More than 20 Italian companies produced custom furniture for the Casa Flora holiday apartment, which aims to bring contemporary design to the canals of Venice.

The apartment was designed by Diego Paccagnella, who called on his background as the founder of bespoke furniture platform Design Apart to commission a whole household's worth of new pieces.

Paccagnella worked with hotelier Gioele Romanelli to come up with a vision for Casa Flora, and called in interior designer Laura Sari from Reveria and architect Matteo Ghidoni from Salottobuono to help realise it.

The finished product is a short-term rental that emulates the feel of a boutique hotel and inserts contemporary design into a traditional Venetian house.

"Casa Flora is the result of these two worlds coming together, hospitality and custom design," said Paccagnella. "The final outcome is a place that didn't exist before in the lagoon, one that challenges traditional hospitality models and uses design to foster sustainable tourism."

The apartment is divided into two halves – social spaces on one side and private quarters on the other.

For the interior design, Sari and Ghidoni focused on putting a new spin on traditional Venetian materials, like palladiana terrazzo – a common flooring in local houses, used here in the toilets.

The designers working on the furniture also looked to local references. TM Italia crafted a kitchen island with a green stone top, intended to recall historic palazzi facades and church alters.

The heavy countertop is held up by a broad, light-blue-painted cylinder on one side and more spindly legs on the other – giving it a contemporary finishing touch.

Other traditional Venetian materials in the apartment include Murano glass by Salviati, treated briar wood by Xilia and textiles by Rubelli.

In the three bedrooms, designers have married traditional parquet floors, dark-wood-framed windows and old fireplaces with lightweight contemporary furniture designs like coloured metal tables and clothes rails by Mingardo, and 3D-printed lamps by Alessandro Zambelli and Lanzavecchia + Wai for ExNovo.

Casa Flora is located at San Marco 2313. It is owned by the Romanelli family, which has been running the neighbouring Hotel Flora for more than 50 years.

The historic city has few contemporary design hotels, though it does host the Palazzina Grassi, a former aristocratic home converted into an opulent hotel by Philippe Starck.

Project credits:

Kitchen: TM Italia
Kitchen hood and SNAP: Elica
Sofas and bed: Berto
Accessories and 3D printed lamps: ExNovo
Bathroom fixtures: Cea Design
Wellness cabin : Piuesse
Bathroom Ceramics: Ceramica Flamina
Flooring: Resingroup
Radiators: Antrax
Fabrics: Rubelli
Metal fixtures: Mingardo
Lavatories in palladiana: Arbi
Wood elements: Xilia
Glass accessories: Salviati
Ceramics plates: Paravicini

Photography is by Valentina Sommariva.