In a house project for two young newlyweds in Como, Ico and Luisa Parisi’s Studio La Ruota arranged, in front of the entrance, a red wall with a shelf and a mirror, which are sealed in the color cover of the September 1960 issue of “Rivista dell’Arredamento”. The octagon, in its pure shape or obtained smoothing the corners of squares and rectangles, broke in like an innovation, often recurring in many of their works. For that reason, a great role in the praise of this geometric figure was assigned to Parisi.

Geometry and color, octagon and red, also in these wall-mounted coat hanger with variable composition with profiles in shaped rosewood slats and a hanger with a relative spacer. Realised in Cantù by Brugnoli Mobili in 1960, they are significant in their reference to a designer and to a specific historical period for their geometry and color combinations.

Sizes: cm.31,5x8xh.31,5

This time the geometry and the color take place in a planter located in the Cesare Cassina’s home in Meda. It has an octagonal structure in teak, rosewood or walnut wood, with flowerpot in painted sheet metal and supports in black iron with white or red tips connected by a metal cross. It is an architecture, more than a piece of furniture.

Also the octagonal greenhouse in the Cassina’s shop in Rome could be considered an architecture. The shop was projected in 1960 and it welcomed at its interior a small garden with a magnolia plant in dialogue with a Fausto Melotti sculpture. Not far from its high glass surfaces, there were bed and bedside tables from the Parisi 1 series. The bedside tables were also available in an octagonal variant.

The bedisde tables were famous for their recessed handles, called “naval”, in brass fusion or nickel-plated. The form with smoothed corners was a valid alternative ergonomically and formally and so they resulted softer, also thanks to comfortable wheels which replaced the high wood wainscot. They were realised by Brugnoli Mobili in 1960 and they were veneered in walnut wood, which was a less recurring finishing than the more common wengè wood.

Sizes: cm45x45xh.46

Gianpaolo Brugnoli, commonly named Spartaco, was born in Cantù in 1915. Thanks to his expert cabinet making skills, firstly he started up with a partner a company called “ArteCasa” in 1945, which became “Brugnoli Mobili” at the end of 1949. Then the guide of Brugnoli Mobili passed to his son Rudy until 2005. The Parisi’s presence was a constant from the execution of single furniture to the first small productions and until the last ironic projects. This presence was sealed in an image at Decima Mostra Selettiva in 1973, which portrays him at the center with Spartaco Brugnoli (the first from the left), Gio Ponti, Salvatore Alberio and Rudy Brugnoli.

The relationship between Ico Parisi and Brugnoli Mobili took on the characteristics of a real long-lived partnership between a designer and an artisan workshop. The book Brugnoli Mobili is all that remains of the homonymous company, of the prestigious orders and of collaborations developed over time. It was printed in a few copies in 2003 and it is still unique today, as well as an unobtainable reference.

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