Domenico “Ico” Parisi was one half of a prolific postwar design duo he comprised with his wife, Luisa. Their furniture designs are known for running the stylistic gamut, with celebrated mid-century modern pieces ranging from elegantly skeletal — like dramatic ebonized dining chairs — to plush and shapely, like the iconic 1951 Egg chair, in a plethora of materials.
The son of an art teacher father, Ico Parisi was exposed to art at an early age. Born in 1916 in the Sicilian capital of Palermo, he and his family moved to Como in 1925. There, the young Parisi would begin to develop his interest in architecture and design. After earning a degree as a building inspector in 1936 and working as a civil engineer, Parisi took on an apprenticeship in the studio of Giuseppe Terragni, the modernist, fascist Italian architect, pioneer of the Rationalist movement and creator of the iconic Casa del Fascio.
While working for Terragni, Parisi crossed paths with such contemporary design talents as Lucio Fontana, Bruno Munari and Pietro Lingeri, though he briefly moved away from design and architecture to explore photography and film. His artistic work would soon be interrupted, however, by the outbreak of World War II, during which he served at the front before returning to Como in 1943. There, he resumed work as a designer and architect, founding two architecture groups: the Alta Quota and the Gruppo Como.
Through his creative circles, Parisi met Luisa Aiani, a former student of the prolific architect and furniture designer Gio Ponti, who was affiliated with the Alta Quota. They married in 1947 and founded the studio La Ruota — a cross between a design firm and an intellectual salon — in Como shortly thereafter. In 1950, Parisi finally completed his architectural schooling, studying under the nationalist architect Alberto Sartoris at the Athenaeum Architecture School in Lausanne, Switzerland. He and Aiani began several decades of sophisticated output, designing curved sofas upholstered in yellow velvet and armchairs with slender mahogany frames for enduring Italian manufacturers such as Cassina and others.
Much like Charles and Ray Eames in America, the Parisis worked as a team and relied on experimentation in style and material for many of their designs. Ico Parisi died in Como in 1996.
Find a collection of vintage Ico Parisi coffee tables, dining chairs and more on 1stDibs.
20th Century, Ico Parisi for Cassina Pair of Armchairs mod. 875
By Cassina, Ico Parisi
Located in Torino, Piemonte
Ico Parisi was an Italian architect and designer, born in Palermo in 1916. His activity, marked by continuous experimentation, consists in an incessant research in the fields of arch...
Steel
Ico Parisi Mid-Century Game Chairs, Beige Leather, Walnut Legs
By Ico Parisi
Located in Queens, NY
Pair of Mid-Century side / game chairs with beige leather upholstery and solid slightly tapered backs, resting on four tapered square walnut legs. (ICO PARISI FOR SINGER & SONS)(...
Leather
$2,385Sale Price / set|20% Off
Ico Parisi Mid-Century Armchairs, Fiberglass & Velvet, Italy, 1967
By Ico Parisi, MIM Roma
Located in bari, IT
Set of four armchairs in white fiberglass Kubilia series of Ico Parisi for M.I.M. Rome, Italy. Ico Parisi was born in Palermo in 1916. He gained a diploma in construction and served his apprenticeship in Giuseppe Terragni's studio. In 1937 he carried out, for the magazine Quadrante, a photographic study of the Casa del Fascio that marked the entire research that Parisi conducted in "meditating on the legacies and contradictions of the enormous baggage of ideas and forms constituted by the experience of the masters". His activity, marked by continuous experimentation, is an incessant quest in the fields of architecture, art and design. Between 1948 and 1950 he devoted himself to the study of furniture elements. In the field of design, crucial encounters with Munari and Fontana (1951) and Melotti profoundly marked his experience. In 1948 he founded the studio La ruota with his wife Luisa Aiani, a designer and designer, which ceased its activity in 1995. In 1954 he was awarded the Gold Medal at the X Milan Triennale with the work Padiglione Soggiorno, with Silvio Longhi and Luigi Antonietti. In 1957 he presented at the exhibition Colori e forme della casa d'oggi the work Casa per vacanze, which was the result of a collaboration with Manlio Rho...
Velvet, Fiberglass
Ico Parisi 875 Armchair by Cassina, Metal & Fabric, Mid-Century
By Ico Parisi, Cassina
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Armchair designed by Ico Parisi in 1960, relaunched in 2020. Manufactured by Cassina in Italy. Designed by Ico Parisi in 1960 for Cassina, at that time “Figli di Amedeo Cassina”,...
Metal
Italian Modernist Scooped-Back Leather Lounge/Accent Chair by Ico Parisi for MIM
By Ico Parisi
Located in Kensington, MD
Chair of sculpted wood and vintage brown leather. Designed by Ico Parisi, the experimental mid century modernist designer. The lounge chair fits inside the range of elegant designs t...
Wood
Ico Parisi Two Armchairs for Cassina Modl 814 in Cognac Leather
By Ico Parisi
Located in Milano, MI
Amazing one set of two Ico Parisi armcharis for Cassina, in leather upholstery
Leather, Tulipwood
$11,928Sale Price / set|20% Off
Rare Italian Design: Ico Parisi 856 Lounge Chairs for Cassina, 1950s
By Cassina, Ico Parisi
Located in Renens, CH
A pair of “856” lounge chairs by Ico Parisi for Cassina, produced during the 1950s in Italy. The chairs have been beautifully re-upholstered in new dark brown semi-aniline leathe...
Metal
Ico Parisi, Eight armchairs mod. 814, prod. Cassina, 1961
By Ico Parisi, Cassina
Located in Rivoli, IT
Rare set of eight armchairs production Cassina design Ico and Luisa Parisi model 814 year 1961. Black lacquered wooden frame, upholstered seat and backrest and covered in red color ...
Velvet, Wood