12 interior design ideas to inspire you, even on the beach

“My interior décor is like water for a fish: it is the vital element, the unconscious envelope, a situation now dominated now undergone, but always essential”, said Alessandro Mendini when describing none other than his own home, in Domus, the magazine he directed in 1982.

Today, we still spend a great deal of time in our homes, perhaps more in search of coolness than warmth, and always in search of a place that reflects how we inhabit our environment, whether it’s in the city, in the woods, by the sea, or even on an island.

We’ve gathered some of the most inspiring interiors we’ve featured, to tell stories of diverse ways of living: from the essential spaces of compact urban homes to the rebirth of apartments designed by Le Corbusier, from the surprisingly brutalist character of certain domestic settings to transparent garden dwellings.
And you might also join us as we explore one of the most talked-about interiors, and one of the least accessible in a precise moment of the year.

Studio Marcante-Testa has renovated a 1950s apartment originally designed by Ada Bursi – one of the first registered female architects in Italy – highlighting a “democratic luxury” made of modern spatiality and refined mid-century details. Keep reading

The renovation by Noe9 reinterprets historic textures and materials to create a contrast of optical geometric textures, neutral surfaces and design icons. Keep reading

History and contemporary design merge in the renovation of a Milanese apartment, where the superfluous is cut by inserting a thin green metal structure and an abstract semicircular staircase. Keep reading

Studio RREEL has renovated an apartment in the famous Porte Molitor building, where the modern master had created his home and studio, in a dialogue with his legacy through space, colors and materials. Keep reading

Isla Architects have translated the local character of the Balearic Islands into a dialogue of earth, stone and white interiors gathered around a linear open space. Keep reading

Restored by Bian Office, the apartment overlooks the Spanish city’s bay and features a new organization of spaces and an eccentric choice of finishes and colors that bring a contemporary lifestyle to the interior. Keep reading

supertype group extended a historic building with an open, hybrid structure, where living and garden spaces can be inserted and combined as plug-in modules. Keep reading

Studio Kaai 7 transformed a dentist’s office into a home through a renovation and extension project that scrupulously (and playfully) reaffirmed the brutalist character of the spaces. Keep reading 

In the heart of Genoa’s Molo district – known locally as “Meu” – llabb studio has completed a renovation project that seamlessly blends tradition with contemporary design. Keep reading

Florquin Studio has transformed a former workshop into a three-storey apartment around a green courtyard, creating an oasis of nature in the middle of the city. Keep reading

Bichromies and wood paneling enhance the decorations and mosaic floors of a historic Catalan house, seeking a new narrative for its spaces. Keep reading

The Sistine Chapel, a guest house – home of the last Pope – born to replace dormitories, a palace stripped of its roof in the Middle Ages: the election of a Pope is also a matter of space, not just of spirit. Keep reading