The home in which he lives when he’s not traveling to faraway lands is an ensemble of impressions and curious stimuli.

Traces of the Far East, Africa, India and France, without overlooking his beloved Greece – the strongest reference – add unexpected colors to a place that already has its own special history and charm. “Until the 1990s these 190 square meters contained a workshop that made fur clothing, which was very popular at the time,” says Venier.

“Then the space remained empty and forgotten for a long time. When I first saw it, it was still an open space with industrial fluorescent fixtures on the ceiling and windows with blinds, with pins stuck in the floor seams and knotted skeins of yarn, left behind by the dressmakers.

I was immediately seduced by the view of the internal garden, framed by large windows. The idea of living in the center of Milan with an opening onto a green zone was a strong plus that influenced my choice of the site and the style of the whole project.”

The refurbishing was guided by the desire to create a harmonious indoor-outdoor relationship.

With an informal and vaguely shabby mood, where no single element stands out from the others, and every corner or perspective conserves a constant dialogue with the outside world.

The unified and renovated enclosure has been divided into two areas – one public, one private – through greenhouse glazing that separates the kitchen and the studio-library, the two fundamental spaces in the definition of the functions.

The materials did the rest: mineral surfaces for the kitchen floor, and a continuous layer of bricks in charred wood, producing a fluid, seamless atmosphere in the sequence of rooms; together with the natural iron that is the protagonist of the casements, but also the many custom bookcases ready to store hundreds of volumes, and the large table in the dining zone, four meters long, reached from the entrance featuring a Moroccan rug with black and white checks.

The dining area is in direct dialogue with the adjacent kitchen made in perforated steel, designed exclusively with functional excellence in mind: a composition of distinct operative blocks, with a sink in Carrara marble, ideal for washing vegetables. Everything is accessible and on display.

The breakfast area, with a vintage table facing the garden, functions as a hinge between the dining zone and the ample living area, where a large sofa, various chairs and other seating elements generate a landscape that encourages convivial relaxation.

From the studio, subdivided by a central étagère to form work and consultation areas, leads to the night zone, conceived as an intimate space, in which the bed area, bathroom and wardrobe form a harmonious continuum.

“My favorite spot in the house, however, is the reclining daybed in wrought iron, which I ordered from a trusted metalsmith, a sort of refuge where I eat, read and sleep, losing the sense of time and enjoying the silence and the perfectly gauged lighting,” Venier says.

The designer is a constant presence at vintage markets, and has a passion for objets trouvés, including the Thonet chairs purchased in Paris and the collection of antique Iranian turquoise pots, scattered on the tables.

“In these marvelous Thonet chairs I perceive a comforting timeless language. They remind me of my history, in a way, born in Trieste to a family from central Europe, my grandfather’s brother who was an important restorer of frescos, and my aunt, an atypical fashion designer and painter,” he continues.

“I think it is very interesting to make things migrate from one world to another, reaching into the past to find things already seen and recuperated: an aesthetic exercise that intercepts different codes of expression. As Adolf Loos said, in the design of a house one should bring at least three signs of one’s own material culture, and then add a bit of personality and life.”

The home in Milan of Gian Paolo Venier reveals a lot about this lateral vision. The landscape of houses inspired by Greece in the bedroom, based on the chromatic palette of the room, and the triptych of paintings conceived as a backdrop in the living area, over the sofa, narrate a personal artistic output with close connections to design.

“I paint with acrylics, on large canvases with hefty brushes, rapid sketches filled in with color or just glazing, when I feel the need to capture a moment, making sensations and thoughts float, far from everyday practices. I am inspired by David Hockney in the full use of color, by Cézanne and his black edges, the still lifes of Morandi, but my paintings are obviously an amateur’s experiments.

The stem from physical gestures, manual work and control of details, tactile and sensorial research, but also improvisation and imperfection. Very strong values that are expressed in all the works I make with the studio Otto, above all with ceramics and fabrics,” Venier explains. “In the end, I remain an artisan of design, who comes to terms with material, always and in every setting.”