French architect Florent Lesaulnier has just completed “Casa Lapo”, an impressive project that is really the physical representation of Italian entrepreneur Lapo Elkann.
Born into the all-powerful Agnelli family, the Italian version of the Kennedys, Lapo Elkann is top executive at Fiat, with an idiosyncratic style, a kinetic charm and a publicly cultivated reputation, as one of Italy’s most enviable bachelors. The impulsive, never surrender’d tattooed individual is also the designer behind the innovative brand Italia Independent which strikes me as a sort of extension to his massive closet, and creative impulses.
But the real question is who is Florent Lesaulnier. And what lead him into the completion of “Casa Lapo”.
“The Casa Lapo project is a dream come true. A project appeared to me while reading an interview of Lapo Elkann in the New York Times. I had never heard of Lapo Elkann at the time, but I always had a great love for Italy and particularly turin, even if I was never able to explain why, besides being the capital of baroque and Carlo Mollino’s home, as well as the headquarters of the Fiat empire, of national and international fame”, says the architect, Florent Lesaulnier.
As for the project itself… “Casa Lapo” is indeed a sober, yet personality rich structure that will probably manage to impress Elkann’s distinctive taste.
And, by the way, the interview that set everything in motion can be found here.
All images are courtesy of Florent Lesaulnier.
