Best Interior Designers: Studio Lipparini

Mauro Lipparini

Mauro Lipparini graduated in 1980 from the University of Florence’s Department of Architecture where he has also been a faculty member. A leader and innovator in the style that has been called “natural minimalism,” Lipparini is a winner of the Young & Design Milano (Italy 1987) and International Du Pont Award Köln (Germany 1988 and 1989) international design competitions.

Lipparini’s extensive work in the field of industrial design includes home and office furnishings, textiles, and other products created for a host of renowned European and Japanese firms. In the realms of architecture and interior design, Lipparini has concentrated primarily on private and public housing, retail and wholesale showrooms, and exposition installations. Lipparini also provides cutting-edge corporate identity construction services including graphic design, editorial, full-scale production, and product application.

Lipparini’s style, rooted in the spare forms and clear, powerful lines that are the hallmarks of minimalism, is imbued with a spirit of joy, a buoyant sense of pleasure and possibility. Freely employing bold colors, organic textures, imaginative visual concepts, Lipparini broadens the palette of minimalism, conveying the immediacy and strength of the aesthetic into a new era.

Michelle Richter

The partnership of Mauro Lipparini and Michelle Richter first came together in 2000, while Richter was working with the Ferragamo/Giunti Editore/Pineider A.T.I. As Pineider Gallery’s managing director, she was in charge of the design and production of major lines of high-end, art-inspired stationery and gift items for the museums of Florence, including the Galleria degli Uffizi, and Milan’s fabled La Scala opera house.

She retained Lipparini to design Pineider Gallery’s trade show booths, knowing that his distinctive style would enhance both the aesthetic impact and the prestige of her firm’s presentations. From this initial association, a remarkable creative and romantic relationship bloomed. Richter, a former professional cellist trained at the Milan Conservatory and a summa cum laude graduate of Amherst College, brought a fresh, entrepreneurial energy to Studio Lipparini. Having won the Young & Design award in 1987 and the International Du Pont Award Köln twice, in 1988 and 1989, Lipparini was already highly regarded for his minimalist aesthetic, and Richter’s business acumen further magnified his firm’s scope.

Since 2002, Richter has been the full-time managing director of Studio Lipparini, devoting herself to ensuring that Lipparini’s talents find appropriate outlets that also offer exciting new creative opportunities. Under her guidance, the business has grown exponentially in Asia, with the company garnering multiple projects in China, Japan, and Azerbaijan, as well as around Europe. The symbiosis of Richter’s and Lipparini’s talents—now reflected in the domestic realm, as well, with the couple’s marriage—has propelled Studio Lipparini to the leading status it enjoys today.