PARIS.- For several decades Baciocchi has worked to help the stores of leading luxury brands reflect their essence and identity, designing the finest commercial showcases for Prada and Miu Miu around the world, and creating furniture of timeless chic and elegance.

The selection made by Baciocchi and PIASA for the April sale majors on his collection of 20th century furniture and his own, rarefied designs, reflecting his unique style and gift for innovation.

"‘I have raided my coups de cœur!'" he explains.

His marvellous gift for integrating contemporary furniture and design into his historic home in Arezzo - subject of numerous articles in lifestyle magazines - has created an intense dialogue between different periods.

This past /present dynamic, so beloved of Italians, is a veritable source of inspiration: works by Gio Ponti, Angelo Mangiarotti, Mathieu Matégot and Verner Panton all belong in his home, while the lighting is by Stilnovo and FontanaArte.

The eclectic ensemble comprises furniture, lamps, ceramics, glass and pictures,
proposing a vision and taste in what has become a classic style.

Roberto Baciocchi, Architect designer
Roberto Baciocchi is one of the international forerunners of the architectural
approach to luxury boutiques.

His innovative approach is famed and admired throughout the world – both for respecting the standards and DNA of the brands he works for, and for the attention to the historical, architectural and social context of the places, buildings and cities where he works.

All his projects involve the research and development of every item of furniture, the design of display windows and lighting, and meticulous attention to detail. His ideals of beauty were greatly influenced by the aesthetics, art and culture of Florence – where he graduated in architecture – and of his native Arezzo, the home of Piero della Francesca and Vasari. Roberto Baciocchi swiftly realized how the burgeoning interest in fashion in 1970s Italy would become a global phenomenon in a world where fundamental standards were changing fast.

Such an insight led him to be one of the fist to re-interpret luxury stores in a modern key and on a new basis, relieving them of concepts now unsuitable for the evolution of shopping and introducing shapes with minimal lines, yet with all due respect to the architectural connections, the materials and the elements contributing to the identity of a brand.

Out of this approach and the concurrence of creative and cultural perspectives, the cooperation with Patrizio Bertelli and Miuccia Prada occurred spontaneously; quite a tight cooperation indeed, arisen at the beginning of the 80's, that promptly led him to be the interpreter of all Prada stores around the world and to harmoniously contribute to the introduction of the standards and the new conception of the brand, emblem of luxury on an international scale.

Roberto Baciocchi's professional commitment, though, isn't merely confied to the commercial area: a substantial part of his studio's activity is also dedicated to industrial and residential architecture, design of luxury hotels and renovation of notable historic houses, in partnership with the Cultural, Architectural and Landscape Heritage Authorities.