The Atelier Biagetti is not a design studio, Alberto Biagetti tells me, and he isn’t a designer—an announcement that comes as a surprise, considering that he and his partner, Laura Baldassari, are known for creating critically acclaimed furniture, lighting, and decorative objects. Past projects include the Bonjour Milàn collection of tables, cabinets, and lighting that use tile, copper, and plastic salvaged from Milanese palazzi; the I Diamanti range of wardrobes, with exuberantly faceted exteriors and microchip-controlled locks; and a cane chair of the sort painted by Van Gogh in 1888, reimagined in an unraveling form, as if it were the victim of energetic cats. The husband-and-wife team made a splash at Design Miami last December with their Body Building Collection, a roomful of furnishings inspired by the contours of classic fitness equipment. (Art lover Sylvester Stallone practiced his left hook on the Atelier’s embroidered gold punching bag.)But if they’re not designers, how does Biagetti define what they do? “We are directors,” he affirms. “Today’s home is a theater, and the objects are actors.” With the stage and the screen in mind, the couple typically look beyond the hermetic design world for inspiration, drawing from contemporary art as well as the films of Fellini and Bertolucci. When not working at the Atelier, Baldassari performs as a professional opera singer. When she and Biagetti met, almost a decade ago, they began making frequent visits to Teatro alla Scala, the grand opera house in the center of Milan. Biagetti was admittedly an opera neophyte, but he was impressed with how the productions combined a variety of art forms, including set design, theater, and music. Opera is often a collaboration between two complementary creators—a librettist and a composer—and relies on the harmonious blending of these forms. In a similar vein, the success of the Atelier’s work lies in the combination of Biagetti’s design training and Baldassari’s background as a painter, the fusion of their worlds. Both were introduced to their fields at an early age, and their creative ambitions seem almost preordained: Biagetti’s father, Raffaello Biagetti, a design enthusiast and avid collector, was instrumental in founding the Museum of Design and Furniture in Ravenna. Baldassari’s parents were both artists; she herself studied fine art at l’Accademia di Belle Arti in Bologna, then worked as a painter, showing at galleries across Europe, until beginning a collaboration with Biagetti in 2013. “It wasn’t until I met Alberto and was introduced to the world of design that I discovered this whole new set of possibilities,” she says with a smile. Biagetti quickly interjects: “It was the opposite! She introduced me to the art world, which was fascinating. The objects I designed before I worked with Laura now seem very, very boring. It’s like they belong to someone else.”These days, it would be hard to accuse the pair of being dull. Consider the Body Building Collection, whose Anelli lamp takes its shape from a set of gymnastics rings, with neon tubes and electric-blue pony skin in place of wooden handholds. Elsewhere, pommel horses become benches upholstered in metallic leather, and the humble yoga mat is transformed into a leather rug adorned with colorful patchwork. The overall effect is sleek and sporty, like cashmere track pants or Chanel sneakers—the athleisure trend recast for the living room. When displayed together for fairs, the collection functions as a sculptural installation, yet it’s easy to imagine the discrete objects holding their own in an actual home.Now the Atelier is turning its focus from exercise to another of our most consuming obsessions. No Sex, which debuted at the Salone del Mobile in Milan last month, is a series of rose-tinted pieces that do for the medical clinic what their previous body of work did for the gymnasium. The work adopts the basic forms of the typical doctor’s office, minus the sterile ugliness. The designers see No Sex as a haven from an overwhelming barrage of commercialized eroticism; its goal is to help those who experience it reset and rediscover their authentic sexuality. “Sex is often used as a marketing tool,” Biagetti says. “We want to let people know it’s time to examine how we see our bodies and our sexuality, to see things as they are and start to live again.”Like Body Building, No Sex functions both as a cohesive suite of design items and as individual works; some objects are unique, while others are sold in open editions. A fleshy champagne-pink tone dominates the collection, a fitting compromise between cold beige and hedonistic red. Massage, a rubber-and-leather construction, suggests Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona couch—if Mies had been commissioned to design a hospital lounge on the Starship Enterprise. Soffietto is an accordion-pleated seat that emits an audible sigh (of desire, or relief?) when sat on, and can be rolled about on a needless surplus of wheeled legs. A pair of standing lamps, Coccorito and Coccorita, lean over a daybed on long aluminum necks, like two inquisitive birds. And the tableau would not be complete without a hanging lamp made from delicately pleated latex meant to resemble a privacy curtain and a rolling full-length mirror-cum-eye chart, perhaps to encourage a moment of self-reflection about how clearly we see ourselves.Although it’s impossible to say if No Sex will induce the sort of self-examination that Baldassari and Biagetti hope for, they are confident about their research, which led them on a tour of the least beautiful rooms in the modern home. “We started to analyze spaces that are in many people’s houses, like the gym,” Biagetti explains, likely thinking of the more rarefied clientele in the market for the Atelier’s design. “The gym is usually the worst place you’ve seen in your life.” While the same can be said about most clinics, the designers have managed to make that space’s aesthetic compelling. But their end goal is much loftier: to calibrate the participant’s relationship with herself, and ultimately alter how she lives. “If an object can change your behavior, it’s good,” Biagetti says. “When Eames invented his lounge chair, he built a new way to sit. Our goal is to change behavior through objects.”
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