, no ostentation – for him, luxury was about empty spaces, light, room to breathe. The home we designed unfolded across six seamlessly connected levels, in which emptiness was the primary material and essentiality was not a renunciation but an affirmation – a lot like Lao Tzu’s metaphor of the empty vessel. (Editor’s note: The Chinese philosopher talked about the importance of emptiness and non-being for the functionality and utility of things).
But clients are not always vocal; sometimes you have to listen to what is left unsaid. That was the case, for example, with a mobile chapel that will soon be unveiled in Rome’s Piazza del Popolo, dedicated to Saint Luigi Scrosoppi, the patron saint of soccer players. For this project, we imagined that he would have wanted the space to be open, permeable, and welcoming. A place bathed in white light and sheltered by a perfectly geometric dome. A spiritual space that is light, almost playful, dedicated to young people and the universal desire for belonging and beauty.
Over recent years, have you seen any changes in the luxury residential market in terms of concept or demand?
Partly because of the relative stagnation of European markets, we are now working on residential projects in areas a long way from our usual operations base, such as Miami’s high-end waterfront and the Gulf countries – both locations known for conspicuous consumption. It is a complex and stimulating challenge that has forced us to rethink the concept of luxury and to assess how we can remain true to our design principles in the face of sometimes radically different formal languages. We are refining our approach.
THE PLAN Interior Design & Contract 11 is the eleventh supplement that THE PLAN has dedicated to the world of interior architecture. The publication, out in September 2025 as a supplement to THE PLAN 164, looks at around twenty of the most important... Read More
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