The cover image for this issue of Artkrush is a detail of Ocean Villa Exterior, a photograph of one of nine ocean villas designed by Piero Lissoni for the Mandarin Oriental Hotel's residential development in Dellis Cay, Turks and Caicos Islands. Although Shigeru Ban, Chad Oppenheim, David Chipperfield, Carl Ettensperger, and Zaha Hadid are also planning villas for the private island, which opens in 2009, Lissoni completes his various layouts with his own furniture and kitchen designs, appointing his houses with selections from 163 of his products.

Lissoni was born in Milan in 1956 and began his design career in 1978. After receiving his architecture degree from Politecnico di Milano in 1985, he and Nicoletta Canesi opened the Lissoni Studio in 1986 and a graphic design firm, Graph.x, in 1992. Both an art director and a designer for Boffi Kitchens and Tecno, Lissoni also works with Alessi, Cappellini, Kartell, and other high-end Italian firms, bringing Zen contours to everything from lighting to espresso pots. In 2005, he entered Interior Design magazine's Hall of Fame, a peer-selected group that includes the likes of Frank Gehry and Philippe Starck.

A flexible style has allowed the mastermind architect-cum-designer to restore and re-decorate the medieval Hotel Monaco and Grand Canal in Venice, the Al Porto Hotel in Zurich, and the Bentley Hotel in Istanbul. In 2000, Lissoni collaborated with interior decorator Kitty Hawks and Luca Brenta Yacht Design to produce Ghost, a 122-foot-long yacht with a glass-paneled coach roof and a minimalist, metropolitan décor. Creams cover the floors, furniture, and cabinetry, while mahogany furniture outfits the dining and living areas, and stainless steel and granite deck out the galley. More than simply delineating a building's shell or a kitchen's contents, Lissoni produces cohesive environments. - Lauren McKee

Piero Lissoni
Ocean Villa Exterior, n.d.
Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Dellis Cay
Courtesy dbox, Inc.
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