{"id":1708,"date":"2014-07-10T16:11:13","date_gmt":"2014-07-10T20:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.1stdibs.com\/blogs\/the-study\/?p=1708"},"modified":"2021-12-15T01:02:51","modified_gmt":"2021-12-15T06:02:51","slug":"introspective-michele-bonan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.1stdibs.com\/blogs\/the-study\/introspective-michele-bonan\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Introspective Archives: Designer Michele B\u00f6nan"},"content":{"rendered":"

This Thursday, we’re throwing back\u2014but only a little bit. The below piece by writer Sara Bliss ran as a feature story on June 4, 2014 in our Introspective Magazine. Read on for a condensed version of the original profile<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n

\n

For celebrated Italian architect and interior designer Michele B\u00f6<\/em>nan<\/a>, designing a hotel, a restaurant or a house is a cinematic undertaking. \u201cI am the director of a movie,\u201d B\u00f6nan explains. \u201cThe property, the location, the client: they all become parts of a film\u2014all equally important.\u201d Whether it is at the new Hotel Marquis, in Paris, or the Cipriani restaurant in Miami, B\u00f6nan delights in seeing his spaces come to Technicolor life. A lifelong Florentine who designs everything from yachts to furniture to residences for an international roster of fashionable clients, B\u00f6nan says \u201cI knew all along that I wanted to be a designer and architect,\u201d he proclaims. \u201cI never had any doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Classic-contemporary

Classic-contemporary interior at Florence’s Palazzo Tornabuoni, a member’s only residence club. Palazzo Tornabuoni, Florence <\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

B\u00f6nan\u2019s prolific career in hospitality architecture began in 1995, when he created Florence\u2019s Hotel Lungarno, the first of 10 Italian projects that he has done for the Ferragamo family\u2019s Lungarno Collection<\/a> of hotels, suites and yachts. Designing for a centuries-old townhouse overlooking the Arno, B\u00f6nan gave the Hotel Lungarno a crisp blue-and-white palette to \u201caccentuate the sense of endlessly drifting on the Arno, with the Ponte Vecchio as your point of reference,\u201d he says. But while the view from the hotel is captivating, B\u00f6nan made sure the interiors were just as enticing, designing his own custom furniture and accessories and hanging more than 400 works of modern art, including pieces by Picasso and Cocteau, throughout.<\/p>\n

\"CL54\"

The J.K. Place Roma\u2014whose skylight-lit living room-like lobby is shown here\u2014draws inspiration from ancient Rome. The J.K. Place Roma <\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

To date, B\u00f6nan has designed more than a dozen hotels throughout Europe and the U.S., every one of them unique and more evocative of staying at someone\u2019s glamorous villa than an anonymous lodging. Often the standard lobby is nixed in favor of intimate communal spaces that look and feel like living rooms, complete with roaring fireplaces, interesting books and sofas piled high with pillows. At Casa Tua<\/a>, in Miami, each of the five unique rooms is stocked beforehand with the guests\u2019 preferred flowers, films, snacks and more. \u201cI like to say that everyone should live at home like they\u2019re in a hotel, and in a hotel like they\u2019re at home,” B\u00f6nan explains. “You want the best of both, hotel service and home comfort.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"JagdgutWachtelhof3\"

B\u00f6nan both owns and designed the Jagdgut Wachtelhof, a 17-room ski lodge in the Austrian Alps. Jagdgut Watchtelhof <\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

B\u00f6nan latest hotel is Rome\u2019s new J.K, which opened this fall in a 17th<\/sup>-century building near the famed Spanish Steps just off Via Condotti. The 30 guestrooms are painted a vibrant teal or a glamorous slate gray, many have upholstered beds with a slight wing-back design and graphic, mid-century inspired chairs. \u201cThe J.K. Rome<\/a> is completely different from the hotels in Florence and Capri,\u201d B\u00f6nan explains. \u201cThe inspiration is the dolce vita<\/em> of the nineteen-fifties and sixties, and the Tom Ford movie The Single Man<\/em> influenced the concept, too. I wanted to created an iconic place, a real Roman hotel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CLASSIC126\"

“I like to say that everyone should live at home like they’re in a hotel, and in a hotel like they’re at home.” Interior from the J.K. Place Roma <\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

B\u00f6nan tends to custom-design furniture for each new project. \u201cI started designing because I couldn\u2019t find what I needed,\u201d he explains. Two properties that B\u00f6nan both designed and<\/em> owns are the Heidelberg Suites<\/a>, a 26-suite hotel housed in a series of beautifully restored 19th-century villas in the picturesque town of Heidelberg and the Jagdgut Wachtelhof,<\/a> a 31-room ski lodge in the Austrian Alps. He feels particularly connected to both of these hotels since his German-born wife, Christene, an interior stylist with whom he has collaborated for 15 years, has family roots in both locales. At the Heidelberg Suites, B\u00f6nan, a passionate boat lover, has provided a floating restaurant for guests: The Patria, a fully restored and revamped 1930s yacht done in a crisp red-and-white palette. \u201cThese two hotels really show our style,\u201d he states.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Thursday, we’re throwing back\u2014but only a little bit. The below piece by writer Sara Bliss ran as a feature story on June 4, 2014 in our Introspective Magazine. Read on for a condensed version of the original profile. For celebrated Italian architect and interior designer Michele B\u00f6nan, designing a hotel, a restaurant or a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[106,15522073],"tags":[100,110,8],"dibs-categories":[],"dibs-designs":[],"dibs-styles":[],"dibs-creators":[],"dibs-sellers":[],"class_list":["post-1708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-design-2","category-interiors","tag-designers","tag-interior-design","tag-introspective"],"acf":{"subtitle":""},"dibs_designs_tags":null,"dibs_sellers_tags":null,"dibs_creators_tags":null,"dibs_styles_tags":null,"dibs_categories_tags":null,"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/www.1stdibs.com\/blogs\/the-study\/wp-content\/uploads\/CLASSIC126-640x450.jpg","post_title":"From 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