While flipping through pages of glossy magazines, it is difficult for a person to stop oneself from craving over the opulence found in the pages. The intricacy of design, the development of an idea and the understanding of architectural complexity doesn’t come easily to everyone. Real estate visionary Robbie Antonio has that rare quality to bring the best of all worlds through his ability to blend such diverse concepts into an idea of aspirational living. He brings concepts of luxurious living, art, flexible spaces, accessible pricing and liveable places through his latest endeavors or as he likes to describe, a beautiful obsession – “REVOLUTION PRECRAFTED”. His ambitions are simple yet revolutionary, an idea to bring “Democratic Design” in real estate.
Finely developed tastes
Robbie is one of the youngest and most prolific collectors of international modern and post-war contemporary art in the world. Because of his accomplishments as an art collector, he has received a number of awards from a number of recognized organizations. In 2014, Artnet recognized him as one of ‘20 of the World’s Most Innovative Art Collectors’, while in 2015 and 2016, he became part of Artnet’s ‘Top 200 Art Collectors Worldwide’. Artnet also recognized him with two awards in 2016: as one of the ‘Twelve young art collectors to watch out for’, as well as one of the ‘Top 100 art collectors’ for that year. This year, he was cited by BuiltWorlds in its 2018 Mavericks Report as one of ‘25 Pioneers Who’ve Transformed the Built Industry’, while in May 2018, he was named ‘Real Estate Personality of the Year’ by PropertyGuru.
His passion for art has also led him to collaborate with artists such as Marina Abramovich, Maurizio Catellan, Francesco Clemente, Damien Hirst, Zhang Huan, David La Chapelle, Marilyn Minter, Takashi Murakami, Julian Opie, and Julian Schnabel. To date, he has worked with 13 Pritzker Prize Architects/Firms such as Zaha Hadid, Philip Johnson Alan Ritchie, Rem Koolhaas, Jean Nouvel, I.M. Pei, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, and Christian de Portzamparc to name a few, as well as designers such as Ron Arad, Campana Brothers, Tom Dixon, Philippe Starck, and Marcel Wanders.
“I always want to work with the best people in the world, whether it is business, politics, art… because that makes you a better person,” he emphasizes. “You learn from the best and it’s a privilege. I want to impart that to the world.”