SIMONE MICHELI: Milan Design Week 2022, What a Great Revelation!

One of the most well-known Italian architects, Simone Micheli keeps coming back in Albania where he supervises his projects. They are all out of this world. After the big success he achieved with Milan Design Week 2022 (June 6-12, 2022), TRAILBLAZING MAGAZINE ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN talked with him at the sidelines of the signing ceremony of the first InterContinental Hotel in Tirana.

When and how did you get interested in design?

I have always been fascinated by design. Since I was a child, I have shaped the undiscovered works that crossed my thoughts through drawings on paper. Seeing ideas transform into actual concretization gave me satisfaction and well-being. With the university, that I attended in Florence, studying architecture, I added technique and knowledge to my artistic flair, structuring a concrete and wise way to direct the creative flow. I have had many great teachers who have helped me grow and from whom I have learned the importance of studying, deepening thoughts, and analyzing contradictions. The strength of history and tradition. But also, the courage to dare, to break with the existing. How to give life to unique architectural works, designed specifically for the human visitor destined to become the protagonist. Experiences, travels, encounters, and cultures have helped to transform me into the person I am today and to give my designing path a characterizing and characterized, unique, clear, and defined style.

How would you describe your work? What is your work pattern, and how do you start on a new assignment?

I transform dreams into concrete, effective, functional, beautiful realities. I am lucky enough to put my greatest passion into practice every day. But I do it with

Oversea Building

commitment, effort, and thanks to an always curious, open, careful gaze towards the world. There is no specific pattern that I follow because my works are always the meeting of different components that originate from the context, the client’s requests, and the needs of the users. My goal is to give life to unique works that are able to become the attractive fulcrum of the territories in which they are located and able to give unique experiences to the viewers that become active memory in their minds, a future guide for the experiences in the making.

What is the success of your Architecture Studio, created in 1990, and the design studio «Simone Micheli Architectural Hero»? How has the fact of having branches in Dubai, Sardinia, Rabat, and Busan, influenced the enlargement of your vision as an architect and designer?

The works I bring to life are unique, and highly distinctive, with the aim of creating an extended communicative flywheel that goes beyond known conventions and generates attractive thoughts. I think that the courage to break with pre-established patterns, to go beyond stereotypes, and to anticipate fragments of the future and of the unknown in the present, are among the reasons that have led my designing way to progress and therefore to be successful. To these is added the attention to the technological avant-garde, the care for the desires and needs of human beings, the ability to respond to the current challenges of the market and respect for the environment, the protection of resources. Furthermore, I have always given a lot of importance to communication: both in generating works capable of communicating with context and people, and in building a winning system for the dissemination of my works. This means that with greater energy my works are known everywhere. The fact that my studio has offices all over the world means that the projects I imagine are the result of the hybridization of contents and the contamination of experiences. Works that grow thanks to the knowledge of different contexts and backgrounds and that take shape from the use of local and specific materials of the places.

What attracts you like a magnet to Albania? Can we talk about the projects you have completed in Albania and others in the pipeline?

I like Albania because it is an open land where culture meets. That is growing and wishes to innovate and experiment. A beautiful, rich land, where natural wonders are skillfully combined with avant-garde cities. There are many projects that I have in progress now, fascinating, and surprising works aimed to leave their mark on the minds of visitors and the territory. For example, I am taking care of the interior design of the Hotel InterContinental in Skanderbeg square, in Tirana, owned by Ram Geci. Of both the architecture and the interior design of a new hotel that will take shape in Durres for Fafa Hotels & Resorts. And I’m designing a 2000-square meters spa for Melia Hotel in San Pietro. Works that are imagined with the aim of encouraging exchanges, meetings, business, and a sustainable approach to innovation.

Milano Design Week 2022, which took place in Milan from 6 to 12 of June, was a hit that took sharp attention. What were its major highlights that you think can be a strong influence or an inspiration in what architects and product designers can do?

Milan Design Week 2022 was a great success. It showed the energy with which the whole world of design and architecture has restarted after darker months. Full of innovative and original ideas, the week dedicated to design has invaded the city of Milan and built paths of confrontation between people from all parts of the world. The event that my Studio organized, selected partners, and I gave life to was also a great revelation! Hybrid Restaurant has attracted many visitors, professionals, entrepreneurs, and experts who have been able to touch the avant-garde of the design landscape. And especially of the greatness of Made in Italy. I created a widespread restaurant in which beauty and taste have harmoniously merged. Opening the doors to functionality and technology and leaving room for well-known protagonists. I think that from the confrontation, the relationships that intersect, and the contamination of skills that the best works for the future can take shape.

What do you hope to achieve in the future? Are there any dreams that you would like to realize?

I make my dreams come true every day, giving life to works designed to satisfy people, and make them feel good. To generate beauty and give added value to the world we live in every day. In a way that it could be better. Traveling, studying, meeting partners, and creating business opportunities are all connected to the main principle (to design) that I love to do. Also, thanks to the support of my staff. So, what I aim for myself is to continue in this direction: to increase my knowledge every day, not to lose the desire to do, design, and know. That the wonder does not diminish. Not to stop creating unique works, capable of responding to the needs of contemporary human beings and amaze them.

What is your opinion about Albanian architecture & design in general and do you think there is enough support for the young generation of designers and architects who want to start on their own?

I think the world of design and architecture in Albania is now in growing expansion. I see in the clients the desire to experiment and to open up to influences and knowledge from all over the world. I see in people the will to broaden the horizons of the known reality. I believe that young contemporary designers are experiencing a very lucky moment. In which designing opens up to innovation and takes shape thanks to the definition of new paradigms. I advise young people to throw themselves into this positive trend with energy. To study a lot both Albanian history and n traditions but at the same time to open the comparison with other cultures. Only in this way, they will be able to build solid foundations to be broken in order to generate a better future for all.