Hotel Viu hotel - Milan, Italy

Milan’s Porta Volta neighbourhood is regenerating at a clip, recent additions including Herzog & de Meuron’s striking silhouette for the Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, and the newly minted Hotel Viu. The latter is a striking addition to the area’s skyline, its central block of glass panels bookended with green walls festooned with jasmine, ivy, climbing roses and clematis that literally rises seven stories up to the roof top.

In something of a coup, Molteni&C were commissioned to furnish the 124-room hotel, from lobby and bar to bedroom, with customised, fixed and loose furniture. The result is, especially for the business set zipping in for a day of meetings, an unusually unified mood-board of warm brown tones and low slung pieces framed by parquet oak floors, black basalt tiles, and Rubelli textiles.

For the design aficionado, the furnishings, artfully directed by interiors studios Arassociati and Nicola Gallizia, are a handy reference of Molteni&C’s extensive catalogue especially the Ferruccio Laviani sofa, and Gio Ponti ‘D.154.2’ armchairs in the lobby.

This being Milan, there are louche distractions aplenty, including a restaurant by the Michelin-laureled Giancarlo Morelli, and a rooftop pool (a first in Milan), the latter a perfect perch from which to catch a whiff of rosemary and honeysuckle drifting up from the garden wall.