CASA MALAPARTE, CAPRI, ITALY
It was built as a temple of solitude, but this spectacular seaside villa was born to stand out
Social isolation can sometimes lead to unparalleled creativity. This was certainly the case when Italian writer, filmmaker, war correspondent and erstwhile fascist Curzio Malaparte found himself exiled to the island of Lipari for five years, having incurred the wrath of Mussolini with one of his texts. The expulsion impacted Malaparte so greatly that, upon his release in 1938, he spurned a return to society and instead went in search of further seclusion, erecting his own fortress of solitude high up on the coastal cliffs of Capri. With its arresting red walls and theatrical staircase roof, it remains one of the most visually striking villas ever constructed.
Although architect Adalberto Libera is credited with the design, Casa Malaparte’s most beguiling features were the products of its owner’s turbulent imagination. Dissatisfied with Libera’s drawings, the ever-brash Malaparte made a series of alterations that he felt were more fitting for the ‘casa come me’ (house like me), as he would call it. His defining moves were to transform the roof of the house into a huge terrace, incorporating an inverted-pyramid staircase and a curved windbreaker, and to colour the building in a sienna shade seemingly inspired by the frescoes of Pompeii. This created a playful contradiction – the house was a sculptural eyepiece, unlike anything else in sight; equally it was a natural extension of the landscape, forming an elevated plateau looking out towards the Sorrento coast.
The cliff topography influenced the building’s layout more than it might seem. Although the house appears to tunnel into the rock, of course this was impossible; instead, the three floors are staggered to work with the sloping terrain. The upper level – the largest of the three floors – contains the main living quarters, divided into two halves. One half contains a pair of private suites, with Malaparte’s own adjoining his personal atelier; the other half is taken up by a grand stone-floored salon, characterised by a pair of dark-framed windows and a series of unique furniturepiecesthatblendclassicalandmodernistinfluences. Four additional bedrooms can be found on the middle storey, along with the kitchen, while the lowest floor provides service spaces including a cellar and laundry room.
Though Casa Malaparte has never been open to the public, it won a cult following after starring in Jean-Luc Godard’s 1963 film, Le Mépris. In one memorable scene, lead character Paul Javal ascends the roof to find his wife, played by screen icon Brigitte Bardot, sunbathing naked on top. More recently, actor Emma Stone danced in and around the house in a dreamy advertisement for Louis Vuitton. It is a building imbued with the same sense of fantasy and drama that pervaded most of Malaparte’s work, and looks set to become as influential as his films and writing.
THE VILLA IS IMBUED WITH THE SAME SENSE OF FANTASY AND DRAMA THAT PERVADED MOST OF MALAPARTE’S WORK