The architect, Massimiliano Locatelli, has worked with over eighty predominantly Italian suppliers to create bespoke pieces that resist the static perfection of the showroom. Many of these works have been sourced in partnership with Artemest, the digital atelier for Italy’s most accomplished artisans. The collaboration is not simply decorative; it allows guests to inhabit these pieces, to learn their textures, and, should they wish, to acquire them – carrying the memory of their stay into their own homes in a tangible form.

Art at Maison Senato is not confined to objects. Under the curatorship of Alessia Glaviano, photographic works thread through suites and common spaces like visual punctuation, changing every six months in rhythm with the house’s own evolution. The inaugural installation supports Vital Impacts, the non-profit founded by Ami Vitale and Eileen Mignoni, whose imagery bears witness to the delicate equilibrium between human life and the natural world. Here, in the midst of Milan’s fashion quarter, visitors encounter the wild expanse of Frans Lanting’s landscapes, the oceanic intimacy of Cristina Mittermeier’s work, the haunting environmental narratives of Nick Brandt. The juxtaposition is deliberate: it situates global urgencies within the rarefied sphere of high-end hospitality, inviting reflection without demanding it.

The building’s transformation from residential scheme to luxury hospitality was itself a work of precision. Locatelli’s team preserved the existing volume while adding an additional floor, employing advanced structural solutions to maintain both integrity and flexibility. In the penthouse, a sculptural staircase in burnished brass and iron coils upward, leading to a rooftop terrace with private pool and views that stretch across the city’s textured skyline. Below ground, a gym, Turkish bath and automated parking extend the private world of the apartments into a realm of shared amenities, though even these are designed with discretion in mind.

Maison Senato’s service model is shaped by the same ethos as its architecture: unobtrusive, deeply considered, and tailored to the individual. Under the direction of Sara Abdel Masih, every operational detail, from partner selection to staff training, has been orchestrated to sustain a sense of ease rather than formality. Guests may arrive for a week or a month, but the spatial generosity and aesthetic coherence allow them to feel not as though they are checking in, but as though they are taking possession – briefl – of a Milanese residence.

Its rhythm will continue to shift. In September, during Fashion Week, Marcello Maloberti will unveil a site-specific work in the winter garden, extending the building’s ongoing conversation with the city’s cultural life. New furniture selections will arrive through Artemest, altering the balance of colours and textures in the rooms. The photography will change again, reframing the views on the walls as subtly as the light changes through the seasons.

In an era when luxury hospitality often relies on a fixed vocabulary of gestures – marble baths, high-thread-count sheets, signature scents – Maison Senato offers something more elusive and therefore more resonant. It treats beauty not as a checklist but as a living condition, one that depends as much on the cadence of the unexpected as on the assurance of the familiar. In doing so, it proposes a version of Milan that is both timeless and entirely of the moment: a city of stone and light, of industry and artistry, of discretion and display. And, within it, a place where the act of staying becomes, quite naturally, an act of living.