UNSCRIPTED with Matteo Nunziati: Opulence in Paucity

"The most difficult thing in design is to keep a balance between all the parts. It’s like nature. A flower is such a perfect machine from one side, but is also beautiful".

- Matteo Nunziati

Matteo Nunziati knew about his inclination towards the arts and creative disciplines since he was quite young, as he fondly recalls in his UNSCRIPTED conversation with STIR. The copying of a comic book while on a family vacation, at age 11, proved to be his eureka moment, or the moment “he started his career”. Several such moments have come to now designate the meaning of luxury for the Italian designer, who through his wide international repertoire of works has been able to carve a niche for himself in high-end product and interior design for residential and hospitality projects.

Born and brought up in Milan, the city being his amour and liaison at the same time, he cites his design inspiration to come from the greats: Michelangelo, Da Vinci, and Giovanni “Gio” Ponti. “I think the big lesson is to be innovative, but (also) to take in consideration, the tradition,” states the 40-year-old-designer, owing his minimal yet robust design philosophy to the rich history and culture of Italia, and a strict evasion of adherence to trends or commercial design.

Trained as an architect and later discovering his proclivity for product and interior design, Nunziati considers himself an avid travel enthusiast, while musing over his next travel destination and just being able to get on a plane, as Italy too reels from under a lockdown. “The emotion that you feel when you can travel is something unbelievable,” he says. However, when under a creative block, it is the added pressure of deadlines and the will to commit as opposed to unwinding at exotic spots that helps him deliver. “Deadline for me is extremely important. If some company, some client, or some developers’ group says ‘I need this work from your side’, I have to be creative,” proclaims Nunziati on what gets him out of his creative block.

Over the years, Matteo Nunziati’s name and studio have become synonymous with delivering designs that spell luxury, lining prestigious projects including the Trump Towers in Pune, New Delhi, and Kolkata; Fraser Suites West Bay in Doha, Qatar; renovation of the Four Seasons Hotel in London; and the Radisson Blu residence in Dubai Marina. Some of his most iconic products are borne under international brands including but not limited to Molteni & C., Poliform, Flou, and Lema. However, the Italian designer considers luxury to be something intangible, something one feels as opposed to acquiring or owning. 

Luxury is when you feel better, when you feel very good, when you touch the beauty, even if that beauty is not something expensive.

The designer debonaire owns and drives a Porsche, but the one thing he still can’t leave his house without is a kiss from his children. That’s also how he likes to spend his Sundays: in his lush private garden, playing with his three kids. That, for Nunziati, is the luxury of space and time.

All this and much more: tap on the cover video to watch the complete conversation.

UNSCRIPTED:
Curated by Pramiti Madhavji (Consultant, Content Adviser, STIR), UNSCRIPTED is a STIR-original series of quick-witted video interviews with 30 leading design professionals who give us an undiscovered peek into their lives. A melting pot of quests, revelations and quirks, the series spans 30 weeks with a release every Sunday as designers reveal unheard and unknown nuggets from their lives, in response to 30 questions.