Design and in the service of wellbeing and longevity is an increasingly relevant theme, and it’s embraced in a new collaboration that is set to kick off with the creation of two private villas – one in Cairo, spanning 1,500 sq m, and the other in Sardinia, a 1,200 sq m property in Porto Cervo – and, pending sign-off, a development on the Croatian island of Lopud, and a residential tower in Warsaw, Poland.
The project – a partnership between Italian design and interior architecture brand Visionnaire; The Longevity Suite, a network of biohacking and anti-ageing clinics; and studio Luca Dini Design & Architecture – is intended to develop an integrated and scalable ‘longevity-ready’ design approach across three key areas: a new urban living model comprising apartments and wellness facilities; private homes and villas; and spas and home wellness systems.
Interest in the subject initially stemmed from a personal perspective, explains Leopoldo Cavalli, Visionnaire’s co-founder and CEO. Experiencing firsthand the growing interest in living not only longer, but more healthily – an issue intensified by the recent pandemic – Cavalli explains: ‘Today, developers and clients seek spaces that regenerate, support long-term health, enhance life-expectancy and deliver meaningful living experiences. This partnership provides a powerful and forward-thinking model for the future.’
Render of Luca Dini Design & Architecture’s concept for a wellness-promoting apartment tower
The main expression of this vision is a concept dubbed the Longevity Residence Building, an urban residential model that sharply breaks with the logic of conventional apartment living. Here, every unit – with interiors furnished through a dedicated Visionnaire collection – is engineered around precise variables and there is an in-building clinic operated by The Longevity Suite.
The same concept applies to private villas and other longevity-ready homes, with particular attention to natural light, ventilation, acoustic quality, rest and comfort. Air is purified, water is micro-filtered and has low mineral content, lighting design is calibrated to modulate energy and relaxation, and sound control creates an optimal sensory balance.
Finally, the concept extends to the Signature Wellness Spas already operating within The Longevity Suite’s core portfolio, as well as to new home wellness systems conceived for large private residences.
Luca Dini Design & Architecture has been entrusted with translating the philosophy behing the project into architecture. Says CEO Luca Dini, ‘The real challenge for us was giving [a] building its own identity, whether a villa or a tower, creating a façade that was not only recognisable, but capable of expressing concepts connected to humans and longevity itself.’
Among the studio’s inspirations were light and nature: ‘The [tower concept] is enveloped in vertical glass panels containing integrated solar cells,’ says Dini. ‘These elements not only filter light, but also generate energy. This led us to the image of the leaf, which became one of our key inspirations and symbols. A leaf filters air, captures light, and produces energy – exactly the balance we wanted the architecture to express.’
The studio underlines the role of natural light, helpful in supporting circadian rhythms. A façade is conceived not simply as an outer shell, but as part of a flexible and customisable architectural system: through the automated adjustment of brise-soleils, light filtration can be tailored to different functional needs and changing moments of the day. Greenery, meanwhile, assumes an active role within the project, including as a botanical air-filtration system.
In this way, aspects of the project’s design go beyond the merely aesthetic to become active elements in residents’ and users’ wellbeing – hopefully, for a long life to come.