G I O P O N T I(1891 - 1979)

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E A R L Y L I F E

• BORN IN MILAN (1891).

• 1921 HE GRADUATED FROM THE MILAN UNIVERSITY .

• HE DID MILITARY SERVICE DURING WORLD WAR I WITH THE RANK OF CAPTAIN, FROM 1916 TO 1918.

• WAS AN INFLUENTIAL WRITER, PAINTER,TEACHER, INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER AS WELL AS AN ARCHITECT.

E A R L Y C A R E E R

• PONTI BECAME AN ART DIRECTOR FOR THE CERAMICS MANUFACTURER JUST AFTER HIS MILITARY SERVICE.

• IN 1923, PONTI BEGAN HIS ARCHITECTURAL CAREER ,IN PARTNERSHIP WITH MINO FIOCCHI AND EMILIO LANCIA.

• 1926 DESIGNS HIS FIRST HOUSE ON VIA RANDACCIO IN MILAN.

• IN THE MID-1930S, PONTI WON BIG COMMISSIONS FOR THE MATHEMATICS DEPT. AT ROME UNIVERSITY (1934) AND HEADQUARTERS FOR MONTECATINI (1936).

• HE DEVELOPED MODEL HOUSES CALLED THE ‘DOMUS’, WHICH LOOKED LIKE A TYPICAL MILANESE HOME FROM THE OUTSIDE, BUT FEATURED AN INNOVATIVE INTERIOR WITH FLEXIBLE SPACES AND MODULAR FURNITURE.

• THE 32 STOREY PIRELLI TOWER DESIGEND BY PONTI WAS LIKELY THE ZENITH OF PONTIS ENTIRE CAREER.

• HE WAS ALSO THE FOUNDING EDITOR OF DOMUS MAGAZINE (1928).

P H I L O S O P H Y• PONTI'S GOALS WERE THAT HIS BUILDINGS SHOULD HARMONISE

FORM WITH FUNCTION,AND BE EXAMPLES OF THE CORRECT USE OF MATERIALS.

• HE INSISTED THAT DECORATION AND MODERN IDEAS WERE NOT INCOMPATIBLE. HIS IDEAS ABOUT BLENDING THE OLD AND THE NEW DID HAVE SUPPORTERS.

• PONTI’S RATIONALIST YET DECORATIVE TENDENCY TAKES MORE AESTHETIC CUES FROM THE VIENNESE MASTERS HE ADMIRED THAN THE INTERNATIONAL STYLE.

• WANTED A MODERNISM THAT WAS PERSONAL, SITE SPECIFIC AND FUNCTIONAL, WITH A LIGHTNESS AND ELEGANCE.

• Ponti as the godfather of post-war Italian design.

• was influenced by and associated with the Milanese neoclassical Novecento Italiano movement.

• Ponti was a friend and admirer of Le Corbusier and the Bauhaus designers but was not the glass box types.

• During the 1950s, Ponti devoted more time to industrial design ,and worte in his journals "Industry is the style of the 20th century, its mode of creation,"

H O N O R S & A W A R D S• HE RECEIVED (1934) THE TITLE OF COMMANDER OF THE ROYAL

VASA ORDER IN STOCKHOLM.

• THE ART PRIZE OF THE ACCADEMIA D'ITALIA,

• AN HONORARY DOCTORATE FROM THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF ART IN LONDON.

• A GOLD MEDAL FROM THE ACADÉMIE D'ARCHITECTURE IN PARIS.

W O R K S

• VILLA PLANCHART

• PIRELLI TOWER

• DENVER ART MUSEUM