GLAM ROCK

Calling on his encyclopaedic knowledge of design history, architect Pierfrancesco Cravel has crafted an ultra-luxe pad

- Kara O'Reilly and Chiara dal Canto

KITCHEN/ AREA LIVING The show-stopping cook space includes an island and extractor crafted from patinated brass and units made from Lepanto marble.

When, at a party, architect Pierfrancesco Cravel was introduced by a mutual friend to fashion entrepreneur Giorgio Dantone, it was a lucky meeting of minds.

'We liked each other straight away and sensed in each other a passion for seeking out the new and the beautiful,' says Pierfrancesco. And so began the 'long, crazy and extraordinary project to renovate the Milanese apartment Giorgio had bought for his family in 'a building that looked like a hospital,' says Pierfrancesco. The first thing I asked Giorgio when I saw it was, "Why did you buy it?". The layout alone was a challenge, but it is often the difficult houses that give the most interesting end results.'

LIVING AREA The wall relief, in five tones of grey plaster with brass inlays, was inspired by the work of the Italian modernist artists Manlio Rho and Mario Radice.

To get under the skin of his client, Pierfrancesco visited Giorgio at his influential, forward-looking fashion store, Daad Dantone. "Together we looked at the clothes he loved the most and he explained them to me one by one. Then I went around to the house for dinner.' It was to be the first of many. "We need big wardrobes and I don't like green" was Giorgio's brief." 

LIVING AREA The sofas are oversized replicas of a classic Jean Royère design, while the Egyptian table was inspired by folding stools found in Tutankhamun's tomb.