There is something both soothing and stirring about a Giancarlo Valle–designed space. With his taste for geometric objects set against nearly bare walls, the New York City–based architect and AD100 honoree creates restrained, quiet atmospheres. But he also uses color to dramatic effect, chooses forceful accents, and plays with asymmetry. “I like to think about the familiar and the foreign,” says Valle, who opened his eponymous studio in 2016 after long stints at architectural powerhouses like SHoP and Snøhetta. “My projects have the comfort of something you know, yet with elements that can make you slightly uncomfortable.”
Valle recently completed a 1,700-square-foot apartment in the NoHo neighborhood of Manhattan, where his novel approach to design matched his clients’ desire to “go to a new, unusual place.” In one corner of the home’s dining room, for example, Valle placed a seven-foot-tall sheet of oak whose curved edges echo the oval shape of the white-onyx dining table. The piece, from Oliver Gustav’s boutique in Copenhagen, could be described as either a screen or a sculpture. A small painting of a cowboy, hung off-center, is the only artwork on the adjacent walls. There is no single decoration that anchors the space; our eye wanders from the screen to the painting to the central light pendant, a brass fixture by Dimore Studio shaped like a crown of feathers.
Valle jokingly refers to this cozy room, the most colorful and most decorated space in the apartment, as a “smoking den.” The silk-and-wool yellow rug is from Pierre Frey, and the off-white club chair is by Studio Giancarlo Valle.
“We took them on a journey, and they really trusted the process,” says Valle of the homeowners, a young couple who work in creative fields. “One of the overarching themes of our practice is creating a conversation between elements.” Like Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier and Gio Ponti, Valle considers architecture, interior design, and furniture design as a whole, and he delves into every one of these disciplines for each project.
Many of the furnishings in the apartment, including a series of wooden dining chairs with backs shaped like loops, and a slim, armless sectional sofa with perfectly round pillows, were designed by his firm, Studio Giancarlo Valle . While he sometimes looks to the aforementioned midcentury masters for inspiration, Valle is particularly interested in lesser-known names who worked in between periods or were “on the fringe,” such as premodern Scandinavian designers of the ’30s and ’40s. It is indeed hard to pinpoint a precise historical reference when looking at his stripped-down yet rich interiors, with palettes that are by turns muted and bold, and lines that oscillate between minimalism and extravagance. One thing is for certain: They are a refreshing antidote to the cookie-cutter, Instagram-ready designs we’ve grown tired of.
