CASA NOVA

The new office of the Italian embassy in London is a love letter to the country's creative cachet

- ROSA BERTOLI

An embassy holds many identities. More than just a diplomatic location that represents a country abroad, it is also a mirror of its cultural values and artistic identity. So when long-term Wallpaper* collabforator Nick Vinson was tasked by the Italian embassy in London with creating a space that reflects the country's rich creative heritage while serving as a functional home for its diplomatic mission, he set about crafting a series of striking, one-of-a-kind interiors that characterise these many identities with sophistication.

Fresh from a recent commission to redesign the Italian ambassador's residence in London, Vinson is well-versed in the creative needs of a diplomatic delegation. His shell was a five-storey listed building, facing Buckingham Palace on one side (it had originally been built as a police station for Queen Victoria), which he chose to adorn in a rich colour palette and art from some of Italy's most relevant creative moments.

Guests entering Casa Italia are instantly in the thrall of a sophisticated curation that chronicles a rich visual history. 'Italian lobbies are generally fabulous, so we needed to create something equally fitting,' says Vinson, who enlisted design studio Formafantasma to create an impactful floor motif for the entrance. Studio founders Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin worked with mosaic specialist Fantini on a design inspired by the floors in Luigi Caccia Dominioni's Teatro Filodrammatici in Milan. Created with stones exclusively available in Italy, the mosaic embodies the spirit of midcentury Italian design while responding to the space and its use. 'To design it, we imagined the flow from the entrance into the building, creating an infographic of the movements within the room,' says Farresin.