Wall Lamp Mod. 149 by Ico & Luisa Parisi for Arteluce, 1960s

Italian Husband-and-wife team Ico and Luisa Parisi designed together and alongside each other in their studio La Ruota in Como, Italy. With a look that epitomized the modern Italian style of the 1950s, the pair created many classic pieces of design together, the most famous perhaps being the Model 813 Uovo (Egg) Chair for Cassina (1951).

Born in 1916 in Palermo, architect-designer Domenico “Ico” Parisi trained in building construction in Como between 1931 and 1935. The following year, he worked in rationalist architect Giuseppe Terragni’s office in Como, which marked the beginning of his professional career—which briefly turned to filmmaking in the late 1930s. Returning to his original vocation in design, Ico was a founding member of both the Alta Quota and Gruppo Como architecture groups.

In 1947, he married fellow designer Luisa Aiani, the talented former protegée of Gio Ponti. Also a member of Alta Quota, the pair founded their studio La Ruota in Como, in April 1948. Between 1949 and 1952, Parisi studied architecture under Alberto Sartoris at the Institute Atheneum in Lausanne, Switzerland. In 1952, he became a member of the Art Club of Milan. In 1956, he became a member of the Associazione per il Disegno Industriale (ADI).

Parisi designed numerous interiors, furniture (primarily in wood and metal), glass, jewelry, and architecture projects, both independently and with Luisa. Their studio was a meeting place for collaborations between established artists and designers of the day. Clients included Singer & Sons, Altamira , M.I.M. , Longhi , and Cassina. Ico, in collaboration with architects Silvio Longhi and Luigi Antonietti, designed the Living Room Pavilion (Padiglione per il Soggiorno) for the tenth Triennale di Milano. Resembling the form of a circus tent, the reinforced concrete and glass walls formed a spiral shaped living room. Parisi and his team dedicated the space to a large communal lounge with library and bar.

Featured in the prestigious Domus magazine, the Parisis were celebrated for their organic designs and interiors. The Parisis’ friend Gio Ponti famously wrote to Ico Parisi to say: “My dear, your egg chair is a marvel. You are a master, and all that is left for me is to retire and live in Civate [near Como] in oblivion.” The duo’s collaboration with Cassina was a fruitful one, resulting many other famous designs including the Model 691 Chair (1955) and the Model 839, which were both short-listed for the Compasso d’Oro award in 1955.

Luisa Parisi passed away in 1990; Ico six years later in Como.

Italian lighting design company Arteluce was established in 1939 by the young Venetian designer-entrepreneur Gino Sarfatti. Political upheaval at the time forced Sarfatti to abandon his aeronautical engineering degree in Genoa and move with his family to Milan. There, despite a lack of formal design training, Sarfatti embarked on a lighting career. Yet it is arguably because he was wholly self-taught that Sarfatti immersed himself in the full lifecycle of the design process, from conception to production, collaborating with artisans and architects to create stronger, lighter, and cheaper modernist lamps than Italy has seen before.

In 1973, Sarfatti sold his business to Flos and retired to Lake Como. Many Arteluce creations are still in production today, and several original models are housed permanently in important museums like MoMA in New York. Somewhat forgotten after merging with Flos, Sarfatti’s designs are experiencing a renaissance amongst vintage collectors following the first retrospective exhibition of his work at the Triennale Design Museum in Milan in 2012.

* Images courtesy of Flos