Hannes Peer’s designs are about as materially sensual as interiors can get: picture a kitchen with golden cabinets that shimmer in the sunlight, or a living room with sparkling glass scales cascading from the ceiling. The Milan-based architect – who was born in South Tyrol and trained at the Politecnico di Milano and the Technical University of Berlin before working at OMA under Rem Koolhaas – draws inspiration from the 1960s and 70s, which he describes as ‘the golden era of Italian design’.
Gio Ponti, Gae Aulenti and Gabriella Crespi are all strong influences – the former for his ‘masterful sense of proportion and colour’, the latter for their ‘fearless experiments with form and materials, which show how interiors can be bold, tactile and poetic all at once’.
Peer was brought up in a creative home; his mother Ursula Huber, a sculptor, inspired his style. That childhood, he says, ‘shaped how I read spaces – through material, light and gestures of the hand’. Peer’s use of these inspirations is original; his references are never obvious, but serve as guides to ‘choreograph light, colour and materials’ in each setting.
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‘I call my design philosophy “nostalgic utopia”: engaging the past not to reproduce it, but to transform memory into something forward-looking,’ he explains. ‘I founded Hannes Peer Architecture in 2009 as a place where architecture, interiors and product design move together, so a door handle can carry the same narrative weight as a residential project – “from the spoon to the skyscraper”, as Gio Ponti put it.’
What are his recent projects?
Peer’s reverence for material opulence is shown in a Milan duplex with sweeping views of the city. ‘We opened the floorplan to daylight and used clear architectural moves to stage the city as a protagonist,’ he says. ‘Materials carry the emotion: custom timber joinery and fine-grained floors temper the mineral weight of stone and ceramics; thresholds are dramatised, so passages feel cinematic. The project’s spirit is cosmopolitan but tactile.’
Here as elsewhere, Peer treats surfaces as ‘living actors that evolve with time and reveal new depths’; light is conceived as an architectural substance that changes constantly. He is drawn to ‘friction and contrast’: polished marble against hand-planed timber, or oxidised metals next to plush velvets. ‘These juxtapositions,’ he says, ‘invite touch and create subtle shifts in perception.’
You’ll see the same sensitivity in Peer’s first hotel, The Manner, which recently opened in New York. ‘It was conceived as a sequence of curated homes rather than a conventional hospitality box,’ he says. ‘We integrated site-specific artworks and custom pieces – mouth blown chandeliers, a 30-metre mural by artist Elvira Solana in The Otter restaurant and a monumental ceramic wall in The Apartment [a guest lounge] of thousands of hand-laid spheres. The palette nods to the 1970s: layered, crafted and mood-driven.’
What is he currently working on?
Another hotel in South Tyrol, and an intriguing urban design project at the ancient Baths of Caracalla in Rome; Peer is, he says, reintroducing water to the site ‘as a spatial and reflective element’. He’s also designing private homes in Liechtenstein and Puglia, and four chalets at the foot of the Matterhorn.
He says: ‘I am most interested in creating rooms that invite discovery – interior spaces that reveal themselves slowly and feel personal, even when they are public.’ hannespeer.com
Expert advice
Hannes Peer on how to celebrate materials and create spaces with lasting impact
With reflective finishes, I prefer precision over spectacle, treating reflection as an architectural tool rather than as decoration. I insert mirrors as carefully framed fragments that capture oblique views and unexpected angles; this creates layered perspectives while grounding the room. It’s an idea inspired in part by architect Richard Neutra, who used mirrored panels to extend space.
Use high-gloss lacquer sparingly so that light glides and pools across it. Think of a ceiling plane, door or key panel – these precise accents heighten thresholds and give a sense of drama, as seen in my past projects in Milan, where a single lacquered surface transforms the entire perception of a room.
Tiles bring structure, colour and craft together in one element, which is why I use them as part of the architecture rather than a mere surface. I like to vary scale and orientation, combining small hand-cut pieces with larger modules and mixing glazed and matt finishes so light creates movement. Even the grout is part of the design, calibrated in tone and width to read as a drawn line.
Lighting and contrast are the levers that make materials perform. I use grazing light effects [directional lighting that accentuates texture] to ‘activate’ ribbed timber and ceramic reliefs, so they acquire depth through shadow. I also stage soft textiles – velvet, bouclé, silk – against marble or oxidised metal to make both feel richer.
