Lively elegance

A sophisticated and striking entranceway decorated with glass and gold leaf lends a touch of distinction to Hotel Rosa, a structure owned by the StarHotels chain and located in one of Milan’s historic squares, Piazza Fontana. This five-storey building, harmoniously constructed to the same height as the Archbishopric and the Palazzo del Capitano, stands in the most monumental corner of the recently redeveloped square with its new portico, tree-planted pedestrian area, new paving and the famous Piermarini fountain.
The interior design project, commissioned from Nicola Gallizia Design, combines two buildings, the existing Albergo Rosa and the new structure created by Studio Arassociati, which share a sophisticated design language based on style, luxury and panache.
This language is skilfully announced by the entry portal clad with Gold collection tiles from Rex Ceramiche, which leads into a warm, bright and comfortable interior and exploits the strong visual impact achieved by gold leaf pressed between two sheets of polished glass.
“The message we wanted to convey to guests was that they are about to enter a rather special place, a kind of treasure cave,” explains Gallizia. “This is why the common areas feature such striking surface coverings. In the bar zone we created a contemporary art installation (a fireplace with a flame video) surmounted by ceramic cladding. This makes for an ambience that is both welcoming and stimulating.” And indeed visitors to Hotel Rosa experience a wealth of visual and emotional stimuli, from the spatial organisation of the building to the astonishing choice of furnishings which populate the interiors like living, vibrant presences. The spaces lead into each other like an urban itinerary, visual cues creating the impression of magic boxes that are all different but united by the velvety surfaces with their pale, harmonious ton-sur-ton colours. The overall project is rooted in the history of the location and takes concrete form by combining a Roman domus with a Milanese neoclassical aristocratic home.
Each space has its own unique characteristics, as in the case of the bar area where the black Casamood mosaics serve as a backdrop to an alternation of black and grey stucco work with a barely hinted decoration, a design that makes a discreet reference to the hotel’s logo. The harmony is disrupted once again by the Golden Room, an area flooded with natural light and designed entirely in gold, even on the floor – for which Gallizia chose the 40×40 cm Galuchet series, again from Rex – and in the restaurant entrance, clad in Maiolica Oro tiles from Casamood in a 5×5 cm mosaic format.
All one hundred of the guest rooms are designed in accordance with the lively and elegant style that distinguishes the project, with contemporary furnishings in soft, warm colours. In the bathrooms, a sense of contrast and surprise is achieved by the ceramic tiles: Vetro Neutra mosaics from Casamood for the showers, enhanced by the use of light, and Stontech large-format sheets with milled, rounded edges from Floor Gres for the floors and walls. “The result is extremely elegant and sophisticated, better than anything we could have achieved using natural stone,” says Gallizia. “The material is also harder wearing yet more versatile than stone, more hygienic and less expensive, but at the same time equally appealing.” The same material has been used for the profiles of the mosaic-clad baths to achieve visual continuity and a sense of modernity.