In Brianza, in the north of Italy, a fabric designer gives new life and colour to a 14th-century nobleman’s home Meet & greet Clio De Maria (fabric designer), husband Gabriel (IT consultant), Pietro Leon, five, and Galizia Lea, two.
I like a place if I trust its light,” says Clio De Maria, a fabric designer (currently working for Somma 1867) and founder of Lacomune, a design studio with an eclectic soul. “And I immediately trusted the light in this house”. The house she is referring to is located in Inverigo, 40km from Milan, within the summer estate of the Count Ripamonti, who moved to Argentina in the 1940s. The building dates from the 14th century: it became a convent for a while and was later divided into several residential areas.
“The first time I saw the house, it reminded me of Notre-Dame du Haut, the chapel designed by Le Corbusier in Ronchamp [France},” continues Clio. “With its slit niches and bizarre curvilinear shape.”
The designer landed in Brianza when she and her husband Gabriel, an IT consultant, were looking for a spacious solution halfway between the open countryside and the city, where they could move with their children, Pietro Leon, five, and Galizia Lea, two.
The house is on several levels and the walls are semi-circular. Apparently, when the property was used as a convent…
