What's for Sale With a View Bulgari Family
The archway arcade to Maite and Paolo Bulgari's luxe retreat in Marrakech. Photograph: Ricardo Labougle
B ack when she was a college student in her hometown of Madrid, Maite Carpio Bulgari and her friends liked to visit Marrakech on long weekends and holidays. It was a stylish matter to exercise, as well as a quick trip—like flying from New York to Toronto, except the getaway was sunnier and infinitely more exotic.
Years later, she would return to the Moroccan regal city, this time with her husband, Paolo Bulgari, chairman of the famed Italian jewelry and luxury-goods dynasty (and great-grandson of its founder), and their young children in tow. "My daughter Marina walked around the medina with a scarf covering her mouth because she didn't similar the smells," Maite recalls, laughing, "and Carlotta wanted to buy all the animals she constitute in the streets."
What the Rome-based couple did purchase, a decade ago, was a derelict parcel in the centre of the medina—basically "just a pile of sand and rocks," says Maite—where they would painstakingly construct a gracious Moroccan riad, with a garden and multiple courtyards and an inviting rooftop terrace overlooking the humming historic center.
The Marrakech riad of Maite and Paolo Bulgari was designed past decorator Pablo Paniagua and his architect brother, Gustavo. A living room off the foyer is furnished primarily with custom- fabricated pieces. The armchairs are covered in a Rubelli velvet. Photograph: Ricardo Labougle
Construction on the two-story, seven-bedroom house took five years, with piece of work slowing in summers, thanks to the extreme heat, too every bit during the annual monthlong observance of Ramadan—not to mention the general unhurried pace of the meticulous local coiffure. And when information technology came fourth dimension to find the right decorator for the interiors, that process turned out to be nearly as protracted. "I looked all over Europe, simply everyone I talked to wanted to make the house as well sophisticated," says Maite, who is a screenwriter and Television producer with her own production company. "I wanted the interiors to reflect Moroccan manner but be simple and easy to live in."
The library'south sofa, covered in a Loro Piana linen, and the cocktail tables were designed by Pablo Paniagua. Photo: Ricardo Labougle
And so, on a trip with some friends to Seville, the Andalusian capital where the architecture retains hitting Moorish influences that engagement back to the Centre Ages, Maite had an epiphany. "I realized what I needed was a Spanish designer from Andalusia," she says, "someone who already had the right artful, for whom Morocco would not be strange."
The inlaid secretary in the foyer is 19th-century Spanish. Photo: Ricardo LaBougle
Some online research led her to Pablo Paniagua, a Málaga-born designer with whom she instantly connected—"a insurrection de foudre," every bit she playfully puts information technology. Paniagua, who works alongside his two brothers at their Madrid studio, has decorated everything from high-style apartments in London and Barcelona to the Garden Court Hotel in Palo Alto, California. He has a reputation for creating unfussy, elegant interiors that are contemporary yet timeless, with a touch of Andalusian flair. The Bulgaris told Paniagua they wanted their abode to embrace the local civilisation while avoiding a predictable ye olde Marrakech look.
Throughout the domicile Paniagua used Moroccan tiles and the traditional polished plaster known as tadelakt, while his blood brother Gustavo, an architect, conceived richly detailed coffered ceilings, handcrafted in Spanish cedar. Many of the furnishings were custom made in the spirit of classic Moroccan craftsmanship, such as the dining room'southward expansive table of walnut and brass, but Paniagua also mixed in select antiques sourced from Spain, including such exquisite finds as a 16th-century velvet-upholstered breast in the archway courtyard and an ornate 19th-century secretarial assistant inlaid with mother-of-pearl and exotic woods in the foyer. Curtains and upholstery embroidered with ancient Berber motifs were handwoven by artisans from the Loftier Atlas Mountains. "We wanted to requite a soul to the riad," the decorator says. "It has a Moroccan sensibility with an Andalusian essence."
A 19th-century Moroccan silk-and-silverish material with Berber tribal motifs is displayed in the master chamber, where the bed canopy is lined in silver-colored silk by Jim Thompson. The 1940s French gold-bronze bench is upholstered in green linen by Loro Piana, and the Pablo Paniagua–designed curtains were handwoven and embroidered by local artisans. Photo: Ricardo Labougle
What the riad doesn't have is fine art. Even though the Bulgaris are serious collectors and Paniagua is passionate nearly art, they wanted to respect prohibitions, observed by many Muslims, confronting depicting homo and animal forms. Instead, they turned to the boldly colored, oft geometric-patterned kilims found all over Morocco, hanging them, along with awe-inspiring mirrors, similar paintings. Antiquarian lanterns and lamps, meanwhile, provide a sculptural presence. "It was very difficult to renounce images," Maite admits, "but we felt that information technology was non possible to accept figurative paintings. In the end, nosotros found some other solution."
The riad was finally completed almost 2 years ago, and the family particularly enjoys coming for Christmas and other holidays. For them, a typical day in Marrakech starts with a traditional Moroccan breakfast, often followed by a steam in their hammam and then a walk through the medina, which "is always total of fantasy and chance," remarks Maite. Lunch is ordinarily served on the rooftop terrace, after which everyone finds a shady spot to settle in with a volume or the newspapers. They are, after all, on Kingdom of morocco time. "Here, you are no longer in a hurry—yous tin can simply relax," says Maite. "If people make it an hour late, nobody cares."
Click here to view more than photos of the home.
Cover: In the main courtyard, Maite Bulgari with her daughters, Carlotta (left) and Marina, reclining on a Pablo Paniagua–designed daybed.
Photo: Ricardo Labougle
Source: https://galeriemagazine.com/inside-the-bulgari-familys-opulent-marrakech-riad/
0 Response to "What's for Sale With a View Bulgari Family"
Post a Comment