Discover architect Ico Parisi’s modernist sanctuaries on the banks of Lake Como

Leafy Como, whose rolling hills hide luxury villas in every shady grove, happens to be the centre of Italian modernist architecture. It is the centre of Italian modernism not because it has the best buildings – although, despite the developers, there are still some choice examples. It is the centre not because it has the most modernist buildings, far from it – but simply because Como is where the architect and designer Domenico Parisi, known as Ico, started his career.

Born in Palermo in 1916, Parisi studied in Lausanne and then moved to Como in 1935, where he swiftly established himself as one of the area's key architecture and design scene movers and shakers. Upon his arrival, Parisi joined the studio of Giuseppe Terragni, an ambitious promoter of strict rationalism, local modernist pioneer and designer of the (in)famous Casa del Fascio, completed in 1936. Terragni laid firm foundations for modernist Italian architecture, but Parisi took his work to new heights after the war.

Discover the work of Italian architect Ico Parisi

In the following two decades, Como made regular appearances in Italian architecture magazine Domus, thanks to several significant design exhibitions that took place there – including the 1957 show 'Colori e Forme nella Casa d'Oggi' (Colours and Forms in Today's Home), for which husband-and-wife team Ico and Luisa Parisi designed a holiday home concept – as well as the construction of a string of local modernist residences.

Como's Sant' Antonio apartment block and Villa Bolgiana were both designed by Parisi and are both, in their different ways, highly representative of the architect's approach after the war. He and his then-wife-to-be Luisa Aiani established their La Ruota studio in 1948, committed to incorporating all fields of art into a single design expression. These two buildings, and indeed all of Parisi's work, are characterised by a fine integration of sculpture, painting and design.

Situated in the narrow lanes of Como's Monteolimpino neighbourhood, along with three other Parisi-designed residences, Villa Bolgiana is a first-class example of the architect's typically lyrical style. It takes the formality of Terragni's pre-war designs and makes it more human, shifting architecture away from being a 'machine for living' and more towards a fine-art form of hedonistic enjoyment of life that reflects both the international organic design styles of the time and the Italian post-war optimism, infused with a hefty dose of local atmosphere.

Villa Bolgiana and the three neighbouring villas, Zucchi, Bini and Bertacchi, were all constructed between 1951 and 1953. With this unique complex of residences, Parisi, Luisa and architect Giampaolo Allevi worked towards a Gesamtkunstwerk ('total work of art') exercise; the complex not only works with its surroundings, but showcases a series of artistic collaborations in the form of the villas' unique, custom-made designs.

Parisi was involved in all the fine details, as well as the furniture design. The pieces designed for the villas demonstrate his delicate organic style: a balance between the elegance of Gio Ponti and the more formal experiments of Carlo Mollino, Parisi's furniture from the 1950s has become highly sought-after at design auctions around the world (some furniture from the Bini and Zucchi villas was auctioned at Chicago's Wright auction house in the 2000s, with one piece fetching $240,000).

A miniature example of his architecture, Parisi's furniture is perfectly documented at Villa Bolgiana, where oblique surfaces, aerodynamic shapes, overhung cornices and freestanding architraves create a dynamic, expressive structure reminiscent of South American villas from the same period. Parisi's villas are further enriched with sculpture by the likes of Fausto Melotti, Mario Radice and Francesco Somaini (his abstract ceramic plates still feature in the villa). A custom-designed fireplace, with decorative floral wallpaper, an abstract painting panel by Mario Radice, and a colourful staircase with its flowing wooden ribbon of a bannister are just a few of Villa Bolgiana's intriguing features.

Parisi collaborated with artists throughout his life, culminating in his work in the late 1970s, when the architect virtually turned into an artist, designing buildings as artistic installations. Residences such as the Fontana House (1968) and the Bartoletti House (1969), both located on the banks of Lake Como, were created in the spirit of radical design that verges on postmodernism. Parisi later went even further, designing utopian skyscrapers in the form of human limbs and extravagant artistic interventions, such as the Apocalisse Gentile project in 1979, for which he had a car placed on a monumental concrete wall in the streets of Rome.

The apartment, in which the architect lived until his death in 1996, provides a unique insight into his entire body of work, from the early post-war modernism days to the radical thinking of the 1970s and 1980s artist-philosopher. The duplex apartment, Casa Parisi, situated at the top of his Sant' Antonio block and reached by private elevator, was designed in 1958 and, at the time of Wallpaper’s visit in 2011, was the home of his great-niece, who religiously kept her relative's legacy almost untouched.

'I attempt to preserve the atmosphere of my ingenious great-uncle. There are many of his paintings on the walls, complemented with works of art by my mother, Leo's niece, who is also a competent artist,' said the owner, with her eyes on a miniature model of one of Parisi's automobile installations from the 1980s.

This modernist residential building on the steep slopes of Como is undoubtedly one of the architect's masterpieces. The brickwork, with prefabricated concrete units applied on the façade and bannisters, gives the building a sculptural feel.

Within it, the apartment feels almost like an independent object, an attic refuge with dynamically shaped windows and a terrace offering breathtaking lake views. It is home to a unique selection of artworks, most by Parisi himself, but there is also a discreet Lucio Fontana piece on concrete tiles on the terrace floor. At Parisi's request, Fontana created an intimate relief painting on which he incorporated decorative glass marquetry.

Internally, Parisi makes extensive use of dark varnished wood, found not only in some of his most iconic furniture creations, such as his 'Lerici' bookcase, but also in tiling and built-in storage systems in the apartment, as well as other projects. An accordion door between the living room and bedroom, and a small open staircase leading to the attic study area, with its original crystal-shaped fireplace, create privacy between spaces yet at the same time maintain a spacious feel in the relatively small apartment.

It's this combination of art and design in every project that makes Parisi's architecture distinct and his legacy clear. A true representation of his philosophy, his apartment was gradually put together, a diverse, yet cohesive whole, mixing bespoke design with his own models, works of art made by friends, and all the objects that moved him and contributed to his unique creative and theoretical explorations.

This article first appeared in the October 2011 issue of Wallpaper*.