A Listening Architect

The task entrusted to architect Nicola Salami was undoubtedly a severe one: to create a house out of the service cottages of a 15th-century palace in Mantua, with stratified posterns on the cracks of an even older monastery. A plan in itself marked by continuous volumes, long and narrow, with the restrictions of the Superintendency of Fine Arts not to add walls, metres, openings. The furnishings chosen fit perfectly within the constraints imposed and create a combination of shapes and styles. The extremely modern sofas, table and chairs form striking combinations with the wooden ceiling and the terracotta and resin floor. Photographs by Andrea Rinaldi