MALAPARTE DESIGN
Curzio Malaparte, pseudonym of Kurt Erich Suckert, (1898–1957), was a journalist, dramatist, short-story writer, novelist, composer, director, screenwriter, designer, architect, diplomat, and one of the most powerful, brilliant, and controversial writers of the post–World War II period.
Constructed on an isolated promontory on the rugged eastern coast of Capri, Italy, Casa Malaparte is a unique exemplar of twentieth-century Italian architecture. The visionary residence was designed in 1938 by Curzio Malaparte after he purchased a plot of land overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea in 1898. Malaparte completed the home in 1941, realizing a strikingly spare design incorporating a trapezoidal exterior staircase that leads to a broad terrace overlooking the luscious green of maritime pine trees, the buff tones of limestone cliffs, and the aqueous blues of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Combining an austere modernism with interpretations of classical elements, Casa Malaparte exhibits a decidedly personal and poetic sensibility, leading its creator to declare the structure to be casa come me — a “house like me.”
From the curving white windbreak that arcs across its roof terrace to its deliberately secluded location atop a jutting promontory, Casa Malaparte embodies its maker’s renegade streak. Notorious for vacillating between religious and political ideological extremes, Malaparte was an active participant in the avant-garde artistic and literary circles of his time.
After his death in 1957, the house lives on as an architectural masterwork and an inspirational platform for contemporary artists and designers.
The assertive sculptural presence of the house’s design extends to its interior and furniture, which Malaparte designed and which remains in situ. Its salon is renowned for its stone flooring; the expansive, irregularly placed windows that frame vistas of the sublime site; and its most iconic pieces of furniture. Famously featured as a primary setting of Jean-Luc Godard’s 1963 film Le Mépris (Contempt), Casa Malaparte has inspired generations of architects, designers, and artists, and is today preserved and used as a private home by the heirs.
Drawing inspiration from the existing spirit of Casa Malaparte, Malaparte Design is dedicated to honoring the legacy of both man and house through an exploration of the elements that give the house its unique voice. Founded in 2019 by Malaparte's youngest descendent, Tommaso Rositani Suckert, Malaparte Design seeks to create modern reinterpretations of the iconic brand in the areas of furniture, design, art, film, and hospitality.
