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Did you consider the guests when renovating Cala di Volpe?
Yes. This hotel is unusual in that it has welcomed families from
three generations; people have been staying in the same bedroom
every year for 20, even 30 years. We were renovating their holiday
home - not just a hotel room, but something much more personal.
How did you transform a hotel from the 1960s into a contem-
porary hotel?
We made quite a few changes. Primarily, there are technical dif-
ferences: now we are able to provide guests with air conditioning
and any other creature comforts, both in the bedroom and in the
bathroom. We integrated a lot of technology; the principle was
that it had to be invisible - fully invisible - and this is something we
can do today thanks to the progress made in that field. We also
worked on adapting our proposal to fit those who are much more
familiar with diversity and extreme luxury: in the Sixties, people
didn’t travel as much as they do now.
What was the concept behind the hotel rooms?
Every detail was reconsidered, from the positioning of the bed
to the size of the wardrobe, from the lighting to the bathroom.
In Cala di Volpe, people stay outside all day, and it’s extremely
important that the dream continues within the hotel. We made sure
that the technology was invisible. The lighting is very smooth and
soft, so that people can better enjoy their time spent in beautiful
surroundings.
What about the furniture?
We design bespoke furniture for every hotel we work on. This ren-
ders our work whole, a complete approximation of our vision. For
Cala di Volpe, we imagined the furniture to somehow be both ele-
mentary and one-of-a-kind works of art, like the coffee table with
a bronze stand and a top in poured glass, resembling a private pool.
What was Poliform’s contribution to the overall project?
We want to mention something that may sound insignificant, but
which was very important for us. We had a vision of seaweed:
a vegetable element emerging from the sea and becoming a solid
element, like a rock. So we made some sketches and, hand-in-hand
with Poliform, we developed bronze elements that represent sea-
weed; not flat, not twisted, but with an interesting shape. With this,
we created metal legs for the coffee tables and chest of drawers,
table lamps, curtain stands and handles. We actually moulded
the handles on our own hands, so they are very comfortable to
the touch. This kind of creation seemed obvious to us, because
Jacques Couëlle too used to work a lot with iron and metal sculp-
tures. We simply created a modern interpretation of this. Poliform
was able to integrate our vision with technology and make it hap-
pen. All bronze elements are 3D printed: they look handmade, but
are also high-quality in terms of performance.
A lot of your designs are related to luxury. How do you express
this idea and what is luxury today?
Yes, it’s true, a lot of our designs are related to luxury. We just com-
pleted the first ever Cartier flagship store in Paris, in Rue de la Paix.
It’s not exactly comparable, but somehow there are some parallels:
luxury today is mainly about comfort and making things invisible
for guests. We believe that people are able to feel, even without
any architectural or design knowledge, that their surroundings are
treating them well. Even if people can’t consciously pinpoint it, at
the end of a stay, they feel well-treated. In Cala di Volpe, comfort
stems from the invisible: the softness of the lighting, the attenuated
sound in the corridor, the gentle angles of almost every element.
All your senses tell you that you are welcomed, and that you feel
good. We believe that this, in itself, is luxury.
