hello everyone and welcome to a new episode of design talk, we are at our rifra store of milan and today's guests are two of our clients, mr. and mrs. palermo, specifically simona palermo good morning good morning simona, and marco palermo goodmorning everyone good morning, of course, will participate in the broadcast matteo rivolta of rifra hi matteo hi laura welcome to design talk
designtalk is the first talk show and podcast for architects and the world of design we talk about design marketing market product and materials design talk sponsored by rifra our guests simona and marco thank you, already now, for having chosen to participate to our transmission, they are both partners of the company shs, superior homestaging which deals with project management, restructuring, interior design until the project's delivery, of the complete work marco is mainly engaged in business, while simona is in interior design.
ok, so today we're going to divide this talk into two parts the first part with marco to which we will ask the aspects related to his company more where it operates and how it works, then with simona and laura will look at the projects together, the main projects they have carried out in their reference markets. so marco, welcome on my part, if you can explain to our audience first of all where the company operates, in what markets it operates, and above all since it is a concept for us the procedure is quite new, or let's say how you come into contact with your society who are the types of customers you address and what you can offer to this type of customer excellent, first of all thanks to the invitation you gave us and the time you give us
also of this space so our company is a relatively new company, it is a swiss company which has its registered office in the canton of zurich, therefore a metropolis for me personally the main metropolis also because i have my origins in zurich and, in the context also following some of our origins as my wife is from germany and my grandparents come from italy the company has created a bit of a market approach network both on the german territory as well on the italian territory, so we sweep among switzerland, germany and italy and our peculiarity is that we can combine the three markets. worthy of note that we leave with the project management in which we address the promoters as they are called in italy
we turn to architects, we turn to construction companies, but we also turn to private individuals we work alongside the professionals in a synergy relationship. our success over the years it was because we could assist them and not invade their range of action, everyone did then his professional service. from there with the profession of my wife, of simona we also added creativity, we added the furniture, we added the renovations and a peculiarity that was born in the last three years, the so-called homestaging on this i think we can then go into more detail later that's right, so what is your type of customer for private clients? what kind of market do you turn to and above all go then to work with villas, apartments
with other types of properties or do you say another type of approach? the approach by choice is a medium-high approach, therefore the type of clientele we refer to also in the realization of the various projects is a clientele of a stamp which has certain high demands, and on this we space then between the single villa, between castles of renovations that we will see or can then show as well as high-end residences. and on this we could experience it, that independently from the market segment that is positioned on the local market, customers who come to us it is always a demanding clientele and requires the detail on our part so there are no compromises, as regards the quality, both of the materials and of the finish
and of the execution exactly, because already in the selection of our partners we are looking for partners who are able to maintain this standard therefore, those who are not willing to achieve these goals for reasons x, we do not even consider them. and who actually is not even willing to work with us on budget matters or for other criteria clearly we are not the initial partner. we have a selection of loyal clients that we have carried on over the years and always come back to us we obviously also do marketing activities but our biggest publicity it is the mouth to mouth, therefore, the references we receive, which is why even the partners we have must achieve these goals, and we are happy that rifra can be included in one of these partners
that has never abandoned us and has always fulfilled our expectations and respectively then of the final customer of course, thanks. it is also important for us to work with customers who value quality and design that are a bit 'our two pillars then, we also thank you, let's say the choice to work with us and especially the interesting thing, at least from my point of view i also have several loyal customers both in europe, in the united states and in russia and many new customers come from marketing but certainly our advantage is that we have loyal customers and certainly also from the point of view of passion, of work and let's say gratification is just to see the customer coming back. because it means it was done
a satisfactory job even in the first place and it is not so obvious today. in fact, something that surprises us, in the various marketing campaigns we have done it is always a curiosity that we then ask the customer, but how did you get to us? we also ask for it and generally, maybe he saw that poster, maybe he saw that promotion, maybe he saw that publicity but then asking further, we see that there is still someone behind, one of our customers who says "look, there's this magazine, have you seen this? i know it, the company, i know simona i know marco, go to them and this gratifies us a lot and gives us also guarantees, and above all also, motivates us to continue, that this is the right way
well, let's start by entering the live broadcast, let's look at some projects? so i would pass the word to simona, who, as a german mother tongue, will speak to us in her original language but do not worry, it will all be subtitled, so you will understand everything and i would like to deal with her, as a homestaging expert, to explain what it is what does it deal with, what services does it offer to the customer? homestaging is a sales promotion toolfor real estate so that they can be sold on the market be very well presented born in 1970in america from barbara schwarz in her circle of friends and acquaintances,she had someone who had a villa on sale for several yearsand then she came looking for help to
barbara schwarz she is alsointerior designer and has helped her with by setting up the villa,has equipped with exclusive furniture and see there within three monthsthe villas was sold to the price wanted and so this is howhome staging in general was created when the real estate is set in scenewith furniture created by a project when if you look at what kind of target groups we're talking about would like to be addressed the same goes for the target groupare the same for these properties like the wordalready says home staging is basically the house and property value put on stage
it is the main character and everything turns around this in the past have often worked with renderings architects and designer have made renderings have presented them and sold what has happened then there were renderings perfectly presented then you enter the property it is unfinished four walls probably painted in white or probably not even painted without laid flooring and comes the shock
you can't imagine how can it really be homestaging allows to enter in this environment where you feel good we are of the opinion that today objects are purchased for feeling reasons and not only for income and we connect them together the income that must be correct but also the sense of well being for most of the people it is frequently difficult to purchase a property when it is empty there are statistics stating eight out of ten people this way can't even imagine a furnished apartmen that's a criterion that excludes a lot probably people who were actually interested in purchasing this property
another statistics says among others that an empty apartment appears to be smaller compared to a full apartment often it comes to cases often interesting and partly very funny that people enter interested in an apartment, a property a palace that newly built is and they find an empty apartment and they often say it is too small here my bed doesn't even enter my wardrobe doesn't fit then suddenly they enter the furnished apartment and they are so impressed by the way the environment has changed the same object the same apartment seems so bigger and lovely and much more elegant and you suddenly feel at home and you feel you want to stay there then it goes on to the other visits and the success is simply that the customers
are still thinking about the first property that was furnished and has left such an impression so that the purchase has already been made the question is also often why should i spend money to sell my property very simple because you property gets sold much quicker and b you can also reach your sale goal in terms of prices nowadays the real estate market is static stable is not so booming as in the past so it has to be implemented with additional services to put in scene the real estate and through the home staging we generate feelings on one side the property should be an income and an investment
but often one purchases with the stomach and not only with the brain and the emotions generated in a furnished wealthy property achieves exactly that both factors income and emotions come to the right place and so our expierience has shown us that the even apartments or properties that are in bad state were the first to be sold in these residences because they were furnished exactly the right way and has reached the target group and what are the differences between traditional homestaging and your approach? in homestaging in a traditional way a certain stock is available where you have the same interior, it gets filled now and then but basically you have a basis to be implemented
with us you actually every single project is analyzed and create the interior design accordingly there are different kind of projects on one side there are new buildings on the other side there are old projects that require a bit of renovation in part these are inhabited projects in new projects it is really important that from the beginning is considered the person living in the apartment what is important for example with rifra the cooperation is so positive so that i say i imagine this washbasin and i need this here this towel holder to be matching the element
with the colors and it was also very well done also for the quality and the important thing is that this is taken seriously and that this is considered professionally without difficulties for the customer's comfort first of all before we even start to furnish aproperty of course we see what we can do fora target group that is addressed there we look naturally how are thecolours which range can we offer this is very important because we must, of course, ensure that the customer feels good at the purchase of a real estate is naturally so there is no second chance it's an interview either the first two minutes they say it's super
or they even say i'm feeling i don't like the object and i have to get out of here something bothers me i don't know what it is you can work a lot with colors with an harmony and we always do that the project planning is such that it suites the real estate the interior must support the property it must notcompete and of course it should also appeal to the target group, so we are conducting a market research we see where is the location of the property what style has the property what do we have in mind or by using themarkets can then also be used accordingly which target group feels comfortable in which areas and accordingly we carry out the project planning and set up thethe whole thing then also around
what also sets us apart from the other ofcompeting companies or competitors on the market that it's a fluent coincidence between interior design project management and home staging often we are called for home staging and then it results in having to change the dimensions of the building that color matching must be made and through the portfolio of partners we havewe can offer a complete package so that the customer doesn't worry about anything except that he has to collect the money in the end for the sale of the property yes exactly and interesting is of course also with us one must not forget that in the ticino in the ticino there are also many holiday domiciles
which means it's another language we have international customers and it is of course always difficult to find the right furniture the accesoires alone, there are a lot of small things you can find at home in your own area relatively fast but the language and culture barriers are so different that in another country we know we all need support and that's what we simply offer to the customer in the end, buying a flat from an agency we worka lot together with agencies real estate agencies that also recommend us and at the same time also the services we offer to our clients be it a support in the selection of the furniture be it a complete renovation or a completely new building
or a complete refurbishment of your house or a new building we are simply there that the customer is satisfied from a bis z really without stress so that he can enjoy his new property and can move into it our success is when the client says i can move into with my luggage we've done all right, we took care of everything he just has to take his personal belongings but now let's get to the heart of the design, i'd like to deal with simona initially the residence majesty project, where, in fact, there was an important collaboration with rifra as bathrooms and kitchens have been created, in fact, with the rifra design to you the word in short
thank you so thank you, villa meister there we havethe property is taken over in the raw construction we we have made some adjustments to match the market so we had for example this large rooms with a lot of light very important in this project from rifra we obviously took over the modernity the lighting with modern design a very high quality in the appliances so in the appliances we made sure that a family could eat here comfortably very beautiful small bar counter where you can stay a little
this house is supposed to be there just naturally for the fact that a generation can be together and just feels very well the design is obviously very important but very important is also that it is practical we have here for example in the kitchen integrated that appliances can be put inside and an additional working surface self-explanatory the wine cooler should never miss there is enough place also for the wife to be integrated with the family with the guests and feel good despite everything and also fully enjoy life the style runs naturally through thethe whole house, that means we have the colors of the kitchen in the interior area so that we don't have single rooms but so the whole thing is just from the kitchen to the entrance door a single line an harmony
and that gives a bit of tranquility and the aesthetics of a residence. here we have for example a nice example of bathroom a very very large element with two washbasins there's enough space to put down things the drawers kept discreetly with corian here rifra has made a tailored cabinet for us i have to say this has turned out to be a very beautiful project i really have to say this is very good at the customers arrived has also been sold within four weeks of course i also find this a nice example
here we have created another piece of furniture with a very smart solution this is a guest wc and often we don't know at all where to put small towels they are integrated in the cabinet here rifra has left a little space we have create a small cut-out after its use it can be thrown inside it is always tidy and the next guest is welcome in the same wc here you can see once again how technically conceived on the kitchen island is we have here power outlets integrated in the bar counter where appliances can be connected here we have a faucet that is also multi functional so really a kitchen where you can enjoy yourself without having to be stressed in any way
in the meister residence there are two villas prepared in two different styles you could really see that one villa was designed in the grey shades this villa here is kept very very bright we have worked with teak wood both in the kitchen and living room these warm shades as visible on the floor and again in the beige shade and in the indirect lighting and rifra has produced a very very beautiful kitchen also here this opening to the guests also with the fireplace as complement so really a story all around here we can see a detail photo of the view towards the living room in the kitchen you can see the spaciousness of the very important obviously the accessories on the walls but also here the cleverness rifra has made an opening this is a window looking on the outside
integrated in the kitchen these are the small finesse that makes it very interesting also here you can see the kitchen and you can't see it but it's a guest wc that can't be found at all because the door of the guest wc has the same color of the walls and also here an harmonic pictures where you can say welcome to the guests here is still clearly to see here's a window integrated with a decoration we have here everywhere source of lights so that the residence is very very bright and i have to say this is really a great project we are so proud of it and it was also sold very quickly we were very surprised how the people reacted to itwith these innovative ideas with tiles downstairs and parquet upstairs
in the bedrooms i think all around a very very nice thing what is still nice to recognize is this play between marble and teak wood natural woods and natural materials is still very beautiful to see here we have still another perspective that i find wonderful here we have for example marble on both the walls this is a small separation behind a wall where the toilet is located where you have some privacy when you come in from the side but also here we are really to see we have here the small towels it is a hole we have candles it is a pleasant scent in this residence all little shades that are very important for the sale of the residence
this is still the master bathroom so we have here for example here the bathtub in the same marble here is not quite visible but here the marble runs through completely under the corian washbasin everything from rifra manufactured on our skatches and here the mirror quite modern next to the window very discreetly held so also here i have to say very very nice here the shower is visible everything in a style in a single entity so that this room is a certain tranquillity and a welness oasis and is not just a bathroom a very very important role is played by the accessories you can see here on the bed it's here with scented candles decorations the lights the cushions of course, this is a complete bedroom
where you can really say i would really like this almost like a hotel room but much warmer in the atmosphere and in it's aura also flowrs are obviously elements that in home staging and generally should never miss these are atmospheres created for the well being and so to say a wellness oasis to create here you can see for example a project this is the complete unfinished construction you can see a very very great difference between when you see the picture of the unfinish construction and what we have just seen who would like to move in there? who would feel good in such an environment? if you look at this this is the same house the same residence once completely finished with indirect lighting with the furniture and also with the accessories and once almost before the sale
where you really say do i really want to move in there you can ask it yourself i believe the answer is quite clear that was a typical example of our service, project management, homestaging, interior design we took over the project in rough building and have finished it in two different styles because because we also wanted to reach out to two different target groups after we checked it and we could comply with happiness and also to our personal satisfaction and we are very proud of this result in these two villas you can also pretty good recognize the style of the villa is totally identical from the outside but inside is the interior furnishing totally different different materials were used so that wider target groups could be reached, one tends to the warm shades and the other
tends more to the cold shades and one can recognize it from the same residence the same apartments however inside they can be totally different furnished and this should just reach a wider target group another important project is central park in the center of ascona, consisting of twenty-four apartments important and also different than the previous one yes central park is definitely another project with twenty-four apartments the challange here is that these were smaller apartments they were not so large and bright like the villa meister that we have just seen this means also obviuosly for the interior design that has to be adapted accordingly
that means when we have small apartments we have to work with lighter colors with brightness and transparency we have huge houses where there's a lot of volume we can use particular shades and colors this obviuosly works less for smaller units because dark colors make rooms even smaller but they should large and have spectrum for light and warm. that's why for central park we chose to work a bit with colors, we bought bright furniture you can see it from the parquet floor also from the sofa lighter finish, a little bit of color with turquoise because we are in the ticino here there's sun it's switzerland's sun lounges and thus we could also achieve that these apartments appear very generous
and very noble due to this transparency that's what we've done in all the apartments yes we have still another project in ascona still from the same building owner in terms of style surely very similar we have still again a bit wider and larger apartments you can already see we have a very spacious living rooms with a fire place with a lounge corner a couch corner the terrace is maniacally grand here we can work again with differente colors and here is also aimed to another specific target group this is obviously another price range we have now 240 square maters in the other apartment in central park we had 75 square meters
this obviously allows to play differently with the interior design and despite the apartment is never too filled you can see here this very beautiful this is a fireplace directly at the entrance this is a loung area where we have placed the candles with obviously some accessories that is a pouff, a sideboard or again a picture integrated but here is naturally the range very high here we could again play with colors both in the sleeping area a bottle of champagne as a welcome gift is of course very appealing very playful here with flowers and many accessories of course just let it in and here the customer or interested person fills up very well so in this residence is about the county park in ascona of just nein apartments
that were given very much importance this residence has a high luxury standard that has also very much privacy results in a lot of peace and quiet so that the clientele, the interested person, the final client and the final effect is obviously to feel comfortable that's a different area in terms of the target group while central park had twenty-four smaller apartments we worked here with nei bigger units a little bit constrained, which is certainly a nice thing because this residence has a very large parking lot and that fits the package all around is simply armonic
we arrived at the last project, but perhaps the most important and most significant of simona we are talking about a castle, always in switzerland, a real castle with gardens dependance, swimming pool. if you want to explain to us, simona, this type of project yes this is one of my favourite projects this is very interesting so far since we have here a real castle as one can imagine it you can enter inside through this iron gate that will get authomatically open from the inside already in front of the building you have plenty of space to park and then walks into this main building you can already see here what an amazing big garden with which it is connected
and we have to say this is something really outstanding compared to normal resideces that are also very very beautiful but this is really something very special castels are always connected to a sort of fascination yes,and we had to come up with something, of course that is worth mentioning to this one as well we decided for something absolutely modern of course but of course with a couch where you can already see it is really very very nice it gets added to the castle piacture a chrome table very modern this chair and with this warm element we have to say a very very particular style
the lamps that are large, the horses the horses have always belonged to castels a castle without horses could not even be imagined before. these are of course all memories and fantasies that would like to create as well and that you can say they perfectly match inside with this black marble fire place all elements are also completely taken up again this is a style that of course in a castle fits perfectly in here we can of course see how the castle looked like before we have now staged it previously it was exactly empty every room was really like this and how can you interpret a client come in a castle that already in the entrance
is so impressive and then you enter the apartment and it is so empty without life without atomsphere without lifestyle without anything and you say well this is very disappointing and what have we made we took the lifestyle in the apartment this is not only arriving in the parking lot and say woah this is beautiful and then be disappointed, no going up in the penthouse that has very wide rooms and you reach for example the bedroom with the lighting the atmosphere also here in this picture you can recognize the teapot in front of the bed on a pouf and together its tea cups only waiting
to be poured and take a book in your hand and just lay down in this room and free to relax as the motto states also here i have to say a very beautiful mood also very succesfull the apartment has now been purchased in very short time at this point we would like to point out that before we start a project we make our toughts we do a market study what is the target audience what do we want to reach which is the budget which is the client's idea and accoding to this we set up individual projects today in this talk we have shown four projects very different among them
would also show more we never make a copy paste we also reach the client and make individual projects that ranges from project management to home staging to interior design and additional services that we gladly offer to the finalcustomer in the end the client is a king to us that means he should be enthusiastic. he is enthusiastic we are enthusiastic on the other side we have never realized a project that didn't inspire us should it not be the case we have allowed ourselves to reject it because the enthusiasm and the emotions are our strength well, i thank our guests: marco and simona, but if you want to anticipate given the opportunity some project you have in progress or future could be a good moment
yes, we now have two projects in ascona, two totally different style apartments and we do the renovation and also the interior design for our customers who asked if we can do for them this service and even for the italian market on the italian side of lake maggiore, we are completely renovating a villa in the project management, then there, we again assemble all our services from the coordination, to the furniture, to the planning, up to the final delivery of the object that will be a beautiful villa, we think by the summer to be able to deliver it good well, thanks also from me to the lords palermo
thanks to you i just wanted to anticipate that this was the first episode with foreign guests, not italians soon other episodes will be recorded with american and russian architects. as we will open in april, may two new stores, the first will be in new york in dumbo, where we will exhibit three kitchens and two bathrooms while in moscow, in russia, we will open in the city center, it will be a space dedicated to kitchens with two kitchens, the one and the new kube collection which we will also present in milan during the week of the furniture show. so thanks again. thanks again to our guests, thanks also to you matteo thanks to you laura
and thank you for listening. see you at the next episode. goodbye.