There’s no place like Rome, but if you talk to designer couple Paolo Giacomelli and Roberta Paolucci, the lesser-known neighbourhood of Pigneto is where the creative spirit of the Italian capital is currently flourishing.
The Italian-born founders and designers behind the jewellery brand Iosselliani discovered Pigneto, 5km east of the centre and outside the ancient city walls, in the early 1990s when it was still a sleepy suburb. This was well after the late film director Pier Paolo Pasolini, whose work includes The Gospel According to St Matthew, made it the setting for some of his seminal pieces –but long before the trendy restaurants moved in and the New York Times coined it “an enclave of cool”.
Roberta, 54, and Paolo, 57, chose to invest in a location that would provide them with creative headspace. Three decades later, it has more than paid its dues, not least during the months of Covid-19 lockdown.
“We feel like it is an island in the city and we have felt so lucky to be here,” says Paolo. “It really is so special and attracts a lot of people – designers, artists and people in fashion – looking for peaceful tranquillity. It isn’t as expensive as other areas around either. We were probably among the first people who moved here and we found it perfect for our lifestyle.”
Looking around the home the couple share with their teenage son Rocco, it’s easy to see why. Spacious and airy, the gallery-like space they designed and renovated with architect Adriano Pingaro 12 years ago affords them ample yet intimate room. The exterior is, says Paolo, typical of the kind of single-storey houses that you find locally. The interior, on the other hand, mirrors the aesthetic of their jewellery brand, which is celebrated for mingling old-world craft with modernist charm.
A mixture of high-end furniture – including a set of Vittorio Nobili’s sought-after 1955 Medea chairs and Gio Ponti’s more prevalent 646 Leggera chair – sits alongside more quirky personal items, such as treasured vintage glass ceiling lamps and rustic wooden tables. Books that have been carefully collected from outdoor flea markets in downtown Rome abound. The look, says Paolo, is “more Italian baroque” than bohemian.
Concrete floors and walls are offset by sumptuous velvets, slinky satins, lightweight linens and an extensive art collection. A piece by photographer Nan Goldin – a 40th-birthday gift to Roberta from Paolo – hangs above the bath, while a cosy glow emits from the bedside lamps, which the pair designed for the Iosselliani Design branch of their brand for Giustini/Stagetti – an international contemporary design gallery in Rome.
It is, however, the exterior element of this interior that really brings their home to life. Outside space was non-negotiable for the couple, and their home is sandwiched between two gardens. The polished concrete walls and floors that are found throughout the house extend into the outside area, which features a cuboid bath of the same material. Floor-to-ceiling glass doors, meanwhile, form invisible barriers between the two terrains.
“In a big city like Rome or Paris or London, it’s not easy to find outside space, but it’s so important for your lifestyle,” explains Paolo, who notes that the weather tends to be good year-round in Rome, so they get to enjoy it all the time.
“We love the connection between the inside and the outside,” he continues, “and that’s why we specifically surrounded ourselves by glass – so that the outside and inside feel like the same place.”
The stainless-steel kitchen and stripped-back bathroom also nod to the exterior spaces, which helps to further dissolve the boundaries between exterior and interior. “One side is tropical with bamboo and banana trees, because we had a strong connection with tropical places after travelling, and the other is classic Mediterranean with more colour,” says Paolo, admitting that both the thriving gardens are the result of Roberta’s hard work.
A stone’s throw away from their home in Pigneto is the couple’s atelier, where they design their collections and have a base for their staff, in addition to their flagship in central Rome. They bought the three-storey structure five years ago and worked 24 hours a day to make it the kind of inspiring place in which they could run their company.
Much like their home, the atelier is also open-plan. The double-height space with its navy-blue curtains and a TechnoD70 sofa by Osvaldo Borsani contrasts with neutral upholstery courtesy of Marco Zanuso’s Lady armchair. Jaunty abstraction is introduced by a carpet from Allegra Hicks, while huge fern clippings from Roberta’s garden once again bring the outside in.
Art continues on the staircase with portraits and graphic lettering by the contemporary artists Luca Donnini, Pietro Bologna and Tommaso Modugno. It’s an extension of their home; a mixture of materials and media that fuels the couple’s day-to-day work and wider existence in the city.
“We’re partners in business and life,” says Paolo, before going on to reveal their plan to exercise the Italian tradition-cum-rite of decamping to the seaside, coronavirus restrictions permitting. Which does beg the question: who would want to leave a place like this?
