Rome’s layered history and its chaotic present create an ideal setting for Postmodernism, a movement that reuses discarded elements to forge something entirely new. This collision of past and present is precisely what Nicolò Bassetti and his wife, Gaia Morrione, aimed to capture when they converted a 1930 villa in the Eternal City into a tangible example of the style.
The three-story building, once the residence of Leo Tolstoy’s daughter Tatiana and the poet Giuseppe Ungaretti, stands at the edge of a quiet square in Rome. Its 18th-century barocchetto romano exterior gives way to radical transformations inside. A grand marble staircase or an old-fashioned elevator leads to an apartment that evokes 1970s Milan, where Bassetti spent his childhood. His parents, Aldo Bassetti and Laura Peroni, were central figures in Milan’s postwar cultural circles, hosting discussions on architecture, design, and urban planning during dinner gatherings.
Bassetti’s father was a media executive who counted avant-garde designers like Ettore Sottsass and Marco Zanuso among his friends. That influence shaped the couple’s vision for their new home. Three years ago, they enlisted Shanghai-based architect Aldo Cibic—another collaborator of Sottsass and founder of the Memphis design group—to renovate the space. The renovation involved a complete gut job: four trucks were required to remove debris from demolished walls and ceilings, exposing the villa’s original structure.
Bold colors and open spaces redefine luxury
The design intentionally rejects minimalism in favor of bold, expressive choices. Walls are painted a warm yellow, while metal beams, staircase railings, and bathroom fixtures are coated in red varnish. The space contains no curtains, rugs, or unnecessary doors, just an open flow connecting the kitchen to terraces that wrap around the perimeter. The result is both dramatic and intimate, a deliberate break from sterile modernist principles.
Postmodernism’s emphasis on recycling is evident in the furnishings. Family heirlooms, including Aldo Bassetti’s mustard-colored sofas, share space with art carrying personal significance. A two-meter-tall sculpture of Moto Guzzi engines, painted white, honors Ugo Guarino, Bassetti’s middle-school teacher and an activist who campaigned for psychiatric reform in Italy. ‘He might be forgotten as an artist, but his sculpture, and his legacy, are an important part of our life,’ Nicolò says.
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The home’s design mirrors Bassetti’s upbringing among Italy’s postwar intellectuals. His mother’s friend Gae Aulenti inspired the spiral staircase library, a fusion of metal and wood that serves both as storage and a sculptural statement. Morrione, who produces films when not curating sensory experiences under her Art of the Senses brand, transforms the terraces into a laboratory for botanical essences. Bookshelves filled with travel writing by Patrick Leigh Fermor and Norman Lewis reflect another passion: Bassetti’s 2012 walk along Rome’s deteriorating ring road, later documented in the film Sacro GRA.
Art, film, and activism shape daily life
The apartment serves as more than a museum of ideas; it functions as an active workspace. Bassetti and Morrione’s production company, Nuovi Paesaggi Urbani, creates documentaries and theater that spotlight marginalized narratives. Their 2022 Berlinale selection, Into My Name, about young transgender men, was co-produced by Elliot Page.
The villa’s terraces expand the Postmodern approach beyond its walls. Four shell-shaped outdoor spaces, shaded by resin-scented umbrella pines, serve as Morrione’s experimental site under her Art of the Senses initiative.
Bassetti’s 2012 walk along Rome’s neglected ring road, later captured in Sacro GRA, was both a personal journey and a way to document urban decline. The film, which won the Golden Lion at Venice’s 70th international film festival, contrasts the city’s iconic landmarks with its abandoned edges, a visual argument for how history persists in decay. This theme reappears in later projects, including Into My Name, a Berlinale-selected documentary about young transgender men.
The home’s functional areas reinforce this philosophy. The two upstairs studios, one for Bassetti’s filmmaking, the other for Morrione’s curatorial work, are the only spaces with traditional doors, a deliberate choice to maintain the apartment’s open, fluid layout. The sleeping quarters balance privacy with the home’s sculptural qualities. Even the kitchen, where cotto tiles meet bright yellow walls, doubles as a social space, with direct access to the terraces. This arrangement mirrors the couple’s collaborative process: their production company operates within the villa, merging creative work with daily life.
