sweet harmony

Minimalism and richness interact beautifully in this home designed by Giancarlo Valle

- Kara O'Reily

think of some of the mid-century masters, such as Alvar Aalto or Gio Ponti, and you get a sense of how Giancarlo Valle tackles a project. For while he is a trained architect – he got his Masters of Architecture at Princeton, no less – like these design maestros, he takes a holistic approach, offering the full design package. This means that as well as creating the architectural bones of a space, he also plans the interior design and adds final flourishes with his own custom-designed furniture and joinery.

In a way, it’s no surprise he is such a Renaissance man, given his cosmopolitan background. His parents are Peruvians of Italian descent and he has lived as far afield as Caracas, Chicago, Guatemala and San Francisco. It was only relatively recently that he turned his attention to furniture design, gaining plaudits almost obscenely quickly for work that has been showcased at Design Miami and the Salone del Mobile.