Casa Maria Bottero Umberto Riva

Casa Maria Bottero is an apartment designed by Umberto Riva for his family on the top floor of an eight-story housing cooperative on Via Paravia, in Milan, Italy. Riva worked on the project from 1965 to 1967 and Giorgio Casali photographed the completed work in 1969 for publication in the architecture magazine Domus and, a few months later, in Zodiac.

Though the word “room” sounds inadequate when describing spaces that flow into one another, Riva accommodated three bedrooms, a small studio, a dining room, a living room, a kitchen and two bathrooms in ninety-eight square meters.

In the fall of 2023, Maria Bottero showed us around her home. Her words highlight some of the most poetic elements of Riva’s design and accompany the photographs of Allegra Martin and Francesco Paleari who, for the first time since 1969, have fully documented the home’s interiors and objects collected over the years. The building and Casa Maria Bottero are considered Umberto Riva’s first major project.

Casa Maria Bottero / Umberto Riva
Photography Allegra Martin, Francesco Paleari

22 x 33 cm
80 pp
English

ISBN 979-12-210-5712-6

Published by SPAZIO, 2024

Book curated by Mariana Siracusa, Photographs by Allegra Martin and Francesco Paleari, Texts by Maria Bottero, Drawings by Sara Merlotti, Editing and design by zoll, Editorial coordination by Elisa Di Nofa, Photolithography by Francesco Paleari, Translations by Maka Language Consulting, Typeface Shinka Mono by Aeiou Tools.

MARIA BOTTERO, PHOTO FRANCESCO PALEARI

Casa Maria Bottero / Umberto Riva
Photography Allegra Martin, Francesco Paleari

Exhibition on view from March 12 to July 27, 2024

Exhibition curated by Mariana Siracusa, Photographs by Allegra Martin and Francesco Paleari, Drawings by Umberto Riva, Reproductions by CCA Canadian Centre for Architecture, Communication strategy and design by zoll, Typeface Shinka Mono by Aeiou Tools.

Resources:
Press Release
Full video playlist on Youtube

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