Where do Radicality and the Renaissance Meet? The Hoxton, Florence!
Rarely do the Renaissance and radicality meet. At the Hoxton’s new Florence residence, that rarity is reality. The hotel’s in-house interior design team, AIME Studio, collaborated with Lev-Arch architects to bring together a 16th century palazzo in the heart of Florence and a postmodern masterwork by the iconic Archizoom and Memphis Group founder Andrea Branzi.
The palazzo, which was built for the Ricasoli family (wine barons who have been in the business since 1141) in the 14th century, before being converted into a monastery in the 16th century, boasts limewashed walls, an impressive, vaulted ceiling, and frescos that date back to 1611. “The long history of Palazzo Ricasoli teaches us how the intended use of a building can successfully change during its life cycle,” says Luca Colombo, of Lev-Arch. “This is a very good lesson for us architects, which we take into consideration when we design new buildings or renovate older ones.” The original Ricasoli building has all of the light, splendor, and expansiveness that exemplified late Renaissance architecture. Which is why its juxtaposition with a 1960’s postmodern building by the radical Branzi so interesting.
As one of the great Italian designers of the 20th century, Branzi’s work with Archizoom and the Memphis Group was wide ranging in both scale and concept. His furniture is poetic, distinguished from his peers by the way he spliced physical and philosophical elements from the natural world with materials and shapes of the machine made. In a survey of his work at New York gallery Friedman Benda, in 2023, branches met steel cubes, bamboo bent to primary colors, rice paper and maple leaves found their way into conversations with patinated aluminum. His buildings followed post-modernist principles with garish but fun color combinations, running through zigzags, stripes, columns and grids. “The Archizoom team produced a rich series of design projects, architecture and large-scale urban visions–work which is still a fundamental source of inspiration for generations to come,” says Colombo. The postmodern movement of which Branzi was a part borrowed greatly from classicism while turning centuries of Western visual precedents on their heads.
Disparate materials and shapes meet in surprising ways in Branzi’s work, as Branzi’s radical 1980s building meets with the Ricasoli palazzo in the new Hoxton. AIME Studio and Lev-Arch conceived an open-air courtyard to connect the palazzo to the timber-clad modernist building by Branzi. Each timber louvre was removed, restored and reinstalled to Branzi’s building. Lev-Arch also reworked the circulation of Palazzo Ricasoli to make the movement within and between both buildings more seamless and consistent. A new roof terrace was created on the top of the Branzi building, introducing a new way for guests to engage in the natural world the designer so loved.
AIME Studio’s design for the guest rooms references the bold, chaotic aesthetic of Archizoom, but slightly paired back, offering guests both a sense of calm and consistent visual interest. But you don’t have to be a guest to experience this rambunctious ricochet between two different worlds and times. Much of the hotel is designed for public use. As Colombo explains: “A very important element of the project is the importance of the public areas that cover the entire ground floor of Palazzo Ricasoli and the inner courtyard. The hope is that these areas will become a reference point for the entire city, where people can meet and enjoy the hotel’s offerings.”
In The Hoxton, Florence, you can get the best of both worlds, public and private, old and new.
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