To describe the design philosophy behind his collections at Italian menswear label Brioni, Norbert Stumpfl evokes the work of Swiss architect Valerio Olgiati. In particular, his Villa Além in rural Portugal, a monolithic modernist home inspired by the 14th-century Court of the Myrtles in Granada’s historic Alhambra Palace. Slanted walls around the exterior give the appearance that the home is opening ‘like a shoe box’, as Stumpfl describes, while the Court of the Myrtles’ rectangular reflecting pond is replaced with an elongated swimming pool embedded into a stark concrete courtyard. Olgiati said he wanted a place he and his wife could feel ‘abandoned’.
‘It’s so reduced,
