A Brutalist Behemoth Left Deserted for Decades Comes Back to Life for €102K

In northern Italy, a couple spent years carefully restoring a 1971 masterwork by architect Carlo Graffi designed (appropriately) for the owner of a concrete company.

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"It was completely abandoned, completely impossible to imagine life here at the beginning," Roberto Mazzilli says of the brutalist 1971 home he bought with his partner, Fabian Nagel, in 2019. Set in the district of Cumiana, southwest of Turin, Italy, the dwelling was designed by Italian architect Carlo Graffi for businessman Riccardo Gontero. Its sharp edges and cantilevered levels made of reinforced concrete were a calling card for Gontero, who owned a concrete factory, although it’s always been an oddity in this part of Italy. After he died, it stood empty for 16 years.

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