INTERIOR DESIGN - VGO ASSOCIATES

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THE BAUMB HOUSE

MONACO, 2022

A SURREALIST-INSPIRED HOUSE WITH SOFT AND INTOXICATING TONES. IT IS THE NEW INTERIOR PROJECT BY THE ITALIAN CURATOR VALENTINA GUIDI OTTOBRI IN MONTE CARLO, A SUNNY AND LIVELY LOCATION BETWEEN ITALY AND FRANCE. AN APARTMENT ON THE FIFTH FLOOR OF A SMALL PINK BUILDING FROM THE 1920S WHICH CONTRASTS WITH THE MODERNISM OF THE LARGE ADJACENT BUILDINGS. WE ARE WELCOMED BY A DREAMY ENTRANCE FULL OF EYES LOOKING AT US. “I WANTED TO CREATE AN ENTRANCE THAT WAS BOTH DISPERSIVE AND IMMERSIVE AT THE SAME TIME, WHICH INCREASED A “SENSE OF BELONGING” NOT ONLY TO THE EARTHLY WORLD BUT ALSO TO THE DREAM WORLD. MONACO IS A RICH CITY, LINKED TO CONSUMPTION BUT ALSO TO PLAY AND INTUITION. I WANTED WHEN THE YOUNG COUPLE I DESIGNED FOR RETURNED HOME, THEY FELT THEY WERE IN THEIR OWN WORLD. THE SCULPTURAL ROOM HOUSES A CHANDELIER MADE IN PAPIER-MÂCHÉ BY ME WHICH ALWAYS TELLS THE STORY OF THOSE WHO LIVE IN THE HOUSE, IN THIS CASE ENRICA AND MARCO, A YOUNG TUSCAN COUPLE. MARCO WORKS IN THE PRINCIPALITY OF MONACO IN A FAMILY OFFICE AS RISK MANAGER WHILE ENRICA IS PROJECT MANAGER AT INTERCOS GROUP AND AT THE SAME TIME COLLABORATES WITH VOGUE ITALIA WRITING ABOUT BEAUTY AND WELL-BEING.

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EIGHTY SQUARE METERS, OVERLOOKING THE SEA: THE LIVING THAT IS ONE WITH THE DINING ROOM, THE HOME STUDIO, THE KITCHEN, THE BEDROOM, TWO BATHROOMS AND THE ENTRANCE. ON THE FOURTH FLOOR OF A PINK BUILDING WITH ITS ART DECO CHARM. “IT’S IRRESISTIBLE. CURIOUSLY AT EASE AMONG THE CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURES THAT SURROUND IT “. WE DIDN’T DO ANY STRUCTURAL WORK IN THE HOUSE, IT COULDN’T BE DONE. “BUT ANYWAY, WE TRIED TO TRANSFORM IT WITH DECORATION”. FIRST STEP, VALENTINA STUDIES THE PROFILES OF ENRICA AND MARCO, HELPED BY NUMEROLOGY, AND ANALYZES THE COUPLE BY ASKING THEM A SERIES OF QUESTIONS. “I’M INTERESTED IN KNOWING WHAT PEOPLE EXPECT, NOT SO MUCH IN PRACTICAL TERMS AS IN TERMS OF SENSATIONS”. THAT IS AT THE BASE OF THE HOLISTIC METHOD. THEN IT TRANSFORMS WHAT THEY NEED INTO A PROJECT. SHE DESIGNS MANY CUSTOM MADE PIECES REALIZED BY HER POOL OF SKILLED CRAFTSMEN AND SMALL ITALIAN COMPANIES THAT SHE KNOWS AND SHE USUALLY WORKS WITH. FURNITURE, OBJECTS, TOTEMS AND TALISMANS.

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LA CABANA

FLORENCE, 2020

Discover the interior project designed by Valentina Guidi Ottobri, curator of art and design, founder of VGO Associates.
La Cabana is her house-gallery where objects become symbols in a metaphysical theater where rituality and poetry are the keys to interaction.
The mission of Vgo Associates is to foster collaborative practices to give life to spiritual objects and develop new spaces for the soul. Location: “the Cabana is not far from Piazza delle Cure, where a very well-known market takes place in the city every early morning”. As for the interior plan, in addition to the distinctly warm color palette, with a mélange of tones stolen from the earth, Valentina wanted to preserve the original elements of the 70s building, such as the marble floor of the entrance and the grooved wooden doors, while reworking the rural tradition of Tuscan peasant farmhouses. And here is the choice of wicker curtains, terracotta surfaces, the frangisole bricks in the kitchen, a carpenter’s counter, and so on. The contrast between different eras and cultures allows a unique personality to emerge: “a city apartment mostly made of concrete, featuring selected pieces of contemporary design, hiding a soft and genuine soul behind the strong and brutalist shapes of its furniture”.

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A TRUE CREATIVE FACTORY, WHOSE RESULTS ARE INSERTED WITH APPARENT NONCHALANCE IN THE VARIOUS DOMESTIC SPACES. ON THE OTHER HAND, VALENTINA IS THE KIND OF CURATOR WHO LOVES TO EXPERIMENT HERSELF. PASSIONATE ABOUT ART, WITH A MASTER’S DEGREE IN SEMIOTICS (AND A PROFESSOR LIKE UMBERTO ECO), VALENTINA HAS PERMEATED THE 80 SQUARE METERS OF HER SPIRITUAL, CULTURED, ESOTERIC VISION OF LIVING. AN EXAMPLE ABOVE ALL? HER FAMILY OF MONSTERS, A FASCINATING COLLECTION OF TOTAL BLACK SCULPTURES, CREATED IN COLLABORATION WITH THE GREATEST APULIAN MASTERS OF CERAMICS, THE COLÌ BROTHERS. “MY MONSTERS ARE INSPIRED BY MEDIEVAL BESTIARIES, IN A HISTORY PRIOR TO THAT OF THE RENAISSANCE, WHERE UGLINESS AND CHAOS WERE PART OF EVERYDAY LIFE, AS MY PROFESSOR UMBERTO ECO EXPLAINED VERY WELL. OVER TIME THESE FRIGHTENING CREATURES HAVE BECOME SOME SORT OF TALISMANS, CAPABLE OF PROTECTING THOSE WHO OWNED THEM” VGO

MOST OF THE FURNISHINGS HAVE BEEN CUSTOM DESIGNED AND TAILOR-MADE FOR THE PROJECT, WITH A MARKED PREFERENCE FOR POOR MATERIALS SUCH AS DELIBERATELY ROUGH CONCRETE, TADELAKT, WOOD, WICKER. OF COURSE THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF ICONIC PIECES, SUCH AS THE CARPET DESIGNED BY GERMANS ERMICS FOR CCTAPIS, THE DECORATIVE TERRACE FLOOR BY CRISTINA CELESTINO, THE ABSTRACT SCULPTURES BY ANTONIO DI TOMMASO, THE SLATE TABLE-WORK OF ART SPECIFICALLY CREATED BY BIANCO BIANCHI, THE PAINTING BY SIMON MILLER, “WHICH TELLS US ABOUT THE MYTH OF PERSEUS WHO FREES THE PRINCESS OF ETHIOPIA ANDROMEDA “.