“Instead Armani’s interiors possess the formal grace of a Japanese ryokan, only darker in tone and significantly more luxurious.”
-Mitchell Owens in Architectural Digest March 2012
While working on my sayonara series of posts, I had photos of fashion designer Giorgio Armani’s ski chalet in Switzerland from the March issue of Architectural Digest queued up for use. The design featured some tansu used in dramatic ways, but something about the entire home struck a chord with me and I decided to set it aside until I could figure out what it was. It came to me in that magic way ideas can just germinate in a passive mind in a calm moment, that the home felt Japanese in more ways than just the few pieces of furniture. It reminded me of a similar spread on author and Japanologist Alex Kerr’s famous renovation – or more accurately rescue and restoration – of an old Japanese home, also featured in AD, but about ten years ago.
Since then I have managed to read the article accompanying the Armani photos and it makes no bones about the parallel to Japanese design. Armani’s La Punt, Switzerland winter getaway is a restored 17th century barn that has been converted into a sleekly modern ski home, in a very Japanese vernacular. It is not surprising that the gleaming mahogany walls, floors and beams and streamlined furniture coupled with Japanese antiques, including half of a tansu hiding behind the sofa in the photo below, in the soaring cavernous space, remind me of…
…Alex Kerr’s restored 18th century farmhouse in the Iya Valley. In addition to writing Lost Japan and Dogs and Demons, Kerr has become one of the standard bearers in the movement to preserve Japan’s vanishing arts, culture and traditional lifestyle in the face of globalization and modernization.
Beamed details and grid-like wall pattern around the hearth at Armani’s…
…beamed details and grid-like built-ins around the hearth at Kerr’s.
Upstairs at Armani’s place, a pair of fraternal twin tansu stand guard on either side of the window in the bedroom.
Upstairs at Alex Kerr’s there are at least a quintuplet of tansu siblings, including the kaidan tansu on the left and assorted mizuya tansu around the room.
Simple beds, low to the ground and fireplaces with little adornment are common…
…at both homes.
I think Kerr’s place is more romantic, but I am sure Armani’s is more comfy!
Related Posts:
What’s Cooking? Tansu in the Kitchen
Where Do You Tansu?
Where Do You Tansu? Part II
Image credits: Giorgio Armani’s home in Architectural Digest March 2012, photo credits: Roger Davies, Alex Kerr’s home in Architectural Digest August 2002, photo credits: Erhard Pfeiffer
absolutely gorgeous! i want one of both. i have stayed at Alex Kerr’s restored Machiya in Kyoto and there are amazing. a cross between the photos for Kerr’s house and Armani’s. i totally recommend staying there…
http://www.kyoto-machiya.com/eng/machiyastay.html
Lisa, you have such knowledge stored in your head about Japan, I don’t think that it is the end of you and Japan, I wish I had spent more time with you while I lived there, would have been privileged to have accompanied you on your jaunts.
Jacqueline, love, love, love the Alex Kerr house, it has a heart and soul and feels so romantic but sad to say that I really dislike Georgio’s gleaming ski hut, but find your ability to compare the two when the publications are at least 10 years apart age-wise amazing. I guess that’s your historian brain at work!
Secretly Angela, it doesn’t speak to me either! But I like to represent a broad range of visions on the blog and I know I have readers who will love it. But I am with you on this one!
The photos in this post are just beautiful. thanks for this one!
Alex Kerr’s book, “Lost Japan” is fascinating. I highly recommend it. He may not have what we would imagine to be standard amenities in his restored home- heating/cooling, plumbing- but given the choice I’d rather spend time there, than in the glossy Armani chalet. Thanks for the astute contrast!
I certainly prefer Kerr’s place – it’s more rustic, certainly, feels a little more lived in and like exciting things or even the mundane are all at home there. The trouble with most modern interpretations of Japanese style – including Armani’s lodge – is that it becomes horribly stiff, straight-lined, and formal. The relaxed feel is gone, the focus becomes so much on perfection, minimalism, and balance that the structure no longer feels like a home.
You hit it on the nose!