From Italy to Australia – the ambitious plans of Claudio Silvestrin

Claudio Silvestrin arrives in Australia and designs the interiors of the Esplanade and One East Melbourne. Luxury apartments that bear witness to the worldwide renown of this Italian architect.

The domino has no talent, no present. It is astute and obstinate. An inevitably constant pace conceals the back of things to reveal the magical palm, like a drop of gold on white ivory, like a monolithic bathtub on a nude Travertine surface. A clear line of light that filters through the gloom and crosses a void full only of itself, a box of gestures that will come, is never banal. The strategic dichotomy of good and evil, elegance and arrogance, the immoral and the pure, the modern, chaotic and corrupt and the intimate, introspective silence, stripped of structure superfluity, lives its state in elitist opposition.Clinging to all that from which it flees but which it absolutely needs in order to live, the redeeming architecture that re-educates our consciousness regarding primordial principles, upright and correct, paradoxically requires large spaces and rich materials. Why? Like a cathedral in the desert of holistic bulk, penetrated by the luminous force of the zenith, that of Claudio Silvestrin is also capable of shaking souls. It weakens physical certainties, making them simply relative in places distant from everyday life, harsh, dark, patient places of human passage. They rediscover their rhythms, slowed movements, the print of a nude foot, the pause.

Stubbornly, his “way” aims at the simple emotional source of men and women, who wander through architectures that reflect moods, and identify with the world outside, looking inward, wondering, listening to themselves. The spatial void, the extended perspectives and symmetries, the oversized spaces, the desolation of a pure monoframe element like an ivory tile, the penetrated darkness, an infinite flight of stairs, the fear of solitude. Always pretend to know the solution and sell what you don’t know in the best way possible. The vocabulary of Claudio Silvestrin is simple but it requires important segments that one after the other have structured a style recognized all over the world. The Becton Property Group Limited, a leading Australian corporation that invests, for the most part, in residential real estate, has commissioned the Italian architect based in London to design the interiors of The Esplanade and One East Melbourne, both in Melbourne.The first, a work of architecture by Fender Katsalidis Architects, and the second, a project presently under construction by Ashton Raggatt McDougall (ARM), offer panoramic luxury apartments (some priced at over 1 million Australian dollars) including shared facilities like a gym, a swimming pool, a solarium, and located in very posh neighborhoods. The Esplanade, in St. Kilda, 9 storeys facing the ocean, beyond Port Phillip Bay, displays the Silvestrin touch right from the sumptuous lobby, 8 meters high, entirely clad in Travertine and enriched by palms, an oxidized copper basin and neon messages that are an artwork by Maurizio Nannucci.In some apartments, including the penthouse, bronze doors, Travertine marble and waxed oak alternate with design objects by Silvestrin himself. In the interiors of One East Melbourne, 2 connected towers with 18 floors for a total of 85 apartments, in the pulsating heart of Melbourne facing the Treasury Gardens, there are many design furnishings Made in Italy, all by Silvestrin, and a vanishing kitchen covered with sliding walnut panels, with a Japanese character. Low elements resting on marble floors define the functions of the living area and lead to the nighttime zone, where the bedroom, closets and bath rotate around a splendid center of gravity. Where will Claudio Silvestrin’s next inspiration come from? It will be expressed through opposites, white and black extremes, like his clothing. He writes of disaster, religious attitude, supreme ambition, speaks of spirit vs. animal, primordial vs. modern, original vs. ordinary. And of the obviousness of banality that tries to look original.