The top-floor aerie of a 1930s palazzino in Rome’s Parioli district was originally intended to be enjoyed as a “place of delight” dedicated to leisure, not as a residence. But with spaces drenched in daylight and wide portals that beautifully frame the city’s duomo-dotted vistas, a penthouse seemed to be the ultimate manifestation of the space and a crowning example of the historic building’s rationalist architecture. According to the new homeowners, leisure would still be chief among its virtues as their private domicile, along with creativity and calm.
“We both work in intense environments and realized that when we come home, we want a relaxing, almost spa-like space,” says one of the homeowners, a founder of Sugokuii Events, which specializes in mounting lavish fêtes, riotous with color and pattern, in off-the-radar locations. Her partner, a private-equity investor, is also no stranger to high-stakes work.
The couple tapped acclaimed Milan designer Cristina Celestino to create a peaceful retreat that felt aligned not only with its urban environment, but also its iconic architectural vernacular. During the 1920s and ’30s, rationalism’s mathematical order, devoid of ornamentation, advanced in Italy under Mussolini’s regime, a stern reaction to the flamboyance of the Art Nouveau movement that had previously swept Europe. But those rationalists, otherwise known as early modernists, were onto something—after all, crisp geometry and ideal proportions are hardly without their aesthetic pleasures.
After extensive historical research, Celestino implemented a quintessential rationalist layout to the penthouse: The living area, open to the terrace, faces west; bedrooms are sequestered in the south wing; and the kitchen and dining areas are north-facing. Finding finesse in such formality motivated the designer to create a foundation of arithmetic for the home—tonal floors of classic Italian travertine or bleached-oak tiles intricately arranged (that is, with no small amount of number-crunching) into a “woven” pattern. “The history of architecture is a great passion of mine,” Celestino says. “My biggest challenge was in confronting such an influential example of rationalism.”
The 5,700-square-foot dwelling came preloaded with boxy niches that capture views and create just-so-sized alcoves for furniture, whether it’s the white Camaleonda sectional in the living room, the lounge’s bronzed leather banquette, or the guest suite’s upholstered bed in a sunbaked shade of sienna. Celestino accentuated these built-in frames and nooks by painting them in dreamy, dusty hues, the ideal tones to engage the sublime natural light spilling into the home.
The muted mint of the entrance hall, for example, cues instant serenity, while the same soothing verdancy—inspired by the Italian stone pine and Roman cypress in the surrounding cityscape—is reprised in the living and dining areas “as a tool to identify the structural core of the home.” A mellow mustard shade marks different thresholds, like the one between the living room and entrance hall, or portals like the bay window, where a built-in planter, lush with foliage, creates continuity with the citrus trees and rosemary bushes on the outdoor terrace. In the homeowner’s dressing room and bath, a pink palette evokes femininity, from a lattice border painted in salmon lacquer to the Taj Mahal quartz floor, visually reminiscent of strawberry-ripple gelato.
“I was inspired by an incredible boutique in Ravello called The Pink Closet, which Cristina designed, and where we first encountered her work,” says the homeowner, who adds that the patron saint of her private boudoir was the late Audrey Hepburn, rumored to have lived in the penthouse “once upon a time.”
Celestino, a longtime collaborator with Fendi Casa and other renowned Italian design brands, created sculptural bespoke furniture with streamline moderne’s generous curves and long lines, at times disrupted with surprising materials and sudden asymmetries. For instance, juicy orange onyx tops a lengthy bespoke console in the entrance hall, while in the living room a custom coffee table features irregular travertine surfaces cantilevered from a walnut core. Around the corner, a lounge table, elevated on hammered-copper pedestals, is composed of three stacked travertine surfaces, each uniquely amorphous. Observing the piece from overhead might resemble the wavy contour lines of a topographical map.
“It’s organic rationalism,” says Celestino of the tableau’s thematic interplay between the building’s architectural rigor and the whims of nature. Now more than ever, this “place of delight” lives up to its capricious epithet, cinematically unfolding like an Italian daydream or even a Roman holiday.