Designed by Adalberto Libera, completed 1963 Island of Capri The Casa Malaparte is a villa on the island of Capri designed by the Italian rationalist architect Adalberto Libera (1903–63) for the writer and journalist Curzio Malaparte (1898–1957). The building’s dominant position on its rocky outcrop reflect its expressive and outward-looking spirit. Its bold volumetric form and symmetrical planning reflects Libera’s desire for “sin cerity, order, logic and clarity above all” (Malaparte, 1989). All in all, it is a textbook example of modernist 20th-century architecture. At first glance, this might seem to be an accurate description of the Casa Malaparte. However, a closer examination reveals these seemingly uncontestable facts as increasingly problematic. The Casa Malaparte is actually a curious and contradictory work that directly reflects the nature of its curious and contradictory client: Curzio Malaparte. Born Kurt Erich Suckert into a Protestant family, Malaparte denounced these ro...