Villa Califfa

Italian architect Luigi Moretti lived and worked in Rome where he built several houses, apartment buildings and urban plans. After his graduation in 1930 he advanced rapidly through the Fascist connections he had, designing a gymnasium for Mussolini and a competition entry for the Ministry of External Affairs in the E.U.R. district. In his early work he combined rationalism with the monumental architecture of Imperial Rome. After World War II he also worked in Milan, and departed form his rigid rectilinear buildings and began to experiment with more organic, curved forms in reinforced concrete. It is during this period that “he develops such characteristic design elements as his concave cantilevered entry roofs and steam lined string courses, and rhythmic, undulating swells of concrete, one on top of the other.” This sculptural, free-standing, almost dancing villa is a great example of the later work of this influential Italian Modernist.