A (white) home for art and design

With its elegant 1930s facade, the villa designed by Piero Ponci on the Como lakefront does not go unnoticed. A small plaque at the entrance reveals that within its milky-white walls (hence the name, Casabianca), a true treasure lies within: works of art, iconic design pieces, and the elegant sitting rooms of the Cova pastry shop, complete with velvet sofas and a counter centered by a site-specific floral artwork by Francesco Simeti that envelops the walls. “We were looking for a place that would represent us: not a traditional museum, but a living room open to the city, where anyone who enters can admire a painting while sitting on a Gio Ponti sofa,” explain Paolo and Antonella De Santis, collectors and owners of Grand Hotel Tremezzo and Passalacqua, also on the lake.

Recently opened, Casabianca is already an icon of elegance and good taste. In the rooms across two floors, the family’s fifty-piece collection – primarily Italian masterpieces with a special focus on Arte Povera – bears the signatures of Vedova, Kiefer, Pistoletto, Kentridge, Paolini, and Kounellis. There are no set paths, no audio guides: the pieces are chosen based on the couple’s sensibility, just like the furnishings that adorn the rooms. In the ground-floor living room, custom-made tables inspired by those in Parisian cafés are flanked by the Giraffa bookcase by Paolo Tilche for Arform, while a lamp designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Taliesin (1955) commands the Gallery space along with a large rug produced by Amini from a Bruno Munari design.

The monumental LS10 Boccia chandelier by Luigi Caccia Dominioni illuminates the marble staircase leading to the first floor, a realm of Ico Parisi rugs, mirrors created by Caccia Dominioni in the 1960s for Azucena, and Gio Ponti’s curved Daisy sofa from the 1950s, which seems as if it has always been there. The villa’s original bathroom, clad in marble and mirrors, is also part of the exhibition path. You pass through it at the end of the tour, but the experience doesn’t end there, as three suites will soon be unveiled on the second floor. Details? None have been revealed. But they will certainly be design-led.