From Florence to Memphis Milano to Brooklyn: an Italian designer who refuses to draw a line between a building, a room and a rug.
Updated on: October 31, 2026
Sergio Mannino founded his studio in 2008, after training as an architect and designer in Florence. Today, Sergio Mannino Studio works from New York on retail spaces, homes, furniture and rugs, with projects in China, Italy, Canada and the United States. What ties them together is a very Italian idea: that one studio, like a Renaissance bottega, should handle every discipline of a project at once.
Before New York, Mannino worked in Italy with Memphis Milano and with two of its defining figures, Ettore Sottsass and Remo Buti. From them he took the belief that design goes beyond function: it is a way of communicating, of shaping how people behave and feel.
An Italian Designer Shaped by Memphis Milano
Mannino’s years with Memphis Milano and with Sottsass left a clear mark. Design, for him, is never just a solution to a brief; it is a language of colors, materials, finishes, forms, light and shadow. That conviction followed him to New York, where he has applied it to everything from shops to apartments and custom furniture. For the movement behind it, see our guide to Memphis design and Ettore Sottsass.
“Design is a form of communication, and, just like language, is a characteristic that defines human nature. We share ideas and feelings through a complex system of signs and symbols such as colors, materials, finishes, forms, lights, and shadows.”
Sergio Mannino
One Studio, Every Discipline
The studio’s range is wide: retail, residential, interiors and furniture, alongside graphic design and branding. Rather than splitting these into departments, Mannino treats them as one practice. Consequently, a shop’s floor, its signage and its furniture come from the same conversation, and the result feels like a single, immersive environment.
“At the Studio, we work on each project by simultaneously looking at all the different angles. We believe in the traditional Italian creative process involving various disciplines and facets in the same bottega. We don’t think a line separates architecture from interiors from graphics from décor. All of these different disciplines are part of the same whole.”
Sergio Mannino
Conceptual thinking sits at the center of that process. Too much design today, Mannino argues, settles on the outcome too early, producing something “purely functional or, even worse, something that follows the norm because that’s what’s popular and easy to sell.” The studio starts instead with “why,” using design thinking to address sustainability, diversity and ethics, and to create objects and spaces that are “first and foremost poetic.”
Projects such as the Angel Care Pharmacy, featured by Frame, the Hirshleifer’s shoe store and the AMANO store in Brooklyn show the method at work: architecture, interiors, graphics and décor carry equal weight, and the client’s vision is translated into a space with an emotional charge.
The Secret Gardens Rugs
The studio’s rugs carry the same thinking into objects. The Secret Gardens collection is drawn entirely by hand and then hand-knotted by artisans in Nepal, in vivid colors and sustainable materials. Each rug imagines a landscape of memory hidden behind a brick wall. “It is like stepping into an Alice in Wonderland type of world where everything looks familiar while at the same time something is off,” Mannino says.
A second series, Mediterraneo, turns to the terrazzo floors of Italian homes. Mannino draws each pattern by hand rather than from a photograph, and the rugs are knotted in Nepal from Himalayan wool with natural dyes, making them fully recyclable. Named after Italian places such as Piazza Armerina, Mondello, Lecce, Ravenna and Venezia, they bring a piece of a Mediterranean floor into any room. Furthermore, all the rugs can be ordered in custom sizes and colors. For more on the craft, read why Nepal is a center of rug making.
Rugs by Sergio Mannino Studio
Whether it is the layout of a shop or the pattern of a rug, Mannino treats design as part of daily life, something that shapes our surroundings and, in turn, shapes us. Here are three rugs to collect, from the Secret Gardens and Mediterraneo collections to a limited-edition puzzle carpet.
“Secret Garden” Handcrafted Rug by Sergio Mannino Studio
Mannino draws each pattern by hand before Nepalese artisans knot it in natural wool, so the leaves above the brick wall keep the wobble of a pencil line. Indeed, the series imagines gardens hidden behind walls, familiar at first and slightly off on a second look. At 180 x 120 cm (71 x 47 in), it fits beside a bed or under a small desk, and sizes and colors can be customized.
By Sergio Mannino Studio
€3,700 incl. tax
“Piazza Armerina” Hand-Knotted Tibetan Wool Rug by Sergio Mannino Studio
Part of the Mediterraneo series, Piazza Armerina translates the terrazzo floors of Italian homes into hand-knotted Tibetan wool. Moreover, the wool comes from the Himalayas and is colored with natural dyes, which makes the rug fully recyclable. At 180 x 120 cm (71 x 47 in), it brings a Sicilian floor into a living room or a hallway.
By Sergio Mannino Studio
€3,700 incl. tax
“non Flying Carpet” Limited Edition Whimsical Rug by Sergio Mannino Studio
The Non-Flying Carpet comes in six shaped pieces that fit together like a puzzle, recreating a courtyard indoors. Specifically, each piece is hand-drawn by Mannino and hand-knotted in Nepal from natural wool and dyes, in a limited edition. Assembled, it covers 350 x 250 cm (138 x 98 in), large enough to define a living room or a gallery floor.
By Sergio Mannino Studio
€11,400 incl. tax
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Sergio Mannino?
Sergio Mannino is an Italian designer and architect from Florence who worked with Memphis Milano, Ettore Sottsass and Remo Buti before founding Sergio Mannino Studio in New York in 2008. The studio designs retail spaces, homes, furniture and rugs.
How are Sergio Mannino’s rugs made?
Each pattern is drawn by hand by Mannino, then hand-knotted by artisans in Nepal from Himalayan wool colored with natural dyes. Sizes and colors can be customized.
What is the difference between a Tibetan and a Nepalese rug?
Tibetan rugs are a knotting tradition and a type of wool, carried to Nepal by Tibetan weavers in the twentieth century. Today, most hand-knotted Tibetan wool rugs, including Mannino’s, are made in workshops in Nepal.
Why do the Mediterraneo rugs look like terrazzo?
Terrazzo, chips of marble and stone set in a polished base, covers the floors of countless Italian homes, churches and piazzas. The Mediterraneo rugs redraw those speckled floors by hand, so each rug carries a memory of a specific Italian place in soft wool rather than stone.
