Robert, your studio is specialised in interior design for boutique hotels, restaurants and residential projects. What is the common trait of these locations?
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I don't think they necessarily have a common trait. Some are similar to others, but for the most part, each project is unique..
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How would you describe your style?
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This is another very hard question. I'd rather you ask me the meaning of life, I'm not even kidding, it’s easier for me to answer that!
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What adjectives would you use?
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Well… timeless, warm, soulful, and detailed. That’s the common trait of our designs: maybe I answered to the first question too.
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Where do you find inspiration for your work?
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Most of the time in places and materials..

And what about music? I read you have a soundtrack for each project, and use to play songs during your creative sessions
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Well, that comes later on in the process. After we determined the concept and the idea, we write the story and then start to build the playlist to bring that story to life, like a soundtrack for a film. For example, if we're doing a beach club in the style and spirit of 1950s Capri, the music would be romantic and very ethereal, our playlist would include some great jazz, some Italian music, maybe some beautiful Spanish guitars. While if we're working on a house that's very modern and brutalist, maybe we'll have a bit more austere music, a little colder, cooler. Music helps us to be a little bit more specific to the emotion we want to evoke in that specific project. Because we're very emotional designers, meaning it's not what we want you to see, it’s what we want you to feel. We even think about the scent and the smell sometimes, including that in some presentations.

Your mother has Italian origins. Do you think your Italian heritage plays a role in your design?
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Yeah, very much so. As a child, hearing the stories of Italy was very romantic. And in those days it wasn't very common for children in the US to go and travel to Europe very often, if at all. Traveling left a lot to my imagination.
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What does “Italian design” means to you?
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It means a huge emphasis on the quality of materials and on craftsmanship. I remember there was a lot of value put on the making of things, on artisanal qualities, and I think that really stuck with me. Like on textiles, I would have heard comments like “this is so soft, so delicate, so heavy”. The focus was on how something felt, and I think that's very similar to the things that we seek to put in our designs today.
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When you design products and interiors, ancient art techniques play a role. Which one you find more fascinating and why?
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Well, we work a lot with glass from Murano because it's very special, for a lot of reasons. There's not many places in the world that do it, and the ones that do it ultimately have learned from the people in Murano. So I think there's a certain heritage there that is very noticeable, that you feel, and that inspires an emotion.

When and how did you step into Incalmi?
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We were working on high end restaurants and we wanted to design custom lighting. My mother used to go to Venice every year in that period, and I decided to go with her. I visited Murano and saw all the beautiful lights, and when I got back I set some meetings with different companies, different fornaci, to see if I could do some custom designs. I must have met with maybe ten or fifteen places, but their idea of custom was like “you can make this color or that color. You can make it silver or you can make it gold”. Well, the last person I met was Patrizia, there wasn’t Incalmi yet. She said “we'll make you anything you want”. And that was it. We had one project coming up, with a very short timeline, but they met the deadline and the lights were perfect. They're still in the cafe at Sotheby's auction house in New York. As time went on, we started to work with Incalmi more and more.
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What is Incalmi contribution to your projects?
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Well, they are very experimental, and that is great for a designer, because I think one of the hardest things is hearing “no” all the time, like “no, you can't do that”. Incalmi always says “I don't know, let's try”. And that's music for my hears. We've worked with wood, rattan, glass, metal, stone, enamel, fabric so far. I must say it’s a big contribution because we don't make things, we design things, so once we design something, we need someone to make it. And having a company to partner with us that says “let's try” is a very big deal.

Can you make an example?
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Yes. We were working on a project for which we needed very simple lamps wrapped in rattan, and we were asking for prices in Asia. And I said, you know, let's just ask Incalmi. And they said, “yeah, we can do that”. And they did a beautiful job, they found an artisan in Veneto that works with rattan, it was actually very inspiring. In the end we developed a whole collection combining rattan and beautiful Murano glass, transforming a very rustic technique in a refined, and sophisticated material.

You have a collection on your own which is called Monea.
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Yes, and Incalmi is doing all the lighting for that collection.

So you always challenge them to experiment new things: I think this is important for them too.

‍Well, that's great. Another thing is that sometimes you meet people that you don't connect with. While with Incalmi I can spend lots of time, going to lunch and dinner and having drinks and laughing and hearing about their life, and that's really what is all about in the end, being able to exchange ideas and life.

You come to Venice often.
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Yes, I visited the fornace and the other partners many times.
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Of all the projects done with Incalmi, what was the most remarkable to you?
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‍Saint Ambrose Brookfield was the biggest challenge. We designed two chandeliers that are almost six meters long, and they had to fly from Italy because someone broke something, and they had to create a special piece to make sure it had a safety mechanism.They're right on the highway across from the Freedom tower, so when you drive by, and I drive by often, you just see them there, and they're so elegant and so strong.

Are you working on something together at the moment??
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We are starting a new project in New York, a beach club with these really beautiful lights inspired by sea creatures, corals and seaweed.