Inspired by Octavio Paz’s poem “The Simple Life,” P&H’s design for a private villa in Shanghai embraces a simple yet profound concept: “Home is just home.” The design respects and understands the residents’ lives, replacing ostentation with genuine expression. All artistic elements converge on one answer: to express friendliness and intimacy. P&H views the garage entrance hall as a space that captures life’s moments, where forms, objects, and plants collectively define a personal realm for the residents.
By incorporating gentle curves and lines, the designers expanded the foyer’s volume. The cabinetry design enhances the transitional space with openness and flexibility. Natural elements from the villa, such as rammed earth textures and prominent wood grain panels, extend inside as subtle decorative features. These elements blend elegantly in neutral tones, collectively creating a serene and welcoming homecoming atmosphere.
The interior volume planning creates a living space as rich as the exterior, accommodating gatherings, socializing, exercise, and relaxation—stable and simple. As P&H founder Mr. Lu Zhenfeng says, “Everyone can find their own space here.” All walls, including the roof, are opened to the maximum extent. The originally dim basement is transformed into a mezzanine space, where sunlight marks the rhythm of the interior. The column structures define functional units (reception, fitness, tea tasting), where each perspective’s precision implies another’s redundancy—these gaps accommodate design, ideology, emotion, and imagination.
More private areas for reception, fitness, and tea tasting revolve around shared memories and ideas, with all spaces designed on the purity of materials, avoiding sharpness. Balancing control elements and geometric shapes, the facade becomes a continuous overlapping box, integrating collections into public areas. The suspended Melt Pendant lights, with their reflective properties, reveal how the designer creates visible colors at dawn and dusk, echoing the carpet hues. The carpet’s traditional painting techniques and natural elements blend with modern textures, reflecting the residents’ humble spirit. Plants complement the courtyard greenery, softening corners and straight corridors. As delicate layers meet light and shadow, the fireplace’s flames dance, imbuing the space with a serene and profound poetic quality.
A tea room, rooted in life yet hidden within it, exudes an elegant and effortless charm. The staircase is an “order system” of open views. As important as the structure itself is the surprise perspective it offers, whether ascending or descending. The indoor glass walkway connects with the original structure’s skylight, creating a unique parent-child entertainment space. The open reading area and study distill the playfulness of the Memphis movement, combining individuality and timeless curves in shape and color.
The combination of Cognac-colored Cab Chair, Zagu Table, and Zieta Rondel Mirror brings together the beauty of nature and the sculptural aesthetics of fine craftsmanship. Still bouquets, Ambrogio side tables, and Puppy Pouffe Ivory seats delight the senses, proposing a vibrant joy of living.
Ascending further, the more public areas draw from the residents’ private spaces, defining a personal realm that expresses self-worth. The expansive view blurs the boundaries between indoors and outdoors, with minimalist Italian structures presenting a potential form—describable in Eastern art as poised, tranquil, elegant, and powerful.
The selection of furniture and art captures the harmony of materials and textures, creating a clear and meditative environment as sunlight passes through them. Let the anticipated family rituals become an index of life inspiration. Plants placed in this Italian-inspired, relaxed dining corner awaken the senses to pure relaxation.
Here lies a utopian world for children, where dreams and reality quietly intertwine. The Colletto bed surround can be rolled up or down like a turtleneck, and playful ceramic pendant lights illuminate a fairy tale.
Fragmented light filters through the window, hiding a hint of dawn beneath soft curtains. Everything is quiet and gentle.
