Leafy Como, whose rolling hills cover luxurious villas in each shady grove, occurs to be the centre of Italian modernist structure. It’s the centre of Italian modernism not as a result of it has the greatest buildings – though, regardless of the builders, there are nonetheless some alternative examples. It’s the centre not as a result of it has the most modernist buildings, removed from it – however just because Como is the place the architect and designer Domenico Parisi, generally known as Ico, began his profession.
Born in Palermo in 1916, Parisi studied in Lausanne after which moved to Como in 1935, the place he swiftly established himself as one of many space’s key structure and design scene movers and shakers. Upon his arrival, Parisi joined the studio of Giuseppe Terragni, an formidable promoter of strict rationalism, native modernist pioneer and designer of the (in)well-known Casa del Fascio, accomplished in 1936. Terragni laid agency foundations for modernist Italian structure, however Parisi took his work to new heights after the battle.
At Casa Parisi, a slim staircase, surrounded with artworks by Parisi, results in the small second ground
(Picture credit score: Claudio Sabatino)
Uncover the work of Italian architect Ico Parisi
Within the following 20 years, Como made common appearances in Italian structure journal Domus, because of a number of important design exhibitions that befell there – together with the 1957 present ‘Colori e Forme nella Casa d’Oggi’ (Colors and Varieties in As we speak’s Residence), for which husband-and-wife staff Ico and Luisa Parisi designed a vacation dwelling idea – in addition to the development of a string of native modernist residences.
Como’s Sant’ Antonio condominium block and Villa Bolgiana had been each designed by Parisi and are each, of their alternative ways, extremely consultant of the architect’s strategy after the battle. He and his then-wife-to-be Luisa Aiani established their La Ruota studio in 1948, dedicated to incorporating all fields of artwork right into a single design expression. These two buildings, and certainly all of Parisi’s work, are characterised by a superb integration of sculpture, portray and design.
An authentic hearth place on the second ground of t he penthouse
(Picture credit score: Claudio Sabatino)
Located within the slim lanes of Como’s Monteolimpino neighbourhood, together with three different Parisi-designed residences, Villa Bolgiana is a first-class instance of the architect’s sometimes lyrical fashion. It takes the formality of Terragni’s pre-war designs and makes it extra human, shifting structure away from being a ‘machine for dwelling’ and extra in direction of a fine-art type of hedonistic enjoyment of life that displays each the worldwide natural design types of the time and the Italian post-war optimism, infused with a hearty dose of native environment.
A custom-built radio and bedside desk, characterised by Parisi’s typical summary morphology
(Picture credit score: Claudio Sabatino)
Villa Bolgiana and the three neighbouring villas, Zucchi, Bini and Bertacchi, had been all constructed between 1951 and 1953. With this distinctive complicated of residences, Parisi, Luisa and architect Giampaolo Allevi labored in direction of a Gesamtkunstwerk (‘whole murals’) train; the complicated not solely works with its environment, however showcases a sequence of inventive collaborations within the type of the villas’ distinctive, custom-made designs.
Parisi was concerned in all of the superb particulars, in addition to the furnishings design. The items designed for the villas reveal his delicate natural fashion: a steadiness between the magnificence of Gio Ponti and the extra formal experiments of Carlo Mollino, Parisi’s furnishings from the Nineteen Fifties has turn out to be extremely sought-after at design auctions world wide (some furnishings from the Bini and Zucchi villas was auctioned at Chicago’s Wright public sale home within the 2000s, with one piece fetching $240,000).
Villa Bolgiana’s backyard façade with an exterior staircase, terrace and a dynamic overhanging roof
(Picture credit score: Claudio Sabatino)
A miniature instance of his structure, Parisi’s furnishings is completely documented at Villa Bolgiana, the place indirect surfaces, aerodynamic shapes, overhung cornices and freestanding architraves create a dynamic, expressive construction harking back to South American villas from the identical interval. Parisi’s villas are additional enriched with sculpture by the likes of Fausto Melotti, Mario Radice and Francesco Somaini (his summary ceramic plates nonetheless function within the villa). A custom-designed hearth, with ornamental floral wallpaper, an summary portray panel by Mario Radice, and a vibrant staircase with its flowing picket ribbon of a bannister are only a few of Villa Bolgiana’s intriguing options.
Parisi collaborated with artists all through his life, culminating in his work within the late Seventies, when the architect just about changed into an artist, designing buildings as inventive installations. Residences such because the Fontana Home (1968) and the Bartoletti Home (1969), each positioned on the banks of Lake Como, had been created within the spirit of radical design that verges on postmodernism. Parisi later went even additional, designing utopian skyscrapers within the type of human limbs and indulgent inventive interventions, such because the Apocalisse Gentile undertaking in 1979, for which he had a automobile positioned on a monumental concrete wall within the streets of Rome.
A dramatic Parisi hearth incorporating floral wallpaper at Villa Bolgiana
(Picture credit score: Claudio Sabatino)
The condominium, by which the architect lived till his dying in 1996, offers a novel perception into his complete physique of labor, from the early post-war modernism days to the novel considering of the Seventies and Nineteen Eighties artist-philosopher. The duplex condominium, Casa Parisi, located on the prime of his Sant’ Antonio block and reached by non-public elevator, was designed in 1958 and, on the time of Wallpaper’s go to in 2011, was the house of his great-niece, who religiously saved her relative’s legacy nearly untouched.
‘I try to protect the environment of my ingenious great-uncle. There are lots of of his work on the partitions, complemented with artistic endeavors by my mom, Leo’s niece, who can also be a reliable artist,’ mentioned the proprietor, together with her eyes on a miniature mannequin of one in every of Parisi’s vehicle installations from the Nineteen Eighties.
Villa Bolgiana’s intriguing major staircase incorporates a color scheme and diamond-shaped handrail, custom-designed by Parisi
(Picture credit score: Claudio Sabatino)
This modernist residential constructing on the steep slopes of Como is undoubtedly one of many architect’s masterpieces. The brickwork, with prefabricated concrete items utilized on the façade and bannisters, offers the constructing a sculptural really feel.
Inside it, the condominium feels nearly like an unbiased object, an attic refuge with dynamically formed home windows and a terrace providing breathtaking lake views. It’s dwelling to a novel number of artworks, most by Parisi himself, however there’s additionally a discreet Lucio Fontana piece on concrete tiles on the terrace ground. At Parisi’s request, Fontana created an intimate reduction portray on which he included ornamental glass marquetry.
A built-in mattress and bedside drawers by Parisi at Villa Bolgiana
(Picture credit score: Claudio Sabatino)
Internally, Parisi makes intensive use of darkish varnished wooden, discovered not solely in a few of his most iconic furnishings creations, corresponding to his ‘Lerici’ bookcase, but in addition in tiling and built-in storage methods within the condominium, in addition to different initiatives. An accordion door between the lounge and bed room, and a small open staircase resulting in the attic examine space, with its authentic crystal-shaped hearth, create privateness between areas but on the similar time preserve a spacious really feel within the comparatively small condominium.
It is this mix of artwork and design in each undertaking that makes Parisi’s structure distinct and his legacy clear. A real illustration of his philosophy, his condominium was steadily put collectively, a various, but cohesive entire, mixing bespoke design together with his personal fashions, artistic endeavors made by pals, and all of the objects that moved him and contributed to his distinctive inventive and theoretical explorations.
This text first appeared within the October 2011 subject of Wallpaper*.
Supply: Wallpaper
