02/14/2023
Sugar Rooms is a boutique hotel designed by none other than the talented Roberto Baciocchi in the heart of Arezzo , a small jewel of hospitality in a mansion dating back to the 1700s that once belonged to a noble Lombardi family and still has original details, like mosaic tiles from the 1st century A.D. To find it, follow the faint glow of a neon sign, turn left down an alleyway, climb a stone staircase—and you’ve arrived. In the fifteen rooms the story remains in the fragments of frescoes and in the wooden ceilings. Inside, another labyrinth awaits: Quiet corridors connect 15 rooms, each revealing a new surprise—heavy velvet drapes replace internal walls; mirrored bathrooms create a dizzying optical illusion; and jewel-toned ottomans contrast with the faded frescoes. The space is both traditional and ultramodern, a hallmark of Roberto Baciocchi, the renowned architect behind Prada’s global stores and a master of reimagining old buildings.
Once they removed layer after layer of paint, they found hand-painted frescoes detailing everyday scenery in Arezzo. One critical element that’s so nice in an old building like this is the architect’s ability to artfully manipulate light, concealing bulbs behind glass and drapes to emit a warm glow and enhance a fabric’s luster and texture—from Milanese velvet to linen and cotton. That sense of drama continues in the vanity and shower areas, where exposed washbasins, made from a single block of unpolished marble, and curved backlit mirrors could pass for works of art. Despite its many contrasts—ancient yet futuristic, raw and textural but polished and sleek—Sugar Rooms neatly folds into itself like a set of nesting interiors just waiting to be explored. My favourite has to be the walls that had been restored and kept the way it is, something that’s so important in keeping the soul of the building within - just like what Baciocchi said “Every building I work on is different and has a spirit of its own, the walls themselves suggest the way to intervene.”
