It was the 60s, Vico Magistretti’s production was peaking in intensity, and the Milanese master had reached a mature phase in the elaboration of a language of his own, merging a refined sensitivity to landscape with a deeply personal reception and interpretation of Modern legacy. At first it  had been Arenzano, with the Arosio house and the Marina Grande complex, then in 1962 the time came to design in Framura, between the Portofino gulf and the Cinque Terre.
The Case Rosse residential complex is resonating with structuralist accents — it is a cluster based on the repetition of a 5x5 meters module — still it finally results in a strong sense of local (by no ways vernacular) belonging, with its plastered walls, the slate roofs and the overall image of a Ligurian village perching on a Mediterranean cliff. 

Such peculiar architecture is intimately interwoven with figurative components, as it has already been remarked, such as the 3-side slate cladding of some windows, or the boat-like shape of some others, completed by reverse lunettes. For sure it has undergone the same conceptual treatment that Magistretti reserved for all of his buildings: “… once the house is completed, I wish it could remain empty” (Gli arredi degli architetti, Domus 748, April 1993), he used to say to express how close he considered the final phase of architectural design to the completion of a whole domestic environment; Magistretti would also describe Case Rosse as a project he was particularly proud of, regretting not to  have visited it ever again after its realization (Intervista con Vico Magistretti, Domus 866, January 2004). That same year, for the first time, an image of Case Rosse was finally made available also for those who were not inhabiting the complex, through the work of Italian photographer Gabriele Basilico.

A recent renovation has carved a 4-room apartment into the cluster, and this unit is currently up for sale. The transformation has gone deep, leaving little or no mark of what could be perceived as a signature Magistretti interior. Still, a hint of  the master’s work is lingering, in the way the landscape and the views are framed by the boat-shaped windows, leaving no chance for inhabitants to feel lost: there, they will always know  they are in Framura.