This $2 Million Lake Como Villa Features A Well-Preserved 1950s Modernist Interior By Ico Parisi

A home at Lake Como redesigned in the 1950s by architect-designer Ico Parisi has hit the market.

The 6-bedroom, 6,000-square-foot villa lies in the Italian city of Como. The house, which has sweeping views of Lake Como and a separate apartment, is for sale for $2 million.  

According to selling agent Tania Morabito, Alberto Ameri, the father of its current owner, bought the 19th-century property in 1948 as a family home. Ameri, who was a collector and an art lover, purchased it for its sunny location and city and lake views, she said.

A few years later Ameri commissioned Ico Parisi to redesign a large part of the building and its gardens. The Como-based Italian architect-designer, who was renowned at the time for his era-defining midcentury modern designs, gave the traditional building a chic modernist makeover.

And little has been altered since then, according to Morabito. Named Villa Ameri after its owner, the Lombardy property blends bespoke joinery and clean and curved lines with traditional features. Fitted timber cabinetry and seating, wooden detailing, parquet, and pastel shades feature in rooms with high ceilings and large windows and glazed doors, according to its photos. 

Original furnishings and furniture, designed and selected by Parisi, decorate its rooms and feature the iconic characteristics of his design style that include boldly colored upholstery, slanted lines, and soft edges. 

According to Morabito, it is rare to find such an intact example of Parisi’s built works since most villas built and furnished by him have been restored and lost some of their original features over the years. “Some have modified the structure, others the interior furnishings,” she said.

A total of 40 pieces including chairs, tables, coffee tables, clothes hangers, armchairs, trolleys, bookcases, and a desk, as well as various objects such as cigarette cases and table lamps are on offer for the separate price of $164,000, Morabito said.

Included in the sale is a wooden writing table Parisi created especially for the house. The unique table, which is characterized by its Y-shaped tapered slanted legs, features on the cover of the 2017 Ico Parisi design catalog, the owners told Morabito.

The interior of the villa, from the flooring to the furnishings, has been perfectly preserved, Morabito said. “It contains some truly representative and characteristic pieces of that period that are still used today as models for furnishing homes around the world,” she said.

The 4-story property – which is being sold by Knight Frank’s associate La Reale Domus – first went on sale in 2017 for $2.4 million but the owners later took it off the market. It came back on the market in January this year with a new valuation, Morabito said.

The house belongs to Alberto Ameri’s daughter and her family and they have lived there for many years. [The family] have enjoyed living there but it is now too large for them, the owners told Morabito. The owners could not be reached for comment.

THE HOME

Villa Ameri has a tall stone and stucco-covered structure, which offers a great vantage point from which to view Lake Como and its surrounding green hills. The property was originally called La Torre, which translates to English as The Tower.

On its main floor is a large living room with three areas connected by 2 curved-edged openings. A series of French doors meanwhile open onto a large full-length terrace with a panoramic view of the lake, according to its photos.

The property also has a kitchen and a dining room, which open onto a loggia, several balconies off the bedrooms, a garage, and a 645-square-foot studio apartment on the basement floor, which is rented as a holiday let, according to its sales details.

Its 0.5-acre private landscaped gardens, which were also designed by Parisi, are set over multiple levels and feature stone steps and walls, lawn areas and mature trees, and shrubs, according to its photos.

ICO PARISI

Sicilian-born Ico Parisi is regarded as one of the designers who shaped the style of the 1950s. 

Parisi spent most of his life in Como. He married the architect Luisa Aiani and together they set up the design studio La Ruota in the city. There, Parisi designed architectural projects, interiors and other design schemes independently and with Luisa, according to the online gallery Donzella.

Designer of many iconic pieces including the Egg chair (model no. 813), his work embodies the funky modernist style of the early atomic age, according to the fine art website artsy.net.

LOCATION

Villa Ameri lies in the southwest part of Como, a city that lies on the edge of Lake Como in the Lombardy region of Italy. The center of Como can be reached in 5 minutes by car.

It is minutes from Villa Olmo, a renowned neoclassical villa surrounded by a large park. The Swiss border and the A9 motorway lie close by.

The property is being sold by Knight Frank’s associate La Reale Domus