CASA MALAPARTE / May 1, 2013 by Andy Goldsborough

Perched on the eastern side of the island of Capri on Punta Massullo is one of the most captivating houses I have ever seen. I first visited Capri in 2007 and soon after we arrived at our hotel, my mother and I were on our first of several journey’s to see the magnificent Casa Malaparte. It’s a breathtaking walk to get there and the views of the spectacular Faraglionilimestone rocks perched alongside one another and an azure horizon of sky meeting sea is like a dream. Lizards crossing our path basking in the sun as we climbed incredibly steep and winding stone trails with bougainvillea in white and shades of peach and fuschia trailing everywhere. I sat and contemplated how the man that designed this house could have chosen such an amazing site and then designed something so timeless and architecturally significant. But I couldn’t linger too long on my first trip to the house. Mom needed to see more of the island but I could have stayed there all day gazing at the sun beaming down on the water and the glowing red brick and flashes of light reflecting off the water and then glistening into the glass of this incredible house.

Casa Malaparte located on the eastern side of Capri overlooking the gulf of Salerno

View of the Faraglioni on the walk to Casa Malaparte

Casa Malaparte seen from my boat ride around the island of Capri

Designed in 1937 by Italian architect Adalberto Libera for the journalist, novelist and diplomat Curzio Malaparte. Born Kurt Erich Suckert, Malaparte’s chosen surname which he used from 1925 means “evil/wrong side” and is a play on Napoleon’s family name “Bonaparte” meaning in Italian, “good side”. Malaparte rejected Libera’s design for the house and ended up building it himself with the help of Adolfo Amitrano, a local stonemason and the house was completed in 1942. The house is composed of three floors with the private rooms, bathrooms and a library on the lower levels and then a grand salone on the upper level for living and dining with furniture Malaparte designed himself. The minimalist pieces included oversized sofas and chairs, lamps and an altar like table made of concrete bases topped with wood planks that were polished but with live edges. The floor of the grand space was made up of large broken pieces of stone but the centerpiece of the room is the sensational fireplace. Made up of three sections of sculpted concrete capped with a wood mantle the outer sections for wood storage flank a window made of heat resistant glass framing another view of the waves and landscape below.

Fireplace with view of the sea beyond by Francois Halard

Interior salon by Francois Halard from his blog

Salon floor and window detail by Francois Halard

Curzio Malaparte in the main salon living space

Casa Malaparte played a significant role in Jean-Luc Godard’s 1963 film Contempt (Le Mepris) when a tumultuous relationship between Brigette Bardot and Michel Piccoli comes to a head on the terrace overlooking the craggy rocks below. The tapering stairs built into the design of the house are used to dramatic effect as is the swirling white painted concrete wall that resembles a sail atop this striking architectural masterpiece. Bardot famously sunbathes topless in the film and wanders aimlessly in another scene as she contemplates her torn feelings between her husband and Jack Palance. The gorgeous film score by Georges Deleruefurther enhances this beautiful film in which half of the movie takes place at the Casa Malaparte. Following is the original movie poster and stills from the film.

Michel Piccoli on the approach to Casa Malaparte

Bardot and Piccoli on the roof of Casa Malaparte

Many books have been written about Malaparte’s dramatic house and it’s conceptual origin, design and relationship to the landscape of Capri. I have been collecting volumes for years and following are some of my favorites.

“Malaparte a House Like Me” by Michael Mcdonough, 1999

“Casa Malaparte” by Karl Lagerfeld published, Steidl 1999

Villa Malaparte Francois Halard, Actes Sud 2003

In the past three years Casa Malaparte has also served as a backdrop for fashion and fragrance launches including this year’s UOMO by Ermenegildo Zegna and 2011’s Hugo Boss Spring Summer collection. Ermenegildo Zegna’s website for the new fragrance gives a brief history of the house and relates it to the UOMO man with this description. “Casa Malaparte was envisioned and built in 1942 on the Isle of Capri by Italian journalist and writer Curzio Malaparte and it is a testament to masculine determination, a place where the Uomo man – who lives with passion and steps up to claim his destiny – acts out a compelling chapter of his own autobiography.” Here are some of the images from both campaigns highlighting details of the house and it’s materials and finishes and bold contrasting colors with the landscape of Capri. Persol even designed a collection of sunglasses last year based on the architecture of the house called the Capri Edition.

Another image from the Zegna Uomo fragrance launch

Ermenegildo Zegna Uomo promotional image

Malaparte called this surreal work “a house like me” since he was exiled there by Mussolini in 1933 but I can’t imagine a more picturesque place to build his dream home. On my last night in Capri I watched the sunset one more time over this beautiful place and this incredible house that I will always remember and captured this image of Malaparte’s inspiring architecture.

More images and details of Casa Malaparte can be seen here as well as reviews of Jean-Luc Godard’s film Contempt.

www.lareviewofbooks.org

www.nytimes.com / Architecture review by Herbert Muschamp

www.nytimes.com / A.O. Scott looks back at Jean-Luc Godard’s avant garde film

www.lolamcly.com / Additional history of Casa Malaparte

www.francoishalard.blogspot.com / Interior images of Casa Malaparte by Francois Halard

www.domusweb.it / John Hejduk’s description of Casa Malaparte in Domus magazine from 1980

www.youtube.com / UOMO the new fragrance by Ermenegildo Zegna

www.youtube.com / An essay on Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt and Jean-Jacques Beineix’s Diva

www.archoffilm.blogspot.com / More film stills from Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt

www.zegna.com

www.hugoboss.com

www.ellengoebel.com / Art direction for Hugo Boss collection shot by Mario Sorrenti at Casa Malaparte

www.persol.com / The Capri edition video with architectural footage of Casa Malaparte

FOUR FREEDOMS PARK / LOUIS KAHN / November 19, 2012 by Andy Goldsborough

On September 24th, 1973, Nelson A. Rockefeller, Governor of New York, and John V. Lindsay, Mayor of New York City, invited 800 guests for the renaming of Welfare Island to Roosevelt Island in honor of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. and former Governor Averell Harriman spoke at the ceremony and announced their plans for a memorial that would be built on the four southernmost acres of the island and that Louis Kahn would design the park. Kahn’s design for the park was completed in 1974 but he died unexpectedly of a heart attack and at the time New York City verged on bankruptcy and the project was put on hold for almost thirty years. After Louis Kahn’s son, Nathaniel, produced a documentary about his father’s work entitled “My Architect”, interest was regenerated to begin fund raising mostly from the private sector.

Approach to the stairs and the triangular lawn

The park was built with absolute precision by a passionate construction crew who were guided and motivated by the genius of Louis Kahn’s design for this project. The memorial is a distillation of Kahn’s thoughts on architecture and pure form. The project was built in phases beginning with the south end or “The Room” as it was named by Kahn where Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms are inscribed into the massive slabs of granite. These 36-ton slabs are placed one inch apart and become a floating, contemplative space anchored by the buildings of the United Nations. The granite disappears into the sky on a gray day and becomes one with the water and on a clear day the stunning whiteness of the stone contrasts the blue sky and the city’s colors.

The triangular lawn framed by allees of littleleaf linden trees

Littleleaf linden tree walk to the “room” and roosevelt bronze sculpture

The colossal bronze of President Roosevelt by Jo Davidson

The four freedoms inscribed on the reverse side of the Roosevelt sculpture inside “the room”

Detail of the 36-ton granite blocks placed one inch apart

The scale of the granite blocks and the meaning of everything about architecture that Kahn contends with is captured in the design of the park: majesty, shelter, protection, perspective, relativity, and history. But it must be experienced to fully perceive this work that will continue to inspire all who visit.

Exiting the park through one of the forced receding perspectives created by the sloped garden plane

Aerial view of the four freedoms park from the Roosevelt Island tram

The Four Freedoms Park can be accessed by the Roosevelt Island Tram and the Queens bound F train. Details at www.fdrfourfreedomspark.org

GIO PONTI / PARCO DEI PRINCIPI SORRENTO / April 24, 2012 by Andy Goldsborough

Recently, I took my mom on a trip to Italy that I will never forget. We started in Rome (more on that later) and then traveled south to Sorrento for a weekend at Gio Ponti’s Parco dei Principi, designed in 1962. The approach to the hotel is through a lush garden that feels much more like a tropical Brazilian landscape but once you reach the blue and white facade, it’s unmistakably Ponti.

After checking in, we dashed up to the room and I was truly speechless, gazing at the view and the spare but 100% Ponti designed furnishings and tile floor. Gio Ponti has influenced my design work since college and I will cover his architecture, furniture and lighting, accessories and ceramics in a future post.

Gio Ponti vanity/desk and superleggera chair

Mom making a quick call before we head downstairs for a drink……the view of the ocean beyond

Next, we were off to the bar but the weather was so beautiful a waiter asked if we’d like to sit outside?

Of course, but we didn’t see any furniture by the pool.

He disappeared and all of sudden we had our own table on the veranda with the pool behind us and the view of the Amalfi Coast in front of us.

Following are my pictures of the interior and exterior during taken over our 3 day stay in one of Gio Ponti’s most iconic buildings.

Link to the hotel below

Hotel Parco dei Principi

TADAO ANDO / THE MODERN FORT WORTH / April 17, 2012 by Andy Goldsborough

Once I had taken in the Kimbell, I strolled over to the Modern Museum of Art by Tadao Ando, completed in 2002. The museum is a series of 5 glass and concrete pavilions floating on a 1.5 acre pond.

As you approach the building Richard Serra’s Vortex, a tall swirling kaleidoscope of steel.

The main entrance has an enormous cantilevered concrete entry with views onto the pond in the distance. Once inside, I was struck by the forty foot tall Y-shaped concrete columns that support the elegant roof and walls of glass reflecting in the water.

Hidden from view are clerestory windows that bring light into the galleries much like the skylights in the Kimbell but on a much grander scale.

The permanent collection works on view included Anselm Kiefer’s Book with Wings and Martin Puryear’s Ladder for Booker T. Washington as well as Andy Warhol and Donald Judd to name a few.

Anselm Kiefer “Book with Wings” 1992-1994

Martin Puryear “Ladder for Booker T. Washington” 1996

The restaurant at The Modern is also a great place for lunch and the round pavilion floating on the lake offers the best views of Tadao Ando’s elegant building.