Villa Caffetto reads like a manifesto for sculptural architecture. Built in the 1970s for Italian artist Claudio Caffetto, this extraordinary house, near Brescia in Lombardy, is a striking composition of geometric shapes and oblique forms in concrete, glass and metal that are as visually intricate as Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s famous etchings of ancient staircases.
Conceived within a landscape still strongly embedded in the brutalism movement, but displaying some characteristics of the increasingly popular postmodernist and high-tech genres, Villa Caffetto was designed by little-known architect Fausto Bontempi, who was strongly influenced by Carlo Scarpa, his teacher at Venice architecture school IUAV. After graduating, he took a job at Lombardy’s department of urban planning, working on regulatory plans for the municipalities of Lake Garda while, at the same time, he designed a few experimental houses and other projects of his own around the lake.
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Denne historien er fra January 2025-utgaven av Wallpaper.
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COOL RUNNINGS
Palace founder Lev Tanju is bringing his own unexpected brand of weirdness and love of eclectic mash-ups to Fila's new contemporary line
LIVING COLOUR
Mexico's San Miguel de Allende is home to a bold young crowd of talent that's thriving off the city's brightly-hued heritage
STARS ASCENDING
In a rapidly changing world, the route designers take to discover their calling is increasingly circuitous. We profile ten creatives forging their own paths to success
SUITE DREAMS
Cathay Pacific’s new aircraft interiors turn the inflight experience into an art form, upgrading the business-class cabin for the next generation of flyers
Brutal harmony
The Escheresque Italian villa designed by Fausto Bontempi for sculptor Claudio Caffetto
LOCAL HERO
London studio Holloway Li’s recent makeover of Polish hotel Puro Poznan is right up our street
STAR TURNS
An exhibition at Louvre Abu Dhabi unveils the stellar shortlist for this year's Richard Mille Art Prize
SCREEN GEM
A multifaceted residence in Beverly Hills puts the beauty of potentiality in the frame
SOFT SPOT
We've taken a shine to Bottega Veneta's collaboration with Flos on a special edition of a Gino Sarfatti lamp
Between the lines
Frequently drawing comparisons with Francis Bacon, painter George Rouy is gaining peer points for his use of classic techniques to distort the human form