Nearly 40 years ago, designer Aldo Cibic helped make history. Along with other founding members of the Memphis Group, a collaborative of Italian designers led by Ettore Sottsass that introduced postmodern flair to a range of furnishings and housewares, Cibic showed that the whimsy, color, and reconceptual nature of Pop art could be extended to interiors.

It’s no wonder, then, that a recent renovation by Cibic in Venice exhibits all of these qualities, even as the designer’s style has evolved. “What I love about the place is that it’s beyond one time or style,” says Cibic, who was born in nearby Schio. “It’s about pleasure, comfort, and the way you move through the space.” Make no mistake, though—while it may not be a postmodernist interior per se, it’s full of color and playfulness.

The home, a penthouse apartment, is both centrally located and, at least for Venice, tucked away from the most well-worn tourist paths—or gondola-clogged waterways. Situated along a small side canal beside a boatyard in the Palazzo Barbarigo Nani Mocenigo (where gondolas are still built and repaired), the two-story apartment sits atop a 15th-century building.

The space originally held attics used for drying clothes prior to a series of architecturally unifying moves. The larger top floor, comprising the primary living area and bedrooms (downstairs is devoted to guest quarters) is bookended by two outdoor terraces, one facing east and the other west. The double orientation became an inspiration of sorts.

“From every window you have an incredible view, because it’s one of the tallest points in Venice,” Cibic says. “The view of the garden is to the east, so it’s nice on summer evenings. That was maybe my first time doing something in Venice that faces east. So it’s a more oriental Venice somehow, not in a precise way but in a way that you can imagine. It’s not something predictable, and that’s what I love the most—when you have a feeling you don’t know exactly, but it brings you in its direction.”

Cibic designed the home for himself and his then romantic partner. Though they have since split up, “We are still very much friends and we both love the house so much,” he says. Indeed, his personal touch exists throughout, starting with a host of Cibic-designed furniture he paired with several vintage pieces.

Anchoring the living room is an Otto sofa from his Standard collection, along with two of his hexagonal copper-topped wood tables. These are joined by antique Milanese armchairs and an ivory-inlaid coffee table reputedly made from the ancient bed of an Indian maharaja. Perhaps appropriately, overlooking the scene is a large oil painting by contemporary American artist George Condo, known for pairing the traditional techniques of European old masters with the exuberant irony of Pop art.

Just beyond the living room in the now open top floor is what Cibic calls the “red niche,” a small library in an alcove-like space where the roof pitch meets the floor. A waxed red lacquer finish applied to the walls and exposed ceiling gives it a voluptuous yet intimate feel. With a futon on the floor, the red niche is as inviting as it is cinematic.

“This niche I really did for myself,” confesses the designer. While he says it felt right to make the apartment as open as possible, to spread the light, “I like to spend time in these small little intimate spaces. It’s like one piece of furniture somehow.”

Two elegantly carved, naturally stained antique French doors lead to the master bedroom, which has a softer, more golden hue thanks to a layer of marmorino plaster on the walls and ceiling. A brushed-mahogany bed Cibic designed, also part of the Standard collection, sits on a pastel-toned vintage Indian dhurrie rug.

Cibic recalls hosting a party here for Pritzker Prize–winning British architect Richard Rogers, with other such famous architects as Renzo Piano and Zaha Hadid in attendance. “These architects were impressed,” Cibic says, but adds that it was the incredible setting, with views of both sunrise and sunset over perhaps the world’s most beautiful city, that inspired his design. Yet Cibic takes pride in what he describes as the spirit of the place—that it is as relaxing, warm, and functional as it is whimsical and stylish. It’s a place to stare out at the view or lose yourself in a book.

“Usually the architect is somebody very egocentric and paranoid of his own style or signature,” he says. “In this case, you listen more to the place and give back something that you find there. You give gratitude to the beauty of the place.”

Related Reading:

Dwell Asks: Watch 5 Top Designers Answer 5 Revealing Questions

Memphis Is Back: A New Pop-Up and Exhibit Storms Into Seattle

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Cristiano Urban, Aldo Cibic Workshop

Lighting Design, Interior Design: Aldo Cibic

Also Appears In

A Venice Penthouse Showcases Matchless Views and a Legendary Designer’s Evolution