A British Designer’s Stockholm Residence Was Inspired By His Love for Metal and Motorcycles
British designer Massimo Buster Minale, a trained architect who has worked for major firms like Foster and Partners and Richard Rogers, has long spent his spare time fixing up motorbikes and engineering various metalworks. In 2013, combining his love for architecture, motorbikes, fashion, tattoos, and music, he started Buster and Punch in an East London garage.
Over the last decade, Minale’s edgy approach to design and his passion for metal have made the London-based design company one of the most innovative purveyors of home fittings and fixtures. The company is probably best known for its sleek and utilitarian toggle light switches and rotary dimmers, as well as cabinet pulls inspired by motorcycle handlebars. He’s even collaborated with artists such as musician Travis Barker, with whom he created a capsule collection of skull-inspired hardware.
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It’s no surprise, then, that his home showcases his love for bold design. His primary residence, called Villa Minale, is located on Lake Mälaren near Stockholm, Sweden, and is a direct reflection of his personal style and taste. It features a clean, pared back aesthetic with a punk rock vibe that plays out in a dark moody color palette. The lakefront home, originally built in the 1920s with a boxy, Brutalist exterior, was designed in collaboration with Stockholm-based Trigueiros Architecture. Minale and his wife wanted to design the home with an warehouse vibe reminiscent of East London. Though the family spends much time in London, Los Angeles, and Melbourne, he wanted his primary residence in the Swedish capital to reflect his love for London, which ultimately inspired his design ethos and business.
“The aesthetic is rooted in the industrial warehouses and Victorian buildings of London,” Minale tells Robb Report. “I wanted to have that kind of utilitarian feel in my home and combine that with the ability to adapt it to the changes that you go through in life. From one year to the next, it’s never the same space—it evolves with the needs of me and my family.”
The moody, dark colors of the interiors are offset by high ceilings and walls of glass that flood the house with natural light, while the hard edges and metal accents are softened by rough-sawn English oak floorboards, natural materials and cozy fabrics. Minale designed the home before he had kids, but now that he has children, the kitchen has become the pulsing hub of family life that inspired him to create a kitchen line for Buster and Punch. However, his home is also what he calls a “graveyard for designs that didn’t get past the prototype stage.”
“It’s a home that I’ve been able to shape myself, and there are many bespoke structures and details that are purpose-made for it—staircases, partitions and glazing, for example,” he explains. “But it also serves as a testing ground for many pieces that are a part of Buster and Punch collections. As a designer, it’s important for me to live with the things we release, and nothing hits the market until I’ve had the chance to experience a design in the flesh. In that sense, our home is never fixed in one state—it’s fluctuating and moving with me as a designer.”
Minale’s design inspiration was also driven by the home’s proximity to nature. Being on Lake Mälaren—the third-largest freshwater lake in Sweden—he wanted the home to feel warm, calm and welcoming while also allowing the dramatic natural surroundings to take center stage. “We’re fortunate to be very close to nature, and you can’t compete with that, so our color palette is muted, with lots of textures and layers of soft rugs and textiles to make it inviting and add warmth.”
Throughout the home are striking art pieces from Ryan Hewitt, along with family heirlooms, custom furniture, and metalwork, and, just off the entry, a motorcycle.
Click here for more photos of the Stockholm residence.
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