He managed to transform a traditional casa di ringhiera at the far end of Via Savona into a compact, personal design hotel where guests feel immediately at ease, with no need to pose or show off. Just step through the entrance gate of Savona 18 Suites to understand. It quickly becomes clear that this is not a four-star hotel with star ambitions, but a project built around a precise idea: to reflect the identity of the neighborhood without slipping into the usual design rhetoric. The building itself is a typical early-20th-century Milanese residence, with the classic inner courtyard that reveals itself unexpectedly. Cibic renovated it without stripping away its character, opting instead for a path of intelligent preservation, protecting the original architectural soul while working on atmosphere rather than ostentation. The lobby welcomes guests like an intimate living room. The deliberately oversized reception desk recalls a Tibetan cabinet; a yellow tiled bench introduces an almost pop note; and the graphic artworks on the walls break the composure of the otherwise neutral palette. The result? «A living room with many things that are like different fruits growing together», as Cibic himself describes it. A longtime friend of Superstudio Più, he was also interviewed by Gisella Borioli for her book Design Super Show. Seen in person, it works: the elements converse naturally, without feeling forced, and the whole space carries that relaxed balance that instantly puts you at ease. The real spark, however, appears once you pass through the entrance hall and step into the courtyard, now known as Garden18. Here the Milan of the ringhiera returns to center stage, reinterpreted in a contemporary key. «When you step into the courtyard, you experience the deeply Milanese feeling of living in a «casa di ringhiera» the architect explains. A 310-square-meter open-air living room unfolds, with outdoor sofas, thoughtfully arranged greenery, designed walls and soft lighting, an atmosphere where it’s easy to imagine an aperitivo stretching late into the evening or a conversation that begins by chance and lingers long after sunset. The selection of furnishings in the hotel’s 42 rooms and common areas reflects the same curatorial spirit: vintage objects and contemporary design pieces appear here and there, chosen one by one, often sourced from galleries in the neighborhood and often available for guests to purchase. Together they create the sense of being in a Milanese house-gallery, a place with a story to tell and a style worth borrowing. Certainly not just another hotel.

Savona 18 Suites
via Savona 18, Milano 
www.savona18suites.it