Casa La Scala, Lake Garda

Built between 1956 and 1958 in a small Italian town on Lake Garda, Casa La Scala is a Brutalist masterwork by Vittoriano Viganò – the Milanese architect who merged the legacy of the Modern Movement and the influence of Italian Rationalism into a personal, pioneering language. Designed for André Bloc – his friend and founder of the magazine L’architecture d'Aujourd'hui –, it is here that the new collection is revealed. In a perfectly balanced contrast between béton brut rawness and sliding-glass door lightness, the vibrant alternation of materials is the connective thread among architecture, nature and textiles. The new woven felts and natural textures dialogue with the vigour of concrete slabs and steel columns, which symbolize man’s ability to transform raw materials into pure poetry. In this remarkable location, the abstract forms of the new jacquard fabrics relive in the glass and metal reflections of windowpanes. An almost imperceptible transition between interior and exterior takes place, enabling the water and evergreen trees to enter the building, while the wide curtains, recalling natural colours or geometrical waves, open up onto the lake view from the verge of a steep slope.