"National American Spirit"

Architect Aldo Andreoli brings provocative & environmentally progressive design to Sedona

By Echo Surina

“After living in the United States for 20 years, I still feel very Italian,” says the man sitting across from me. He pulls a cigarette from the bright yellow box of National American Spirits on the table and lights the tip.

“Who am I?” he asks rhetorically, exhaling a puff of gray smoke. “We don’t know.”

After spending several hours with architect Aldo Andreoli, 53, one thing became glaringly evident: He lives in paradox. What appears to be, often isn’t so. The seeming contradictions surrounding the persona and work of Andreoli are actually consistencies woven of the same single, tangled strand. What seems impossible to coexist can and does—this is what Andreoli’s work teaches and asks us to embrace.

I comment on what appear to be snake skin shoes and ask about the rest of his wardrobe, to which he rattles off a list: shoes, American; bracelet, Indian; watch, Swiss; adding in jest, “My underpants are American.” And though his 300-horsepower Audi is foreign like his clothing, it fits another, more quickly emerging motif that parallels his life on many levels—the car looks like a station wagon but rides like a rocket.

Esteemed for his progressive and sometimes controversial designs, Andreoli has been doing architecture for 30 years. He became fascinated with it at age 16 when he moved from Torino to Milan, arguably the Mecca of design.

“I feel like my most important training was that I was born in Italy. I grew up in a place where there was a lot of beauty,” says Andreoli.

Founder of Manhattan-based design, architecture and real estate development company, Sanba Inc., Andreoli has been working with a team of international designers and planners since the company started in 1992. The company creates projects that acknowledge open-space loft living and sustainable architecture as linchpins to future design.

Andreoli has been drawing attention with his residential and commercial designs for years. He’s worked on projects on five continents including homes, lofts, condo conversions and resorts. His loft remodels in New York’s historic TriBeCa District have earned him an esteemed reputation.

Andreoli’s designs are as distinct as a birthmark, unapologetic forms of bold elegance. “I do contemporary architecture—warm, not cold,” he says, noting this style can be uninviting and unpleasant to live in. “You can call my houses ‘American’ but somehow they’re not. There’s a spirit of Italy. But in Italy, they say ‘Good, but very American.’” Particularly fond of using Italian materials and products because of quality, Andreoli attributes their high caliber to the country’s strong design tradition.

“It’s the best in the world,” says Andreoli. “Fabric, consistency of the spring in the mattress…. The best products come from northern Italy.”

In late 2001, Andreoli left his home of 15 years and moved to Sedona, where he has been designing homes in the red rock desert.

“The best place in the world is New York. The creative tension is extraordinary, the opportunity, people. I love it still, but I’m done with it. It looks like a cancer on the surface of the planet,” says Andreoli. “Sedona gave me space.”

Still working for Sanba Inc., Andreoli designs about three homes each year. We do it all. We go anywhere. I don’t care where it is as long as it’s interesting,” says Andreoli, who is preparing to break ground on his fourth Sedona residence in January 2007 and possibly an airport in Telluride, Colorado.

But intellectual intrigue isn’t the only qualifier determining if he accepts a project. “I like to design for people who love to have fun. People who say, ‘This is the space, enjoy it with me,’” Andreoli explains. “I like to say my design is appreciated by young people. I haven’t grown up yet.”

Not one to turn down a party, Andreoli enjoys entertaining friends at his Sedona home. He shares stories of pool soirees, dance parties and disc jockeys playing reggae and techno music late into the evening. His requirement and desire for fun clients certainly hits “close to home.”

But Andreoli’s personality unzips into two distinct halves, the personal and professional.

Disciplined and passionately serious about his work, Andreoli admits his Achilles heel. I’m too much of a perfectionist. It creates problems in relationships with contractors and stretching the budget. I’m learning to give more importance to what’s important,” he says. In light of balancing this seesaw between unwavering excellence in all details and occasional practical concession, I ask if there are any projects he is not proud of. “I never lost my integrity on a project,” he replies resolute. “To do something nice, you need at least the time. You can do it faster, but quality suffers.” Work ethic dies hard. It’s unlikely Andreoli will compromise imaginative innovation for a ticking clock or off-balanced seesaw.

He juxtaposes extremes, playing with opposites. Andreoli’s work (and personal life) reflect themes of tame vs. wild, East vs. West, young vs. old. When asked what he wants he replies only with what he doesn’t want—stress. But fulfillment is contingent upon more that the absence of one factor. If a stress-free life really was his ultimate goal, Andreoli could happily stop designing. But it is through design that he is able to feel young and interested in the world. Architecture is the knife he uses to cut the Gordian knot of his contradictory affections, which untangles, revealing one solid thread, consistent and true.

“I like to have fun. To communicate with people. I like my work to be recognized and understood. So at the very end, I’m human.” ⊕

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