“...The Insula mosaic decoration is dedicated to a friend of mine. It is a composition of stylised roses set against a geometric and mathematical background. The impetuous tenacity of the creeper intersecting with the rule of the geometric grid, the irrational merging with the rational, that is Cristina...’ The Insula mosaic decoration, Carlo Dal Bianco's homage to the owner of Insula delle Rose and the shop's emblem, stands out in the centre of the new shop in Brera, in the heart of Milan, in its green declination. It is a symptom of a reflection on the themes of nature and vegetation that, like creepers, branch out from the decoration to involve the design of the entire shop. The garden theme, from environmental, becomes architectural, Italian-style. Insula delle Rose is realised as an orderly, easily perceived space, where the eye is free to wander over the large green surfaces, which act as a scenic backdrop to clear, circumscribed display areas and well-defined paths. Even for the finishes, the choice falls on colours reminiscent of vegetation and light, natural materials: wood above all, used for the realisation of the customised furnishings, with simple, clean lines, and also present as flooring, composed of special shaped and undulating staves, with a unique shape, where nothing is repeated, designed to emphasise the naturalness of the material. The human presence in this garden is evidenced by white plaster figures, reminiscent of the use of statuary in Italian gardens, where we find Venus, patron goddess of spring and gardens, and Hercules, protector of the apples in the Garden of the Hesperides. To the domestic dimension of living, we are brought back by the large decorative chandelier Marie Antoinette . An even more intimate character, almost as if entering the bowels of the earth, is achieved in the basement, where the colours warm up and take on the hues of clay and terracotta and the surfaces become more material. Classic figures also populate this room. An old vault, where precious works of art were once stored, houses a collection of bathroom furnishings designed by Carlo Dal Bianco, inspired by the architectural fragments and ruins of antiquity, the undisputed destination of young people from good families on the Grand Tour at the end of the 18th century; hence, the name of the collection.

Photo:
Ottavio Tomasini, Carlo Dal Bianco Studio, Courtesy Insula delle Rose

Collaborators:
Francesco Cecchini designer, Margherita Pecori engineer