The House of a Lifetime: A Collector’s Journey in Tangier

Author Umberto Pasti and Ngoc Minh Ngo, Foreword by Madison Cox

A photographic tour of an exceptional villa in Tangier with a special focus of its museum-worthy collections of Morrocan artworks and objects.

Saturated colors, intricate patterns, striking architecture: writer Umberto Pasti’s house and garden in Tangier is the ultimate example of a well-curated Moroccan villa, filled with museum-quality pieces furniture, luminous textiles, rare tiles and ceramics, and other objets d’art worthy of a private museum. Set in a lush garden, the house offers glimpses of the serene landscapes and fountains through windows, archways and loggias, as well as Pasti’s scholarly collection of tiles and rare textiles from Africa, the Middle East, and southern Europe. Also on display are highly crafted wooden objects that Pasti has rescued from obscurity and destruction.

With evocative text and gorgeous specially commissioned photographs, this book offers a tour through one of the loveliest homes in Tangier, bringing to life the sophisticated fusion of Morocco’s multicultural blend of cultures. Anyone interested in interior design and scholarly collecting will be inspired by the masterful photographs of this gracious home and its masterful collection.

About The Author

Umberto Pasti is a critically acclaimed Italian writer and horticulturalist. Ngoc Minh Ngo is a celebrated photographer and the author of Bringing Nature Home, In Bloom, and most recently in collaboration with Pasti Eden Revisited about the idyllic garden around Pasti’s home in Morocco. Ngoc's images have been published in publications such as T Magazine, Architectural Digest, Cabana, and House & Garden UK.

Publish Date: January 31, 2023
Format: Hardcover
Category: House & Home - Decorating & Furnishings
Publisher: Rizzoli
Trim Size: 8-1/2 x 11
Pages: 240
US Price: $65.00
CDN Price: $85.00
ISBN: 978-0-8478-9913-5

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Reviews

"Writer Umberto Pasti’s house and garden in Tangier is a testament to living with history. The beautiful photographs reveal a museum-worthy collection of Moroccan artworks, furniture, textiles and objects. Imagine a villa and garden through a curator’s eye." —Mansion Global

"To enter into Umberto Pasti’s world in Tangier is to be transported to paradise. The gardens are lush and green, full of the most extraordinary plants and an occasional slap of violent colour, whilst the house is filled with a curated collection of 16th century Andalusian tiles, ancient Moroccan textiles, sea bleached whale bones an occasional Roman bottom and disparate wonderful paintings and drawings, all assembled with frankly exquisite taste. Every time I visit it feels like a voyage of discovery. Lucky me." —Jasper Conran, British designer

"If there is one book to own on the passion for collecting and interiors, this is the one to have." —Madison Cox, garden designer and president of the Fondation Jardin Majorelle

"I wish this were my house for my lifetime. I would read this book in this pleasure dome, in a trance, smoking. Both the prose and the pictures are transporting. These tales from the Araby a delight we wish would continue without end." —Isabel Bannerman, garden designer, writer, and photographer.

"The singularity of Pasti’s vision, which spills over into Tebarek Allah’s garden, as well as those he designs for clients, has earned him the name “the flower Christian” among his neighbors. But, as he writes in the new book “The House of a Lifetime” (Rizzoli) — an encyclopedic account of Tebarek Allah’s many lives and the collections housed within it, with images by the photographer Ngoc Minh Ngo — he could just as readily be called el nasrani di el zuwak or “the painted wood Christian,” so ardent is his devotion to preserving the work of the Jbala tribes. Yet all his pieces, whether a painted Berber shelf or a fragment of a Roman fresco, are precious in their own way and each has its own tale to add to Tebarek Allah’s, itself a fascinating footnote in the long and complex history of Tangier." —THE NEW YORK TIMES

Author Bookshelf: Umberto Pasti

Author Bookshelf: Ngoc Minh Ngo

Author Bookshelf: Madison Cox