With a background in architecture and crafting custom-made motorbikes, founder and designer of Buster + Punch Massimo Buster Minale lives and breathes his London brand’s trailblazing approach to design. From transforming functional everyday fittings into extraordinary home details to inspiring an innovative and custom-engineered lighting collection, est explores the uniquely personal home of Massimo Buster Minale of Buster + Punch.

Massimo’s newly refurbished family home reflects his fascination with London’s sub-culture, art, music, fashion and architecture and how these inspire the interior details, including his most recent Electricity collection. Electricity extends Buster + Punch’s hardware and detailing line and aims to ‘set the tone for everything else in a home’. Speaking to Massimo from his own home, we learn how living in Stockholm balances out his growing workshop in London and how his home keeps him current, focused and inspired.

Produced in partnership with Buster + Punch, available exclusively through Living Edge Furniture

Where is your home located, and what do you love most about your neighbourhood?

Massimo Buster Minale: I live with my family in Mälarhöjden in Stockholm but still spend a lot of time in London, which is always present in my life and work. There’s a real sense of community; friends are constantly dropping in to say hello. We’re close to the water, which is a very special facet of Stockholm as a city. This connection to nature makes me very aware of my role and responsibility as a designer to the world we live in. Stockholm is an excellent contrast to London – they are polar opposites in a way. One is calm, grounding and systems-oriented; the other has an energy that pulses and changes fast. Stockholm has found a way into my life, but London remains a constant in my work.

How is your home a reflection of you and your brand?

Massimo Buster Minale: My home has been built the same way I design and create our products at Buster + Punch. It is based on our philosophy of details being the foundation of interior architecture. Everything inside has been designed and made by myself and my friends in our local workshop, including the staircases, one-off lighting pieces and the kitchen; even our baby gates carry the Buster + Punch attitude and DNA. It means that the static elements of our home remain solid while we’re able to evolve things like furniture, art, or lighting as we go through life. Humans adapt and evolve, and I think a home should have that same flexibility. In terms of the art, furniture, and products inside, almost all of them are by the brands and artists that I admire, so I’m in a space that’s constantly inspiring me creatively.

How would you describe your personal interior style?

Massimo Buster Minale: My interior style is led by the same reference points that go into Buster + Punch; the city of London, its sub-cultures, and unique energy. I always aim to create spaces that provoke a reaction or feeling, where the interiors speak your personality. The growth of digital content and how we consume it has had an impact on us all. We’re in a place now where you can’t isolate one creative discipline on its own; art, culture, music, fashion and architecture is heading to a place where the boundaries are blurring. Style and individuality are more of an energy or attitude now. With this in mind, my personal style and influences are far broader than just architecture or design. I draw more from fashion, cinematography, or custom motorcycles than I do so-called ‘design trends’, which are misleading and unsustainable.

Details play an important role in the overarching aesthetic of your home. Could you talk us through the selection of fixtures, fittings and lighting that you chose to include?

Massimo Buster Minale: Everything inside our home has been designed and made in our workshop. I wanted to bring a superstructure into the interior architecture, creating an East London warehouse feel to contrast with our neighbourhood’s Bauhaus style of architecture. Our home is the testbed for Buster + Punch’s samples, prototypes and new finishes. I need to see things in context and live with them, just as customers will one day. From the original work of artist Ryan Hewitt on the dining room walls to Allied Maker lighting in the living room and heirloom furniture, our home and its spaces are big parts of my personality. While there are some ‘hard’ details like the superstructure, there is softness from textiles, materials like warm oak on the floors and chunky 70s shagpile rugs.

Your home features many lighting pieces, as well as details from your latest Electricity collection. What was the inspiration behind this range and how did your home nurture the creativity required to create this collection?

Massimo Buster Minale: Before Buster + Punch, I was an architect during the day, and I made custom motorcycles by night. As an architect, I was always wanting to use details in an interior that weren’t those cheap, white plastic switches and fittings, but that was what was on offer. At the same time, as a custom bike maker, I was creating parts from solid metal. So it made sense to take that custom-engineered solid metal and apply it to what I think is one of the foundations of interior design – the details. It transformed these overlooked home essentials into something extraordinary.

Our lighting range and electricity range are both informed by my past as a maker of custom motorcycles and how you make parts for those. They blend function and form in perfect balance. If you take one of our dimmer switches, the beauty comes from the cross-knurl, but it also speaks visually about the function. The knurling, a signature of Buster + Punch from the beginning, can be found on all of our designs involving physical interaction.

Our Caged lighting, for example, reflects the idea that lighting is art and a way of framing within a space. There needs to be a sense of drama that pulls the eye from the design itself but architecturally, I use light to emphasise parts of an interior. We’ve gone a long way from one big light that dominates a space and makes huge shadows everywhere. Our lighting is an extension of our hardware and detailing in this sense; it helps to set the tone for everything else in a home.

How does your home inspire you and the work you do?

Massimo Buster Minale: I don’t follow trends or pay too much attention to what’s happening in the industry. The things that occur outside of design and within sub-cultures are more interesting. The art on the walls, the bespoke furniture, books, paintings and prints I’ve discovered in London, as well as pieces from the brands I consider to be the best at what they do, all inspire my work. Being surrounded by inspiration reminds me that designing is about being original and not following the status quo. My home keeps me current, makes me look forward and focuses my mind on pushing Buster + Punch into new places where we can do trailblazing things.

What are your favourite personal possessions within your home?

Massimo Buster Minale: My art collection, which contains originals from the likes of Ryan Hewitt, Seth Armstrong, Kyle Barnes and Matt Small. I also love my original Eames chair that has been in our family since I was two years old, and now I get to swing around in it with my own two-year-old. My other prized possession is my ever-changing custom motorbike collection, which sits in a glass garage next to my office.