Meet Luca Nichetto: Scandinavia-based Venetian interior designer

Meet Luca Nichetto: Scandinavia-based Venetian interior designer - 2
Meet Luca Nichetto: Scandinavia-based Venetian interior designer - 3
Meet Luca Nichetto: Scandinavia-based Venetian interior designer - 4
Meet Luca Nichetto: Scandinavia-based Venetian interior designer - 5

Images of Nichetto Studio's "Pink Villa" outside of Stockholm © Max Rommel

Join Artsper as we sit down with Luca Nichetto, founder and lead designer of Nichetto Studio, a multidisciplinary interior design agency headquartered in Venice and Stockholm. Combining the functional modernity of Swedish design with the creative verve of his native Italy, Luca speaks candidly about his professional background, personal design philosophy, and some exciting new developments in the company!

1. Hello Luca! Could you tell us a bit about your career so far? Was design a field you were always interested in? 

Hello there! Well, I was born in Venice and I grew up in Murano, famous for its glassmaking industry, which employed members of my family and many friends. My career effectively started in my school days: I spent my summer holiday selling my design drawings to local factories while I was studying at art high school. After that I took a degree in industrial design at IUAV university. In 1999 Salviati bought my drawings and later on I started to work for Foscarini too. In 2006 I established my Studio in Venice and later on in 2011 I established a second Studio in Stockholm, where I now live. Over the years I have been not only a designer and an entrepreneur but also an art director for international design brands and a professor for temporary university classes. 

Looking back, design has always been a field I was interested in but I didn't really think about it as a profession. I was playing basketball, I was pretty good at it, but when I realized I couldn't make it a job, then I thought about which job I would like to do instead and design came up naturally to my mind.

2. What would you say are the core values of your design practice?

As a multidisciplinary designer the values of the works I am working on change a bit every time, but for sure I can say transparency (with the company I am working with). Meaning that I always say what I think, I am always honest and I would never agree with something the company wants and that I think is not doable. It is a “working together" for a common aim: when a studio and a company work together, it's like a mother and a father that want to have a child. If you change one of them, everything changes.

3. Your design studio is based in both Stockholm and Venice. How do Italian and Scandinavian influences make their way into your practice?

In general I still consider myself a 100% Italian designer even if when I first moved to Sweden, there was a curiosity to better understand Scandinavian design. It's normal when you move to another country, to try to breathe and to learn different cultures. In Sweden there is a lot of research regarding the material or process when it comes to making the product, but it's also mostly related to creating a well-thought product with function while Italy is the opposite. It is very driven by having to be unique and being focused on the empathy and relationship with the object, that for some reason needs to express not only a function but also an emotion. My design is in that fun zone in between these two approaches. 

Meet Luca Nichetto: Scandinavia-based Venetian interior designer - 6
Meet Luca Nichetto: Scandinavia-based Venetian interior designer - 7

Images of the Pink Villa © Max Rommel

4. You recently purchased and renovated a historic villa in Stockholm to serve as your studio's Swedish headquarters, called the Pink Villa. Can you tell us about this process and which aspects were important to you when taking on this project?

I've never really thought about having a Villa as a Studio, but the idea came to my mind when - for logistic reasons - I had to leave the one floor Studio I had before. So I started to imagine having a studio-showroom that wouldn't just be a space which had a sense of vivacity, but a place where we could organize meetings, dinners, weekends with designers (we do have a chalet where people can spend the night) and of course a place where my team can feel like “home".

So I bought a Villa in 2021, just outside Stockholm in the middle of nature. It is about 220 m2 (on a plot size of 800 m2) that was built in 1945. I started renovations which lasted around 12 months. I created a new collection of rooms and made some changes, but I decided to leave the color as it was: pink.

The corridor delivers to the bright living room and to the kitchen. The mirror, chairs and sofa of the living room face the garden outside. Upstairs we created another bathroom, my office and the main open space where my team works. The old garage downstairs has become an independent guest room, the Chalet, which hosted art directors, photographers and designers from all over the world, now has a cozy living room with television, bedroom and bathroom with Swedish sauna. As a bonus, we also have a housekeeper who not only takes care of the studio but cooks too! It's like being in a family: we all have lunch together and there are no fixed workstations to work. Moreover, whoever comes to visit us, if he wants, can stay and sleep. The idea is to create a sense of community. As it want to be a showroom too, the most of furnishings and accessories are products designed by Nichetto Studio.

5. What is one other interior design project that you particularly enjoyed working on? 

I enjoy working on 99% of my projects - I am very lucky (or good) I have to say. If anyway I have to pick up one, I would probably say the Hermés Installation ( Hong Kong, Venice, Milan). I particularly enjoyed it because of the story telling behind, the sense of details and the different way of communicate something in different country.

Meet Luca Nichetto: Scandinavia-based Venetian interior designer - 8
Meet Luca Nichetto: Scandinavia-based Venetian interior designer - 9

Images of the Pink Villa © Max Rommel

6. Would you consider yourself an art lover? If so, can you name some artists that you are particularly inspired by at the moment?

Yes, of course I am an art lover! Among the many names that come up to my mind I can't not mention Donald Judd, Richard Serra, Delacroix and Anselm Kiefer

7. Finally, if you could work on your dream interior design project, what and where would it be? 

A spaceship, possibly for NASA. It has always been one of my dreams and it's hard to imagine something cooler than that.

Meet Luca Nichetto: Scandinavia-based Venetian interior designer - 10

Their favorite artworks

Print, Portrait de Nush Eluard, Pablo Picasso

Portrait de Nush Eluard

Pablo Picasso

Print - 60 x 44 cm

$1,694

Sculpture, Eléphant de Triomphe, Salvador Dali

Eléphant de Triomphe

Salvador Dali

Sculpture - 53 x 25 x 14.5 cm

$47,973

Design, Blue does not exist, Daniele Sigalot

Blue does not exist

Daniele Sigalot

Design - 40 x 80 x 3 cm

Sold

Sculpture, Cube, André Saraiva

Cube

André Saraiva

Sculpture - 7 x 7 x 7 cm

$847

Design, Infinity, Kuno Vollet

Infinity

Kuno Vollet

Design - 47 x 45 x 8 cm

$3,953

Sculpture, Inside, Cristof Premoselli

Inside

Cristof Premoselli

Sculpture - 65 x 60 x 5 cm

Sold

Design, Dot peacock Blue, Reda Amalou

Dot peacock Blue

Reda Amalou

Design - 45 x 41 x 41 cm

$1,333

Sculpture, Apple, Li Lihong

Apple

Li Lihong

Sculpture - 20 x 20 x 20 cm

$1,129

Design, Anxiety unsuccessfully trying to calcify itself in my hard drive, Marco Querin

Anxiety unsuccessfully trying to calcify itself in my hard drive

Marco Querin

Design - 55.9 x 55.9 x 10.2 cm

$2,850

Design, Sommerso Vase, Josef Hospodka

Sommerso Vase

Josef Hospodka

Design - 19.5 x 17 x 17 cm

Sold

Design, Folkifunki - Candleholder With 3 Arms, Jaime Hayón

Folkifunki - Candleholder With 3 Arms

Jaime Hayón

Design - 30 x 17 x 20 cm

$559

Design, Primates - Brazza Vase - Sage Green & Red, Elena Salmistraro

Primates - Brazza Vase - Sage Green & Red

Elena Salmistraro

Design - 40 x 26 x 24 cm

$1,671

Print, Migrants, Walking New York City. New York, USA (2015), JR

Migrants, Walking New York City. New York, USA (2015)

JR

Print - 100 x 80 x 1 cm

$1,124