peter marino declares its love for venice in textile collection for rubelli

dressed from head to toe in black leather and with a handful of oversized rings — all designed by himself — celebrated US architect peter marino enters rubelli’s palazzo in venice with a big, content smile. in front of him, a triple-height wall displays his latest collaboration with the italian textile manufacturer: a capsule collection of fabrics that are a true declaration of love for the city of canals. ‘venice for me is one of those places on earth that is magic,’ he tells designboom. ‘the light, constantly hitting the water makes, like in a tiepolo painting, a beautiful pastel.’

image © designboom

back in the days when andy warhol was revolutionizing the art scene with his pop mode, peter marino was there, designing his spaces, including the infamous factory. ‘at the factory, andy introduced me to the world because I’m not from that class of people, but he had all the clients coming to have the portraits done. that’s where I met yves saint laurent, gianni agnelli, guy de rothschild and many people whose homes I did, and then, because I did ok with their homes, I started doing their businesses and that’s how it all happened.’

all images courtesy of rubelli unless otherwise stated

adding to his impressive repertoire, marino has joined artists of the calibre of gio ponti, alfredo carnelutti and vittorio zecchin, who have also collaborated with rubelli to create timeless collections. produced in the early twentieth century, some of these fabrics are still part of the company’s collection, even if today they are produced by state-of-the-art machines rather than by artisan techniques involving hand looms.

‘when designing my capsule collection, I knew I wanted a textile that when the light hits it, it’s different from the top to the middle to the bottom, and that it’s not flat,’ continued peter marino. ‘and if we can capture that in these silks, that would be so cool because this doesn’t much exist when we do interiors; we don’t have these types of colors and this luminosity.’

comprised of silk jacquards called lucente, tiepolo and marino, the collection expresses the architect’s love for venice while recreating that magic of the light which makes the city unique. the color selection was very precise, featuring turquoise, white, apricot and blue. the ice blue in particular was a difficult one to achieve but his favorite. ‘I knew exactly the colors. I wanted some looking like the lagune of venezia. this is a crazy city, you don’t have streets, you have water. I was pretty precise from the beginning and excited about it.’

an eager art collector himself, marino is about to open his own private art foundation in the hamptons, in order to showcase his ever-growing collection featuring works from andy warhol, robert mapplerthorpe and georg baselitz among others. ‘every architect comes to architecture from somewhere… I came from fine arts and sculpture. I then transferred because I was starving to death trying to make a living.’