Stefania Andorlini was born in Florence, Italy and lived there until she completed her university studies. For the past 25 years she has been working in Germany on a variety of interior design projects – from lofts and houses to offices, restaurants and a bed & breakfast in Florence. She started her own business as an interior designer in 2001 and has also been designing small furniture collections and one-offs since 2008. She works with CGI by Bernhard Mende | mendestuido.com.
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You lived for a long time in the city of your birth, Florence – the cradle of the Italian Renaissance. How strongly did the city influence you artistically?

A lot. One breathes beauty, grandezza, daring, grace and proportions for years on end. It has a big effect, consciously and subconsciously.



How did your career as a designer begin?

As a result of the opportunity my not undaring ex-husband gave me to redesign houses for us.

With which materials, structures and colours do you particularly like to work with?

I like all materials ... For me it’s important to feel the materiality. To see what a material highlights and what it puts to death. It’s also an art form choosing the right material so that when beholding the result one thinks, “perfect”.  It couldn’t be any other way. Then the goal has been achieved – the goal of creating a necessity.  The world of plastics and the discovery of new materials totally fascinate me. It generates other conceptions. But I hate trendy material combinations – the will to please, the unnecessary and the replaceable. I prefer surroundings in natural colours. They are elegant and calming. However, I do also like other colours, especially red, the queen of colours. The key is the way in which they inter-react within a context.


You’ve been designing furniture since 2008. A logical step as an interior designer?
I design pieces of furniture always to answer a specific challenge, solve a problem or satisfy a need. Like, for example, the QUI lounge chair. I designed it for a certain club as I wanted to see something that fitted perfectly and totally new in the place. Unfortunately the club never came to fruition. Without the commission however I would have never designed the chair, which I just adore.


How do you go about the designing process?
As I once put it, “When creating successful architecture, a coherent concept – what should happen, for whom and how – is the first building block. It only calls for intelligence. The second building block, the interpretation of the spirit of the location, which sometimes cries out for contrasts, does require sensitivity and a cultural understanding. The third, a fortunate inspiration on the theme, makes the decisive difference. It closes the circle by creating the effect of a surprising naturalness. One should always have masterpieces before one’s eyes, feel their power and breathe their originality and greatness.” It prevents banality and engenders a certain dignity in the design.

Which artists and designers have inspired you most of all?
‍Oh, too many to name them all … but I’d still like to list a few, too great is my admiration.
Carlo Mollino: the technical glamour, the secretive.
Gio’ Ponti: the intellectual elegance.
Joe Colombo: the presence, the daring.
South American design generally: the nonchalance, the materiality (Tenreiro, Zalszupin, Rodrigues).
The South American modern architecture: the freedom, the easy-going grandezza.
The architecture from BIG Architects: the conceptual work, the elegance
Antonio Citterio: the class.
Herve’ van der Straeten: the artistic, the feel for colours.
Tom Dixon: the authenticity.
Artists that inspire me or artists that, in my opinion, are geniuses – they are not necessarily always the ones that overwhelm me. But the ones that do overwhelm are more important and they leave deeper marks. Art basically impacts the subconscious.The emotion generators:
Leonardo.
Flemish still lifes.
Matisse.
Julian Schnabel.
Jeff Koons.
Amoako Boafo.

To what extent do your psychology studies and your experiences working as a psychotherapist help you in your work?
I feel my intuition and all my senses have been heightened.  It’s definitely helped.

Interior design serves both the physical and the psychological well-being? For you, how do the two aspects inter-react?
2-1 for the psychological.

What role does light play for you?
Light is the magic of the whole, both daylight and artificial light. There’s either magic or there isn’t, already present or created. Vital difference. One of the most important things to do.

What was especially dear to your heart when designing the two Italian restaurants?
The easy-going. An informal atmosphere but nevertheless one with a touch of magic.

What do you see as being the links between room structure and design?
A room structure has a spirit. He has to talk to me – and me to him.

How important are temperament, a joy of life and the art of savouring things – attributes seen as being typically Italian?
Oh! ... how important is its scent for rosemary?

What do value yourself in your personal home surroundings? 
The spectacular (the emotions), the easy-going (the sense of freedom), an undescribable chic (the erotic).

Could you reveal your favourite places?  
Here at my place: my Mediterranean pine, the one with the umbrella. My totem at home.
Some places on Greek island coastlines: their unmistakeable poetry, pureness and nothing but the essentials.
Just like the taste and smell of good, freshly baked bread.
Or rosemary.
The colour red.
Piazza Duomo in Lecce.
And: NYC. Anytime. Anywhere.
 
Stefania Andorlini was interviewed by Dr Martina Fiess, art historian and author.