Imperiale Palace Hotel: Project by Fama Design

Santa Margherita Ligure, Gulf of Tigullio

Overlooking the Gulf of Tigullio, the Imperiale Palace Hotel is a timeless icon. A late 19th-century Art Nouveau masterpiece where architecture, history and landscape exist in perfect harmony.

The project

The project was designed by Carlo Ceresoli Architetto, a Brescia-based studio that led the restyling while respecting the historic identity of the building.

For a place with such a strong identity, Fama Design’s intervention became an exercise in consistency, balance and respect. Handles for doors and windows, recesses for sliding doors, small handles and bespoke details were designed to integrate with the character of the building without ever overpowering it.

Each element follows the sinuous lines of the architecture and interacts with the marble, frescoes and historic surfaces, becoming a discreet part of the experience. Throughout the hotel’s 83 rooms and reception rooms, Fama’s details do not seek the spotlight: they enhance, complete and endure.

A project in which design is not an exercise in style, but a conscious gesture. Because in authentic places, luxury is a matter of balance.

Architect Carlo Ceresoli

Carlo Ceresoli is an architect who graduated from the Politecnico di Milano and runs a studio in Brescia specialising in architectural design, renovations, interior design and landscape spaces.

“I conceive architecture as a balance between space, atmosphere and functionality.”

His approach begins with an understanding of the context, considering proportions, materials, light and landscape in order to preserve the identity of a place while introducing a contemporary vision without ever forcing it. An approach applied both to private residences and to major hospitality projects, of which the Imperiale Palace Hotel is an example.

Materials and craftsmanship

For the Imperiale Palace Hotel, Fama Design created bespoke handles and details based on the Artwork collection, a line produced from solid brass rather than casting.

Each piece is shaped on a lathe and by computer numerical control (CNC) machinery, which precisely creates the form and, in many cases, the decoration itself. When the texture requires a mark that no machine can reproduce, the piece is entrusted to master engravers trained at prestigious art schools, who work the surface with hand-held cutters to create unique textures and surfaces of genuine artistic value.

CNC machining and hand engraving coexist within the same collection, often on the same piece: the machine provides precision of form, while the hand creates the mark that makes it unique.

The main material is brass, which can also be produced in bronze and aluminium on request, with finishes ranging from matt scratched bronze to polished chrome. No two pieces in the Artwork collection are identical: each one is made to measure, often from original drawings or reproductions of historic models, in keeping with a building whose identity is deeply rooted in its history.

Fama Design

Fama International has been producing handles, accessories for doors and furniture, and lighting systems since 2000, with a presence in more than 25 countries. The company combines traditional craftsmanship, quality materials and a focus on design: every stage of production takes place in Italy, with a certified and traceable supply chain from raw material through to packaging.

For public and contract environments such as hospitality, Fama also offers antibacterial surface treatments based on silver ions, capable of reducing bacterial proliferation by 99% compared with an untreated surface: a practical response to the requirements of a high-end hospitality project such as the Imperiale Palace Hotel.