Ico Parisi’s modernist structure in Lake Como, Italy
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Leafy Como, whose rolling hills conceal 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 conflict.
At Casa Parisi, a slender staircase, surrounded with artworks by Parisi, results in the small second flooring
(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, due to a number of vital design exhibitions that occurred there – together with the 1957 present ‘Colori e Forme nella Casa d’Oggi’ (Colors and Kinds in As we speak’s House), for which husband-and-wife workforce Ico and Luisa Parisi designed a vacation house idea – in addition to the development of a string of native modernist residences.
Como’s Sant’ Antonio condo block and Villa Bolgiana have been each designed by Parisi and are each, of their alternative ways, extremely consultant of the architect’s method after the conflict. 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 advantageous integration of sculpture, portray and design.
An unique fireplace place on the second flooring of t he penthouse
(Picture credit score: Claudio Sabatino)
Located within the slender lanes of Como’s Monteolimpino neighbourhood, together with three different Parisi-designed residences, Villa Bolgiana is a first-class instance of the architect’s usually 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 residing’ and extra in the direction of a fine-art type of hedonistic enjoyment of life that displays each the worldwide natural design kinds of the time and the Italian post-war optimism, infused with a hearty dose of native ambiance.
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, have been all constructed between 1951 and 1953. With this distinctive advanced of residences, Parisi, Luisa and architect Giampaolo Allevi labored in the direction of a Gesamtkunstwerk (‘complete murals’) train; the advanced not solely works with its environment, however showcases a sequence of creative collaborations within the type of the villas’ distinctive, custom-made designs.
Parisi was concerned in all of the advantageous particulars, in addition to the furnishings design. The items designed for the villas show his delicate natural fashion: a stability between the class of Gio Ponti and the extra formal experiments of Carlo Mollino, Parisi’s furnishings from the Fifties has develop into 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 fire, with ornamental floral wallpaper, an summary portray panel by Mario Radice, and a vibrant staircase with its flowing picket ribbon of a bannister are just some 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 nearly changed into an artist, designing buildings as creative installations. Residences such because the Fontana Home (1968) and the Bartoletti Home (1969), each positioned on the banks of Lake Como, have 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 lavish creative interventions, such because the Apocalisse Gentile mission in 1979, for which he had a automotive positioned on a monumental concrete wall within the streets of Rome.
A dramatic Parisi fire incorporating floral wallpaper at Villa Bolgiana
(Picture credit score: Claudio Sabatino)
The condo, wherein the architect lived till his demise in 1996, gives a novel perception into his complete physique of labor, from the early post-war modernism days to the novel pondering of the Seventies and Eighties artist-philosopher. The duplex condo, Casa Parisi, located on the high 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 and protect the ambiance 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 certainly one of Parisi’s car installations from the Eighties.
Villa Bolgiana’s intriguing important staircase encompasses 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, provides the constructing a sculptural really feel.
Inside it, the condo feels nearly like an impartial object, an attic refuge with dynamically formed home windows and a terrace providing breathtaking lake views. It’s house to a novel collection of artworks, most by Parisi himself, however there’s additionally a discreet Lucio Fontana piece on concrete tiles on the terrace flooring. At Parisi’s request, Fontana created an intimate aid 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 in depth 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 condo, in addition to different initiatives. An accordion door between the lounge and bed room, and a small open staircase resulting in the attic research space, with its unique crystal-shaped fire, create privateness between areas but on the similar time preserve a spacious really feel within the comparatively small condo.
It is this mix of artwork and design in each mission that makes Parisi’s structure distinct and his legacy clear. A real illustration of his philosophy, his condo was step by step put collectively, a various, but cohesive complete, 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 situation of Wallpaper*.
