Basile house

Casa Basile was designed in 1903 by Ernesto Basile himself and named Villino Ida in honor of his wife Ida Negrini. It occupied the entire block between via Siracusa and via Villafranca, with the pertinent garden, which no longer exists. Today it is owned by the Sicilian Region, Department of Cultural Heritage and Sicilian Identity, and seat of the offices of the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage of Palermo.

Based both on the idea of ​​"rationality", for the distribution of the interiors, and on the "simplicity" in the layout of the exteriors, it presents a controlled Liberty style in the use of stereometric white plastered facades, on which the polychromy of the "ornament stands out. ”Consisting of green frames with red squares,“ Florio ”ceramic tiles with floral motifs, phytomorphic plastic elements and a mosaic panel with the inscription“ dispar et unum and the date “1904”, placed in the upper entrance door. Il Villino refers to the trends in modernist architecture in England with the Arts and Crafts movement.

But despite being a "manifesto" work of clear adhesion to Central European Modernism, a representative model of a home-studio, with its internal distribution, the essential furnishings with simple linear shapes and the "contained" decoration, it will not be re-proposed by Basile in other his designs, if not sporadically, perhaps because he is aware of the lack of influence of such a style on the island's clients, even the most culturally advanced. (Source: Municipality of Palermo)

Card insertion: Ignazio Caloggero