Society Limonta meets Alessandro Isola
An expert in architecture, interior and product design, Alessandro Isola is the architect and designer who envisioned and designed Fluid Home, a villa in northern Italy characterised by large volumes and contrasting tones, and protagonist of the collaboration between Society Limonta and Architecture Hunter last autumn.
The encounter between the designer, who founded the eponymous studio in London in 2014, and Society Limonta actually took place several years ago, when Alessandro chose the home textiles by the Lecco-based brand to complete his residential projects in Italy, London, Moscow, Saint Moritz, New York, Egypt, Ibiza and Mexico City. “The quality of the material and the tactile finishing of the products lead me to chooose Society for my projects. For the interiors, I prefer to use few materials, declined and expressed in different ways to highlight their intrinsic beauty”, Alessandro Isola told us during our meeting. What makes recognisable the Made in Limonta home textiles is not only the use of refined and unique fibres, but also a certain je ne sais quoi, visible at first glance: “The textiles have a casual look, not too formal, but cosy and casual. I see so much of my taste in your collections; despite being eclectic and with neutral nuances closer to my personality, they also include prints and more creative colours”.
NITE cotton, REM linen, KASH cashmere, MULTI in alpaca: Alessandro Isola’s favourite pieces belong to Society’s iconic collection, which features timeless fabrics that dress the home with taste and passion in every season. Each element, piece of furniture and decoration is selected with an ecosystem in mind, to create a balance with the surrounding space: “I select neutral colours because I do not like to draw too much attention on one single element, I like everything to be in harmony. There are times when clients ask to add a splash of colour and in Society’s colour palette I can find hues that are not too strong, but with a delicate and gentle look, that allow me to play with chiaroscuro and layering”.
The properties designed by Alessandro Isola become a place akin to the souls of the people who inhabit them, where the senses are stirred by the softness of an alpaca blanket, by a brushed wooden surface or a smooth stone: “The Fluid Home itself is a house that needs discovering, it gives a certain visual impact, but you are not drawn by one thing over the other. Only through contact, by rotating the swivels, the sliding walls you notice the house transforming, only by moving and touching the surfaces you discover unexpected developments that were hidden before”. Starting with the senses, the set of surfaces, materials and decorative pieces as a whole can convey an emotion; according to Alessandro one single element cannot evoke a sensation, it can do so only by interacting with the other elements and the people who live it.
With a glimpse into the future, we asked Alessandro what he would ask Society Limonta to come up with if it could create a colour or product for him: “Recently I wish I had very dark fabrics, totally black. Your darkest colour, Antracite, was still too light for the dark environment I wanted to recreate. I would ask for such a shade”.
As a lover of craftmanship and handmade, and with Society Limonta’s know-how Alessandro Isola suggests another project, that until now he was only able to make for an art gallery in New York using metal: “It would be interesting to use one of your textiles to lock in time a gesture or a movement”. Thus, the boundaries between design and art become so thin and rarefied: both Alessandro Isola and Society Limonta consacrate the house as an emotive place where anyone can build their own environment, their own story.
