Verscheidene auteurs - Gio Ponti - 2026

Gio Ponti

Contents see photos 3 & 4

Giovanni (Giò) Ponti (Milan, November 18, 1891 – there, September 16, 1979) was an Italian architect, writer and industrial designer.

"In his more than sixty-year career he designed furniture, household objects and buildings. Notable buildings by his hand include the Pirelli Tower in Milan (together with Pier Luigi Nervi), the Palazzo Liviano in Padua, the Denver Art Museum (North Building) and De Bijenkorf department store in Eindhoven. Because of his influence and the variety of topics across different disciplines, he is also called the 'father of modern Italian design'.

Life and career
Giovanni Ponti was born in Milan on November 18, 1891. He began studies in architecture at the Polytechnic University of Milan (Politecnico di Milano), but these were interrupted by his conscription during World War I. After graduating in 1921, he started an architectural bureau with Mino Fiocchi and Emilio Lancia. His work was first exhibited in 1923 at the Biennale of Decorative Arts in Monza, after which he became a member of the executive committee and involved in organizing the Milan Triennials. In the same year he began as artistic director at ceramic producer Manifattura Ceramica Richard Ginori, where he had a major influence on product innovation. In 1925 his works for this manufacturer were shown at the International Exposition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts where they were very well received.
With Emilio Lancia he founded Studio Ponti-Lancia in 1926. During this period Ponti's work was strongly influenced by the Novecento Italiano, an art movement aligned with the fascist ideology of Benito Mussolini. This style is evident, among other things, in the design of his private house at Via Randaccio 9 in Milan (1925) and the interior of the Palazzo Contini-Bonacossi in Florence (1931).[4]
Around 1927 a new Italian stylistic movement emerged, the Movimento Italiano per l’Architettura Razionale, Italian rationalism, which took advantage of new developments in building technology. Ponti was a proponent of this new style and had a major influence on its further development, among other things through the magazine Domus, which he founded in 1928 and wrote about design and architecture, and his involvement with the Milan Triennials.
In 1933 he began Studio Ponti-Fornaroli-Soncini with engineers Antonio Fornaroli and Eugenio Soncini. That same year he wrote the book La Casa all’Italiana ('The Italian-style house') in which he stated that Italian houses, despite stylistic renewals and changes, should not lose their Italian character. Between 1931 and 1936 he was involved in the design of the Domus houses in Milan. These houses externally had a typified Malines (Malinese?) building style, but had modern and innovative interiors where flexibility and modular furniture were central. Ponti believed the interior should adapt to the person, not the other way around. In 1936 he designed the first Palazzo Montecatini; a modern apartment building for which he was involved for the first time in both building design and interior and furniture design. That same year he was appointed professor and permanent staff member of the Faculty of Architecture at the Technical University of Milan, a position he held until 1961.
In the 1940s Ponti was less active architecturally, but focused on writing, industrial design and painting. In 1941 he left the magazine Domus he had founded and started the magazine Stile, in which he remained involved until 1947. In 1948 he became editor-in-chief of Domus again.
From the 1950s his architectural efforts increased again. During this period he travelled a lot and designed, among other things, two villas in Caracas in the mid-1950s, several government offices in Baghdad (1958) and an auditorium in the Time & Life Building (1959) in New York. The composition within his office changed in this period. After Alberto Rosselli joined in 1954, the name changed to Studio Ponti-Fornaroli-Rosselli. He remained active in his own country as well: he was responsible for the design of the Pirelli Tower (1955-1958) in Milan. The building, with 32 floors, was at that time the tallest building in Europe. In this period he was also active for the Jsa factory, where he designed textiles from 1950 to 1958.

During his career Ponti worked for more than 120 companies. He died in Milan on September 16, 1979".

Excellent condition.

Important document!!

Carefully packed with track and trace and insured shipping.

Good luck bidding!!