Known for the atmospheric set designs of his movies, Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino (known for the Zendaya-starrer Challengers and Call Me by Your Name), also creates interiors that anyone can experience first-hand – and not just on a screen. Founded in 2017, his interior design practice, Studio Luca Guadagnino, has just unveiled its first hotel. It’s an astute study in the ways that historic architecture and contemporary design can meld. A member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World, Palazzo Talìa occupies the 16th-century building that once housed Nobile Collegio del Nazareno, a school whose classrooms nurtured scholars, nobles and pontiffs. This cinematic intervention makes Palazzo Talìa the latest amongst a slew of new art- and design-led hotels in Rome that have brought fresh energy to the eternal city.
“Having this opportunity has been exciting because we had the chance to showcase all the expertise and experience of our studio in just one project,” says Pablo Molezún, project leader at the firm. He explains that the hotel team fully embraced the studio’s three main pillars: chromatism, geometry and craftsmanship.
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Entering the historic hall, the first thing that strikes you is the way in which colour brings the space to life. You notice it underfoot as you glide along the monumental art-like carpet, created by Irish artist Nigel Peake and Roman rugmaker Chi Design for Studio Luca Guadagnino, which features floral and geometric themes. Its colours – soft shades of pink and yellow contrasting with deep blue and burgundy – are inspired by the original frescoes in the bar and the Magna Hall upstairs, which makes a grand impression with its soaring 36-foot-high ceiling, chequered floor and ancient Roman busts lining the walls. Much of the building is a protected landmark, so architectural details like frescoes, cornices and framing had to be restored using the appropriate hues. “We did a deep study of the original colours and implemented them in contemporary handmade carpets with new graphic patterns,” Molezún explains.
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As you move through the public spaces, you notice the tactile quality of the materials used. In the bar, for example, the studio commissioned a Sicilian ceramicist to create the bar counter and tabletops with a slightly wavy texture. In the wellness area, green Zellige tiles were sourced from Spanish artisans. The courtyard garden is filled with massive palms and other plants that make the space feel like a cross between a tropical and Mediterranean oasis; it was created in collaboration with landscape artist Blu Mambor.
Much of the furniture, including curved sofas and chairs, is bespoke, and the studio even designed the unique glass elevator that looks out onto the courtyard. Some pieces are the fruit of collaborations with FontanaArte and Dedar, while others were archival pieces sourced for the hotel, such as the monumental Murano-glass chandelier hanging in the entrance, which was created by Napoleone Martinuzzi in the 1940s. “Luca Guadagnino saw the chandelier first, and when he saw this building he instinctively got this [vision] of the chandelier,”
Molezún says. “When we finally saw it mounted, everybody stood there speechless.” The hotel’s 25 rooms and suites (all except the Talìa Suite) were designed by Marianna Lubrano Lavadera, of Mia Home Design Gallery in Rome, and Laura Feroldi, founder of Laura Feroldi Studio in Milan. The spacious quarters echo the ethos of the Guadagnino-designed public spaces, with modern four-poster beds and wall sconces by the Micheluzzi sisters, who represent the next generation of Venetian glassmakers.
The overall result is that of an intimate boutique hotel with a slightly hushed air of reverence, both for the building’s formidable past and for Studio Luca Guadagnino’s exacting approach to contemporary design. “I have always loved the idea of working on a space that has nothing to do with my practice as a filmmaker, where I have to create a space for dimensional storytelling,” Luca Guadagnino told AD in 2022. We can only imagine the stories that will unfold in the hallowed halls of Palazzo Talìa. palazzotalia.com
