16 DIGS.NET | 4.16.2021
P R O F I L E | V I N C E N Z O D E C OT I I S
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(FROM TOP) A SCULPTURAL SCREEN MADE OF RECYCLED FIBERGLASS AND
SILVERED BRASS SHOWCASES DE COTIIS'S FONDNESS FOR REFLECTIVE
SURFACES; A CAST BRASS SCULPTURE BRINGS MODERN EMBELLISHMENT
TO THE SPACE'S OLD WORLD BONES.
roughly 3,000-square-foot apartment with his wife
Claudia Rose. Apart from needing to allocate some
space to new technical systems, he "preferred to
emphasize the pre-existing and to enrich it with some
surfaces that contrast each other, creating a container,
which is visually very exciting while at the same time
respectful." Enriching the existing is De Cotiis's métier,
and in doing so here he fashioned a space that, though
decisively of a period is forcefully, almost relentlessly,
current.
Despite the lack of structural alterations needed,
the space was a decorative wasteland—false ceilings,
ugly moquette floor coverings—when De Cotiis began
peeling away layers of paint and paper that had been
applied over many decades in order to restore its Old
World inheritances and character, which includes a bit
of the Baroque. In wanting to preserve the history and
mood of the space, De Cotiis's excavations revealed
its original paint colors and ceilings. "I then worked
out what my intervention needed in a contemporary
way," he says. Leaving walls untreated, for example, to
accommodate "a bit of plaster dust if you brush against
them," he continues. Every room features the remnants of
a different color. Pink in the library, blue in the bedroom,
ochre in others. "You can still see the gold traces left behind
from the 18th century stuccos," says De Cotiis. These soft
colors and lovely light coalesce as a canvas where metallic
surfaces shine amid the distress.
Having described his work as "anti-design," De Cotiis's
interior—a juxtaposition of old bones and new works—is
astonishingly confident. Nothing is uniform, least of all
the tone, and it is full of contorted forms and futuristic
feeling. Decadent in abstractions designed by De Cotiis
and produced in Italian ateliers, the space is equal parts
apartment and gallery for the avant-garde, a showcase for
the designer's interest in aging objects and the pursuit of
"perfect imperfection." One can scarcely imagine more
from something so minimal. The place is a fascination, with
spacious, well-illuminated rooms, and an extravagance of
elements from an older time (fading frescoes, imperfect
finishes) contrasted with contemporary designs—a dining
table of silver-plated brass and recycled fiberglass, a velvet-
covered daybed in pale pink, a pair of marble and cast
brass coffee.
