Inspired by its bold, zebra-like pattern, we explore five homes that use Ettore Sottsass Raw ALPI veneer as a focal feature, highlighting its role in elevating a space’s overall design narrative.
Driven by the brief to design a kitchen that didn’t look or feel like a typical kitchen, Paradowski Studio founders Zuzu and Piotr Paradowski sought to create a space centred around “minimalist form built up with maximalist patterns”. The Ettore Sottsass Raw ALPI veneer was used to create a “postmodern cube”, infusing the space with visual energy without overwhelming it. The result? A marriage between the kitchen’s role as both a practical space and an artistic statement.
Haute Couture by Finch Studio
Warsaw, Poland
In Warsaw’s Białołęka district, Finch Studio founder Magdalena has introduced expressive Ettore Sottsass Raw ALPI veneer as a distinctive feature throughout. The veneer lines the study’s cabinetry, the kitchen’s joinery and the primary bedroom’s bedside tables. Paired with Calacatta marble and steel-fronted cabinetry in the kitchen, the veneer creates a dynamic layering effect that adds complementary intensity to the small space. The veneer enhances Haute Couture’s purposeful monochromatic palette with unique character, resulting in a classic interior with a twist.
Situated above her studio, architect Sophie Dries thoughtfully effuses 19th-century Haussmannian interiors with 80s vintage furniture in her Parisian apartment. In the “drawing cabinet” room, grey-toned Ettore Sottsass Raw ALPI veneer is featured with Phillip Jeffries’ Grasscloth Juicy Jute wallpaper in spearmint, marrying the tones in an “unexpected dialogue” of visual interest. A vintage in Praise of Epicurus chair by Ettore Sottsass sourced from Gastou Gallery finds home in the living room. The veneer’s striking red pattern is understated and gallery-like in its deliberate positioning, highlighting its ability to inject energy and visual tension into a space. “First comes the lines, then the textures, and finally the colours,” Dries says. In Dries’ hands, the Ettore Raw ALPI Sottsass veneer achieves these three design elements simultaneously.
In this 1920s Dutch home, DAB Studio founders Lotte Bruns and Dennis Antonio Bruns journeyed back to the Amsterdam School period to redefine the interior. The Ettore Sottsass Raw ALPI veneer serves as the visual anchor in the living room; its textured pattern harmonising with the kitchen’s eclectic mix of Axolotl Applied metal in brass and mahogany cabinetry, while its deep orange hue echoes the brickwork colouring of the home’s period of inspiration. The veneer’s ability to unite depth, texture and the Amsterdam School period’s colour palette affirms the design narrative both stylistically and thematically.
