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A Showcase for “Brand Italy”: Interview with Piero Lissoni
Text by
Piero Lissoni - Ph. Veronica Gaido
A little more than a month before the opening of "Red in Progress. Salone del Mobile.Milano meets Riyadh", the Salone del Mobile.Milano’s event in Saudi Arabia, the celebrated architect and designer explained to us what the Business Lounge he has designed for the occasion will look like, and what stories its interior will tell about Italian design
Balance, a concern for detail and proportions, the ability to embrace error and even transform it into a legitimate stage of design: these are recurrent features of Piero Lissoni’s forty years of achievement (he was born in Seregno in 1956) as architect and designer, but they could easily be used to describe Italian design as a whole.
As one of the most recognizable Italian designers working worldwide, creative director of important furniture brands and head of an architecture firm based in Milan and New York and active in many different fields, from interiors to installations and graphics, Piero Lissoni was asked to design the Business Lounge of Red in Progress. Salone del Mobile.Milano meets Riyadh, the event scheduled from 26 to 28 November in the Financial District of the Saudi capital.
The setting is designed to foster, in the most practical way possible, the meeting between companies of the Italian design system and the many energies already active in the country, today in the spotlight for the speed with which it is redesigning its territory and the number of futuristic projects in progress.
Can you tell us what we will see in the lounge you have designed? During the press conference to present “Red in Progress” you said that the initial idea was to build islands.
We started from a particular space, which was created to host a series of brands active in the building industry, and has since changed its purpose several times. We tried to design settings that were not a simple display of furnishings, but places where people would have the opportunity to work. The project developed in this way, with a very holistic vision of what we, as “Brand Italy”, will have to present, but also with the need to allow companies and their clients to conduct private conversations. In English it's called business. I prefer to call it work.
How does this idea translate into spatial terms?
There will be a series of different rooms, units built as if they were large cylinders suspended or resting on the ground. Some will display images, others will be illuminated or simply contain furnishings. Inside they will tell stories: about factories, catalogues, research and initiatives worldwide. There is a lot to show about the Salone, but also about the companies that are its interpreters.
What materials have you used?
A little of everything. Some cylinders will be made of a material that allows light to pass through it, rather like large lamps. Then, there will be rigid cylinders, with hard surfaces and upholstery materials, and softer ones.
Did you somehow seek a synthesis between the Italian identity that you wanted to display, we might even say embody, and the local culture?
No, what we wanted most of all was to show the quality of Italian design without any interference. To show how good, powerful and elegant Italian industry is, and the ability of companies to engage in partnerships with Saudi Arabia, which is one of the most interesting countries at the present day. Then, when the projects start and the buildings are complete, the local culture will certainly also play its part.
You are a supporter of imperfection, and of error as a legitimate stage of the project. What, if any, were the difficulties in this adventure?
There were no real difficulties. It was a complex project but compact in size and absolutely manageable. If anything, we can talk about the fact that Saudi Arabia is truly one of the new lands of development on the architectural scale, but it is also a place where everything is changing constantly. Here you have to be ready to review and modify projects depending on whether or not it is possible to build certain things locally.
In Riyadh and its surroundings, as we said, there’s a great architectural vibe. Do you, as a studio, have other projects underway in the country?
We have five or six of them, scattered between the capital and the islands. There are hotels, private houses and villas, a couple of mixed buildings with residences and offices. Unfortunately, however, I cannot say more.
And what about the broader outlook? You clearly have a lot of irons in the fire worldwide. Is there any project that you are particularly passionate about?
There is a very challenging project that we’re working on in China, between Shanghai and Canton, for what I think will be a new generation of shopping malls. Then in India we’re wrapping up a very complicated project near Mumbai and the new Ritz-Carlton in the city, with a residential tower and a hotel tower.
Watch the web-serie: Behind the Doors - Piero Lissoni
23 October 2025
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