This wonderful country house is a sample of an era and a lifestyle that has remained intact over time. It is the architectural and stylistic account of a Milan between the wars. Rich, carefree, then bombarded and tired, he gets up again and returns to splendor and fun, between Negroni pool parties and card games at the Fumoir. Villa Necchi Campiglio is a unique work by Piero Portaluppi, designed between 1932 and 1935. It is a luxurious country house with a garden but within the city, with endless sequences of rooms, lounges, bathrooms and a magnificent veranda, a huge garden and even a pool (the first private one in the city at that time). It houses important works of art (there are no less than three donated collections), and after the death of the last owner, who donated it to the FAI (Italian Environment Fund) in 2001, the Villa underwent major restoration work until it was finally opened to the public in 2008. Today we tell you what Villa Necchi Campiglio is like through the video tour that you can find on the Instagram profile of AD Italy. Enjoy the movie, but first we will tell you 5 curiosities about this masterpiece of Italian architecture.
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1. Nene, Gigina, Nedda and the Milanese fog
The villa was entrusted to Portaluppi in 1932 by the doctor-businessman Angelo Campiglio, known as Nene, and the Necchi sisters: Gigina, Angelo’s wife, and his sister Nedda (who is single lives with them). Originally from Pavia, the sisters own a large iron foundry called NECA; Vittorio Necchi, his brother, owns the company that makes the famous Necchi sewing machines, one of the icons of the Italian economic boom after World War II, present in every home as a symbol of well-being. The Campiglio couple, attracted by the social and cultural life of the city, decided to move to Milan in the early thirties. It is said that one night, when they were going back to Pavia after attending a presentation at La Scala, They got lost in the Milanese fog and when they stopped the car they glimpsed a “for sale” sign among the trees in a garden with a phone number. The next day, Angelo bought a part of the garden and commissioned Portaluppi to design the residence: thus Villa Necchi Campiglio was born, where the owners would spend the rest of their long lives. A golden existence, free from financial worries, divided between salons, country parties and trips in Europe aboard his Isotta Fraschini. They have also traveled to the Middle East and the Far East, of which they are huge fans. And of course they practiced all kinds of sports: skiing, swimming, tennis and even fishing.
2. Portaluppi: the architect-humorist
His name is Piero Portaluppi, and in those years he was the most requested architect of the moment. He was a professor at the Milan Polytechnic and a renowned designer of lively creativity and innate elegance. Between the 20s and 30s, we find in its architecture a mixture of neoclassical elements, decofuturists and secessionists. Throughout his incredible career he worked for the most important clients of the Lombard business community and in the restoration of the main monuments of Milan, and also tried his hand as a humorous and satirical cartoonist, publishing cartoons in various magazines (Il baubau, to which country and the Guerin Meschino). In addition, he was a great fan of astronomy.
3. The room that dialogues with nature
Adolfo Wildt’s 1930 sculpture The Pure Fool, from the Gian Ferrari collection, has been considered the artist’s spiritual testament: Parsifal fighting evil, represented by the serpent crushed under the chalice of the Holy Grail.Courtesy of FAI-Fondo / l’Ambiente Italiano.
The architect openly declares his great attention to the windows. And the veranda of Villa Necchi Campiglio demonstrates this perfectly: projecting almost entirely towards the outside space, it opens onto the garden through these glass walls and a large horizontal window that acts as a meeting point between the interior and exterior. This room is an elegant winter garden, an urban jungle in which green is the protagonist: the sage on the walls, the Roja and Patrizia marbles on the floor, the upholstery of the “S” shaped sofa. And then exotic plantsOf course, they almost blend in with the trees outside. In a brilliant and innovative work.
4. The heated pool and other technological innovations
The swimming pool. Tomaso Buzzi’s collaboration with the Necchi Campiglio family is also reflected in some areas of the garden. In fact, the architect designed the area surrounding the pool, creating a wall that separates the tennis court and tracing an undulating route with niches and arched openings.FAI-Fondo / l’Ambiente Italiano.
Get to know the most beautiful country house and its magnificent history