Duccio Grassi, has always focused on architecture, inheriting his approach to interior design – rigorous, emotional, with a focus on volumes and materials – from a family background rich in artistic stimuli.
In the mid-1980s he began to work with the Max Mara group, contributing to definition and innovation of the almost pioneering field of retail design, creating buildings in SoHo, in New York City, and the Ginza district of Tokyo, as well as innovative stores and concepts for the brands MaxMara, MAX&Co, PennyBlack, Marina Rinaldi and Iblues. He still works today on the concepts and the most important locations of the brands MaxMara and PennyBlack.
He has designed boutiques and showrooms for, among others, the brands Canali, Guru, Guess by Marciano, Ceramiche Refin and for the group IRIS Ceramiche, of which also had the art direction.
In 2010 he won the international competition held by Inditex for the renovation of Palazzo Bocconi in Rome, on Largo Chigi, and the Zara store inside it. In the Middle East he has designed, besides many stores, the addition to the Wafi City Mall in Dubai, the Al Yasra Headquarters in Kuwait City, and private residences. Recent projects include: the Al Hamra luxury complex in Kuwait City (interior design), the Max Mara flagship stores in Lisbon, Dusseldorf, Tokyo Ginza, Av. De Luxe Beijing, Shanghai K11, IFS Chengdu, Florence and London.
He has recently completed a new store concept for the brand Ray-Ban Luxottica Group. He is presently working on the Dejla Mall and the Al Waziriya Mall in Baghdad, villas in Istanbul and Kuwait, and commercial spaces in China for leading Asian brands, a tourist complex in Montenegro and the new headquarters for Al Yasra Fashion in Kuwait.
Duccio Grassi Architects, with offices in Milan and Reggio Emilia, has participated at many editions of the Salone del Mobile in Milan, this year, in collaboration with Atelier Vierkant. He designing furnishings for Emmebi, Minotti Cucine and Viabizzuno.
Projects by Duccio Grassi Architects have received awards in Paris, New York, London, Milan and Los Angeles.