A master of architecture, landscapes, products, interiors, and graphic design, it seems there’s nothing industry legend Piero Lissoni can’t (and won’t) do. “You need to be a little bit crazy,” he admits. “At the same time, you need to glue everything together with a humanistic approach.” He’s been running his firm Lissoni & Partners out of Milan for 34 years, having worked as a creative director with such brands as B&B Italia, Boffi, Living Divani, and more. Lissoni credits European teaching methods for his open-minded approach to design. “In our culture, if you are able to design a spoon, you are able to design a town,” he says.
Looking to expand his practice to the U.S., he tapped protégé Stefano Giussani to helm the New York studio. After working together for two decades, their collaboration process is like cooking the perfect soup, says Guissani, with all the disparate parts coming together to create a memorable experience. “Piero [has taught me] to put myself in the shoes of the user. When we design, we are putting ourselves into the drawing.”
The mezzanine lobby at Beijing’s Shangri-La Shougang Park, shown in a rendering, recalls a nest
Among the firm’s latest projects is the Grand Park Hotel Rovinj, overlooking the Adriatic Sea on the coast of Croatia. The design features a series of terraced levels that minimize the impact on the surrounding area. Lissoni wanted to implement a natural structure, using special white stucco and concrete, with contrasting black elements. “For me, designing something homey is not interesting,” he says. “When you design something for a community, [it’s better] to be disruptive.”
In addition to conquering the product and interiors world, Lissoni & Partners boasts a graphic design division and produces art installations and exhibitions. Lissoni has also teamed up with shipbuilding company Sanlorenzo to design his first yacht, a process Guissani compares to making a multilayered mille-feuille cake, which requires precision and patience. “It’s layer after layer. You design one step, and then it moves again. It’s definitely challenging,” he says. When conceiving the elegantly crafted “floating villa,” Lissoni took cues from the boats of the 1960s and ’70s with signature elements like clean lines, neutral hues, and sinuous curves.
The 11-room Casa Fantini in Pella, Italy features a private garden
When COVID-19 hit last year, many of the firm’s projects were put on hold. “I felt like a prisoner in a way,” Lissoni says. That said, working across the Atlantic Ocean strengthened the team. “We felt immediately more connected than before,” Giussani adds. Today, the practice’s work has ramped up significantly, with two projects in China, including the Shangri-La Shougang Park in Beijing, on the boards. “I am a very lucky man,” Lissoni says. “I design a lot of different pieces—houses, buildings, museums, technologies—I don’t need to think [about] what is best to do again. I like to learn and be curious enough to discover something to do tomorrow morning.”
This article originally appeared in HD’s June/July 2021 issue.
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