From Leonardo da Vinci and Andrea Palladio, whose influence on art and architecture cannot be overstated, to Ettore Sottsass (buildings, furniture), Carlo Alessi (appliances and kitchenware), and Vitale Bramani (Vibram soles), it's axiomatic that Italian artists, artisans, designers, inventors and architects have the twin gifts of the eye and the hand. They know form, they know function, and they know innately how to weld the two occasionally warring elements of production into useful, attractive things.

Mirko Arbore, scion of the Bari-based Arbore family firm of architeture and design, has been grinding at the cutting edge of Italian interior design in New York, London, Paris, Riyadh, Doha, Marrakesh, and in his native country for years now, and is rocking through that confident, mature phase of a man hitting his commercial and aesthetic stride.