Product Type
Application Area
Lighting Effect
Product Type
Application Area
Lighting Effect

Residence Litta

RESIDENCE_LITTA_04

About Project


The luxurious Residenze Litta complex is located in the heart of the 5 Vie, the oldest district in the centre of Milan, just a short walk from Foro Bonaparte, the Sforza Castle and the Cathedral. This historic three-part complex with its three different historic and architectural styles, ranging from Baroque to contemporary design, offers both luxury period homes and exclusive designer apartments.

Restored by the famous architect, Michele De Lucchi, the Residenze Litta complex overlooks private courtyards and gardens, guaranteeing peace and quiet, privacy and safety. With its main entrance on the elegant Corso Magenta, the Residenze Litta is part of the monumental Palazzo Arese Litta complex, which also houses the Ministry of National Heritage and Culture and the historic Teatro Litta theatre. Built between 1642 and 1648 by the architect Francesco Maria Ricchino, the prestigious Palazzo Arese Litta owes its eighteenth century facade, room design and piano nobile decorations to the Litta family who inherited the building in 1750. The vast palazzo houses numerous architectural treasures, such as the Cortile d’Onore courtyard that dates back to Ricchino's original design, and the monumental Scalone d’Onore staircase built by Carlo Giuseppe Merli in 1740.

The facade of the building that looks onto Corso Europa is a sober, baroque affair with a marked, horizontal design and a splayed gateway with a segmental arch. In the centre of the complex there is a sixteenth century courtyard with a Tuscan colonnade and a cryptoporticus leading to a second courtyard, now annexed to the twentieth-century Palazzo Cusini that overlooks the parallel street, Via Durini.
The building's interiors include a forked staircase that is based on the much larger one in Palazzo Litta, the family's other home in Corso Magenta. There is also a passageway and a chapel with frescoes and stucco-work by Giocondo Albertolli, Andrea Appiani and Giuseppe Crivelli. The public and private exteriors and the interiors are lit with luminaires specially designed for this project by iGuzzini and the architect, Michele De Lucchi. These include a family of pole-top, ceiling and pendant mounted luminaires that blend with the timeless character of the old Milan style of the lobbies, landings and porter's lodges, but also feature highly advanced technology in terms of energy saving and light quality. The luminaires, Fiamma, are carefully integrated with the architectural features so as not to disturb the historic style of the environments. These special lanterns are made of two polycarbonate shells, which encapsulate an LED lamp with a transformer housed in the pole top or base. When located in the courtyards they illuminate exterior shared and transit space, whereas a pendant version with a special dish shape is used on stairs and balconies. 

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  • Year:
    2015
  • Client:
    Valcomp Tre S.p.a.
  • Architectural project:
    aMDL - architetto Michele De Lucchi S.r.l
  • Lighting project:
    aMDL - architetto Michele De Lucchi S.r.l.
  • Photographer:
    Marco Beck Peccoz

Project Quote

"With this project, I can't help thinking of Lucretius' saying that to make something new you must take something old and remove the antique from it. In other words, you need to take everything in its most ancestral form and blow off the dust that makes it old. That way it is transformed into something new that appeals to everyone. The product we have created here is the most modern antique form in existence."

Michele De Lucchi

Products Used:

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