ORDINE DEGLI ARCHITETTI, FONDAZIONE DELL’ORDINE DEGLI ARCHITETTI, PIANIFICATORI, PAESAGGISTI E CONSERVATORI PIANIFICATORI, PAESAGGISTI E CONSERVATORI DELLA PROVINCIA DI MILANO DELLA PROVINCIA DI MILANO

/people Portraits of Milanese professionalism Gio Ponti

ESSAY AND TEXTS BY Fulvio Irace Manuela Leoni

ARCHIVAL MATERIAL SELECTED BY Gio Ponti Archives

Itineraries through ’s as a description of the city “Itineraries through Milan’s architecture: Modern architecture as a description of the city” is a project of the Order of Architects Planners Landscape Architects and Conservators of the Province of Milan and its Foundation.

Scientific Coordinator: Maurizio Carones

Managing director: Paolo Brambilla

Editorial staff: Alessandro Sartori, Stefano Suriano

General Manager: Giulia Pellegrino

Press Office: Ferdinando Crespi

“Gio Ponti” Fulvio Irace, Manuela Leoni

Edited by: Alessandro Sartori, Stefano Suriano, Barbara Palazzi

Archival material selected by : Gio Ponti Archives

Images courtesy of: Gio Ponti Archives, Salvatore Licitra Archivio Csac on the back cover: Gio Ponti, Chiesa di San Francesco al Fopponino, schizzo di studio, 1958-1964

The Foundation of the Order of Architects can be contacted regarding any unidentified rights for visual materials. www.ordinearchitetti.mi.it www.fondazione.ordinearchitetti.mi.it

“Milan, most modern city in the world, is the most italian thing in ”

“I love this city of mine. In everything, I see it taking an active part in that courageous movement of civilization that I love about the world and about this extraordinary era — even given its dramatic events — in which I have the good fortune to live. I love Milan where it is modern, beautiful, bold, new; and I loathe it where it has cheated modernity with vulgar constructions”. In 1957, introducing the handy guide “Milano oggi” (“Milan today”), Gio Ponti wrote a manifesto about “falling in love” with the city that represented for him, both personally and professionally, a nurturing backdrop throughout his long life, from his first work of architecture— his family’s home on Via Randaccio, Milan — to his last visions of architecture distilled to a pure sparkle of light and colour. No one better than he knew how to sum up the spirit of Milan, capture its mood and help it realise its aspirations of modernity, while at the same time channeling the ambitions of the most progressive member of the middle class towards an authenticity of expression that would never again be reached in the years following his death, at home on Via Dezza. “Modern Milan” was the slogan that summed up his eager search for a technological civilisation that could express the culture of the times, essentially equating modernity with expressive sincerity, to which he always attributed the meaning of a grass-roots revolution: starting first and foremost from individual acceptance, rather than being based on class or popular consensus, of that which Giuseppe Pagano before him had defined the “benefits of modern architecture.” Creator and founder of “Domus” magazine in 1928, it’s not

GIO PONTI surprising that Ponti had identified in the home the core of resistance around which to fight his battle for modern civilisation: to the point of using the term “domus” in reference to the long series of houses he built from the end of the twenties. They were housing prototypes conceived for an urban middle class that had given up the faux antique, repudiated all things “Milanese” and tried to speak the urbane language of Europe, following the exhortations of Edoardo Persico and Raphael Giolli. The “Italian- style” rationalist Siedlungen, Ponti’s “domus” projects introduced colours, “figures” of classical architecture (first the arch, and then the pergola), generous balconies and terraces intended for plant life, foreshadowing a position that then seemed unrealistic but now has all the characteristics of a prophecy fulfilled. The theme of the house was perhaps the real leitmotiv of Gio Ponti’s career, the common thread of his prodigious creativity, the heart of his battle for a “cultura dell’abitare” (culture of dwelling), which would find in the authenticity of spaces and furnishings a confirmation — almost religious — of the correctness of modern

VIEW FROM ABOVE OF THE TOP FLOOR OF THE RASINI TOWER IN BASTIONI DI PORTA VENEZIA (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE GIO PONTI ARCHIVES)

GIO PONTI ideas. For Ponti, houses were a laboratory where modernity became a daily practice of accepting life, and as such architects should honour them with a central place in their design practice and in their inventive efforts. From single family homes to condominiums, his choice of paths show the continuity of this commitment, revealing the architect‘s great flexibility and ability to enhance the continuity of conceptualisation without becoming a prisoner of formulas, even those that he himself had created. The Rasini apartment building and tower in the park, from this point of view, marked a turning point between Ponti’s first works done in association with Emilio Lancia and his subsequent total adherence to the tenets at the root of this new concept of architecture: rationalism. But even rationalist ideas didn’t constitute a formula for Ponti: indeed, to fully accept it, he had to go through a phase of a strict selection, which discriminated between the essential reasons underlying the freedom of living and the inevitable fascination and appeal of a style that was becoming fashionable. The Marmont house and, to an even greater extent, the house on Via Brin (where he lived for some time with his family) clearly show the elegant graphic simplification of a composition that was increasingly headed in the direction of “lightness”. Paradoxically, however, this found its first application in the severe bulk of Montecatini, a perfect work place, precise like clockwork, as clearly laid out and

VIEW OF THE LIVING ROOM IN THE LAPORTE HOUSE ON VIA BRIN (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE GIO PONTI ARCHIVES)

GIO PONTI functional as a finely-tuned machine. Here, in the design of the large windows supported by thin aluminum frames, he was able to achieve the goal of co-planarity for the first time, fusing the façade’s marble cladding, window panes and glass in the sublimely smooth, flat surface. Only after the war would the theme of “weightless windows” be completely theorised and find its application in the intensive complexes located in the heart of Milan’s historic centre (for example, the Ina building on Via San Paolo) and the first efforts to expand the nineteenth century city (the Montedoria buildings, behind the Central railway station). Fully mature masterpieces, these buildings — which belong to the same compositional family as the three religious buildings also included in our itinerary —

VIEW FROM THE BELOW OF ONE OF THE INTERNAL FAÇADE OF THE INA OFFICE BUILDING ON VIA SAN PAOLO (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE GIO PONTI ARCHIVES)

GIO PONTI mark one of the most expressive high points (although still little known) of Ponti’s propensity for compositions with light-weight walls, emptying its mass of every tectonic temptation. A prestigious commission, the techniques of repetition and variation were cleverly employed in order to transform readily-available building materials into a true demonstration of architecture that wasn’t “lazy”. Naturally, the use of ceramic tiles must also be noted. Designed by Ponti himself, the diamond-shaped relief pattern gives the building a shadowy and variable sheen as the angle of the sunshine changes throughout the day. On the importance of light in Ponti’s work — especially in his later projects, those described by in one of his

VIEW OF THE MONTEDORIA OFFICE BUILDING BETWEEN VIA DORIA AND VIA MACCHI (PHOTO BY FEDERICO BALESTRINI)

GIO PONTI last visits before his death — much has been said and a little bit has even been written. Here, let it suffice to recall its deep rooted religious implications in order to explain his obsession with it while designing the San Carlo Chapel and the churches of San Luca and San Francesco (a necessary preparation for the feat of the Co-cathedral in ). The façades are skewed like a Baroque altarpiece (a technique that had already been employed for the exotic villa Planchart in ) opening up like wings defining the churchyard. The buildings’ skin — extremely taught — takes on the cadence of a work of origami that has been gently but precisely creased, with slits and windows that guide the light inside, molding it into a variety of luminous rays slicing through the subdued atmosphere. Lastly, we come to the Pirelli skyscraper. Although it is his best-known masterpiece, its rehabilitation and rise to the high altar of architecture had to pass through the purgatory or hell of critical denigration. An oversized piece of furniture, was Bruno Zevi’s definition in Italy; the only example of modern architecture in an otherwise “Italian retreat from modern architecture,” however, by the English critic Reyner Banham. Today, no one would ever dare deny the importance of the Pirelli tower, the skyscraper with a “halo” according to Ponti, justifying the steering wheel-shaped roof. Yet, for how many decades did the unjust (and unfair) comparison to the Torre Velasca condemn the Pirelli to the limbo of indifference? Reborn after the restoration carried out between 2002 and 2004, the Pirelli is unmatched, not only by the work of BBPR, but also by the numerous awkward, tall buildings, the would-be clones that are popping up all across the skyline of the new Milan.

FULVIO IRACE

GIO PONTI PONTI FAMILY IN A HISTORIC PHOTO IN THE APARTMENT ON THE EIGHTH FLOOR OF THE BUILDING IN VIA DEZZA (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE GIO PONTI ARCHIVES)

GIO PONTI FONDAZIONE DELL’ORDINE DEGLI ARCHITETTI, PIANIFICATORI, PAESAGGISTI E CONSERVATORI DELLA PROVINCIA DI MILANO Cm.331/itinerari

Ponti House / 1924-1926 / Gio Ponti, Emilio Lancia

via Randaccio 9, Milano

The first home Ponti designed for “a decorator’s carefree exuberance” that his family, this villa — subdivided into Ferdinand Reggiori found in Ponti and apartments — was the result of a long described in the magazine “Architettura e professional association between Ponti arti decorative” as the most direct result of and Emilio Lancia that was forged in the intensive work done for Richard Ginori. Milan’s cultural circles, which at the time It was a subtle criticism that Ponti would was centred around later come to share when he recalled this and pledged to renew architecture by and other early experiences: the Bouilhet returning to its humanist dimension. villa in Garches (1925-1926), the Borletti This provided the impetus for the many house on Via San Vittore (1928) or the neoclassical elements (niches, urns, project for an Italian embassy, done in entablature, tympanum, dentils, aedicules conjunction with Tomaso Buzzi (1926). and more) standing out almost ironically “(These) buildings were really non-existent in the façades, determining its spirit of as architecture”. In them, “I was looking for

THE FAÇADE FACING VIA MASSENA THE SIDE FACING VIA RANDACCIO (IMAGE COURTESY OF GIO PONTI ARCHIVES) (IMAGE COURTESY OF GIO PONTI ARCHIVES)

GIO PONTI Ponti House / 1924-1926 / G. Ponti, E. Lancia which form, out of the pleasing forms in a 1936) — while the curved element can be pseudo stylistic repertoire, I might be able seen again with the concavity of the façade, to give them” (1955). And there was also contributing, along with the decorative the use of the obelisk, which would later elements, in tricking the eye from perceiving be described as one of Ponti’s ‘soft spots’, its true dimensions. “imposing a tone, a rhythm, a decision” that The remaining elevations, originally is alien to the nature of the project (1957). painted in sand-colored hues (like the Free-standing within the trapezoidal- main façade) with contrasting frames in shaped lot — as stipulated by an agreement green stone or concrete, betray the effort to with the Società Anonima Villini Canova, maintain absolute symmetry between the owner of the land — the four-storey building various floor plans of the apartments that is based on an oval floor plan dominated had been designed according to the needs the antechamber, which is adjacent to the of the individual owners. The traditional stairs leading to the rest of the apartments. distinction between living and sleeping Intentionally exaggerated, the stairs are out areas in each unit is accompanied by the of proportion in comparison to the rest of equally traditional use of load-bearing the plan. The living room and dining room masonry walls, which are immediately are separated solely by large sliding doors, recognisable due to their tapered widths in foreshadowing the total fusion of these two response to structural requirements. areas — which won’t actually take place MANUELA LEONI until in the houses on Via De Togni (1931-

GROUND FLOOR PLAN FIRST FLOOR PLAN (IMAGE COURTESY OF GIO PONTI ARCHIVES) (IMAGE COURTESY OF GIO PONTI ARCHIVES)

GIO PONTI FONDAZIONE DELL’ORDINE DEGLI ARCHITETTI, PIANIFICATORI, PAESAGGISTI E CONSERVATORI DELLA PROVINCIA DI MILANO Cm.332/itinerari

Apartment building / 1928-1931 / Gio Ponti, Emilio Lancia

via Domenichino 1-3, Milano

The apartment building is located forward in Ponti and Lancia’s development. between Via Domenichino and Via Monte Their traditional elements are still there, Rosa, a major artery charted in the new but it is easy to notice that they’ve been urban plan laid out near the Trade Fair. streamlined, used sparingly and only when This project shifts the focus from façade necessary. Above all, it is the massing, decoration (Via Randaccio) to volumetric stripped bare of anything superfluous, that composition, dominated by a corner tower makes the architecture: massing, materials culminating in a gazebo: an important and colours” (1930-1931). The issue of development also recognised by Reggiori, colour, introduced here for the first time, who described this building as “a real step would go on to become an important element

THE FAÇADE ON GIOVANNI AMENDOLA SQUARE (IMAGE COURTESY OF GIO PONTI ARCHIVES)

GIO PONTI Apartment building / 1928-1931 / G. Ponti, E. Lancia in the definition of the model houses on Via it must no longer represent the phenomenon De Togni (1931-1936) and Via del Caravaggio […] of decoration in conflict with the (1933-1938) and the Marmont house in economics of construction” (1933). The Piazza Novelli (1933-1936). The decorative façades, therefore, are characterised by the elements were therefore reduced to what was use of dark red dark red Terranova plaster on deemed the absolute minimum necessary a Tuscan travertine base, cladding the first to satisfy the identification needs of the two floors of the building, which is marked middle class clientele for whom the building by string-courses made of the same material. was intended. This is because the modern The tower is also underlined by the rhythm condominium — as noted by Ponti in the of the windows (shaped by boxes in natural, manifesto on the “Italian-style home” — “if scraped concrete), with a double row of well conceived in relation to its intended use, French windows that highlight the juncture between the two wings where the apartments GROUND FLOOR PLAN (IMAGE COURTESY OF CSAC are located. ARCHIVES AND GIO PONTI ARCHIVES) In plan, an interesting solution is that of the double entrance (one to the apartments, the other to the garage) separated by the space designed for the guardian’s office, that leads to two different stairwells, separate from the elevators, which lead to each apartment’s individual antechamber. Each floor has either one or two apartments, equipped with innovative engineering solutions and studied ad hoc to accommodate the buyers’ needs. And this is also thanks to the structural system that mixed masonry bearing walls and reinforced concrete floor slabs, lightened by brick inserts, resting on a pile foundation that allowed greater freedom in the layout of the interior dividing walls. The building was constructed by the Milanese company Severo Puricelli.

MANUELA LEONI

GIO PONTI FONDAZIONE DELL’ORDINE DEGLI ARCHITETTI, PIANIFICATORI, PAESAGGISTI E CONSERVATORI DELLA PROVINCIA DI MILANO Cl.333/itinerari

Domus Aurelia, Flavia, Livia, Onoria e Serena / 1933-1938 / Gio Ponti

via del Caravaggio 25, via Letizia, Milano

The four buildings constructed on Via series of green spaces that acted as a filter Caravaggio were part of a larger study between each building and the surrounding addressing the issue of producing modern public space, intended for pedestrian and housing on a large scale, a subject that vehicular traffic. It was the row house model Ponti had previously had the opportunity to “influenced in part by the experiments explore with such experimental projects as promoted by radical architects in Germany, the Domus series: Julia, Carola and Fausta about which specific criticism was proffered on Via De Togni (1931-1936) and Adele on by the young Griffin, precisely in ‘Domus’”, Viale Coni Zugna (1934-1935). (Irace, 1988, p. 77). This common conception The buildings were conceived as a is also demonstrated by the recurring use of neighbourhood unit, inspired by the street- elements such as balconies, terraces, plate garden concept. This lead to designing a glass windows — albeit custom designed for

PLAN OF AN APARTAMENT IN THE DOMUS ONORIA THE FAÇADES OF THE DOMUS ON VIA LETIZIA IN A VINTAGE (IMAGE COURTESY OF GIO PONTI ARCHIVES) PHOTO (IMAGE COURTESY OF GIO PONTI ARCHIVES)

GIO PONTI Domus Aurelia, Flavia, Livia, Onoria e Serena / 1933-1938 / G. Ponti each group of buildings — that were taken Domus Livia, the first to be completed, from characteristics of consolidated Italian acts as the entrance to the complex since it tradition and recur throughout all of Ponti’s faces both Via Letizia and Via del Caravaggio. projects until the end of World War II. Here, the façade is characterised by a row of The economic issues that had horizontal windows, framed by projecting emerged previously with the house on Via balconies, pertaining to a room that could be Domenichino are now joined by concerns annexed to the adjacent living room of either for the ethical and social requirements of the apartment on the left or on the right a dwelling, intended as a place that must The same spatial solution was adopted meet contemporary man’s needs. The effects for Domus Serena, whose front entrance, of these new ways of thinking can be seen however, has a vertical rhythm set up by in both the service areas — laid out to be a double row of loggias stacked on top of as space saving as possible — and in the each other that, in the original version living room, enriched by built-in furniture of the project, would have culminated in that also defines the division of the space obelisks, which were never actually built. into functional areas, a recurring theme in The same is true for the rounded stucco all of Ponti’s Domus projects. The built-in silhouettes — introduced in an alternative closets, glass cabinets and bookcases were proposal to address allegations by the also joined by the invention of the so-called Building Commission that the building was “window-cabinet” (finestra vetrina) (the excessively bare — that will never be applied forerunner of the “furnished window” to the surface of the walls. (finestra arredata) in the houses of the The two Domus, Onoria and Flavia, also fifties), which, in the rooms overlooking both have an ‘L’-shaped plan and a façade on balconies, transforms the space below the Via Letizia characterised by a contemporary window sill into a functional element with reinterpretation of the quadrifora motif, multiple possibilities. overlooking the terraces. But if in the first Although displaying certain shared house this same motif is softened by the characteristics, from the use of modest introduction of an arched frame for the materials such as coloured plaster — the lateral windows, the second is further “upbeat Italian spirit” already described in simplified by returning to a straight line that the homes on Via De Togni (1933) — to fewer dominates the entire elevation, also due to volumetric and typological variations, every the introduction of string-courses in klinker. Domus on Via Caravaggio still retains its MANUELA LEONI own ‘soul’.

GIO PONTI FONDAZIONE DELL’ORDINE DEGLI ARCHITETTI, PIANIFICATORI, PAESAGGISTI E CONSERVATORI DELLA PROVINCIA DI MILANO Cm.153/itinerari

Rasini House and Tower / 1933-1934 / Gio Ponti, Emilio Lancia

bastioni di porta Venezia 1, corso venezia 61, Milano

The complex was built in an area of gardens, from which to seems to rise. This prime real estate that was opened up for results in the classical and traditional spirit development by the demolition of the of the first building — completely clad in ramparts and intended for Milan’s upper horizontal courses of precious white marble, middle class. It is composed of two distinct punctuated by the dialectical relationship buildings, each responding to specific needs, between solid and void (the windows) — and depending on the particular condition of the the almost picturesque aura of the tower, urban fabric in which it was inserted. The which becomes a landmark on the skyline, cubic, shorter volume overlooking Corso thanks to the choice of finely-grained Venezia, in fact, addresses the reality of being masonry infill organised in horizontal bands a townhouse, while the slender tower is corresponding to the height of the various articulated in an elaborate volumetric play of floors. The taller building also provides terraces and views onto the neighbouring city an opportunity to reflect on the new city,

VIEW OF THE COMPLEX IN THE URBAN CONTEXT (IMAGE COURTESY OF GIO PONTI ARCHIVES)

GIO PONTI Rasini House and Tower / 1933-1934 / G. Ponti, E. Lancia conceived as the successful integration of inventions that are extremely comfortable urban design and architectural form thanks and make for a serene home; they are also to the terraces, which go beyond the private so thoroughly Italian that they go by their dimension to become elements of the Italian names in every language around the urban landscape. Inspired by the idea of Le globe” (1928). The terrace, a veritable open- Corbusier’s Radiant City, this urban pattern air living room, becomes a point of contact is also, however, the most vivid expression between indoors and outdoors, even when of the Italian-style home, in which “there is circumstances forced the adoption a more no great distinction between indoors and traditional language. This is demonstrated outdoors [...] here, exterior architecture is by the belvedere (complete with hanging brought inside [...]. From the interior, the gardens, arches, pergolas, verandas and Italian-style home leads once again to the a swimming pool) that Ponti and Lancia exterior, with its porticoes and its terraces designed for the roof of the shorter building, with pergolas and verandas, with loggias and protected by a balustrade, which was turned balconies, roof terraces and belvederes, all into a planter. The reinforced concrete post and beam structural system that was THE TWO BUILDINGS’ VOLUMES (PHOTO BY LUCA D’ALESSIO) adopted for both buildings is evident in the corner windows and in the tower’s bow windows that project toward the Bastioni di Porta Venezia. A modern interpretation of a buttress, this semi-cylindrical element is topped by a pergola that hints at the theme of the relationship with the park and at the same time marks the entrance of the building, designed as three splayed portals. Access to the shorter building is located on Corso Venezia and was designed as a double opening, surmounted by a pattern of windows similar — although much richer — to the one already adopted in the central portion of the Domus Flavia. The complex is the last project Ponti worked on together with Emilio Lancia.

MANUELA LEONI

GIO PONTI FONDAZIONE DELL’ORDINE DEGLI ARCHITETTI, PIANIFICATORI, PAESAGGISTI E CONSERVATORI DELLA PROVINCIA DI MILANO Cm.334/itinerari

Laporte House / 1935-1938 / Gio Ponti, Antonio Fornaroli, Eugenio Soncini

via Brin 12, Milano

The building on Via Brin is the period house. Service areas such as culmination of a series of reflections that garages, basements, laundry and common Ponti carried out on the notion of housing central heating system were located in the throughout the Thirties (to the point that it basement, while the ground floor contained was even selected to represent the ‘model the decentralised entrance with the stairwell housing’ category at the VI Triennale). for all the units as well as access to the Furthermore, it represents the closest garden. Each floor has a different layout, Ponti’s architecture ever came to the but all the rooms are arranged around a principles of rationalism. The house was central atrium that leads to the sleeping divided into three different apartments, areas on one side — isolated by a hallway the last of which — a two-storey model containing built-in closets and other — was the architect’s home for a short furniture integrated into the structure of the

VIEW OF THE FAÇADE ALONG VIA BRIN (IMAGE COURTESY OF GIO PONTI ARCHIVES)

GIO PONTI Laporte House / 1935-1938 / G. Ponti, A. Fornaroli, E. Soncini house — and to the living area on the other, cantilevered canopies that cover the entrance in which we witness the complete merger and the central portion of the façade, devoid of the living and dining rooms into one vast of any cornice. All rooms are furnished with space, a concept already foreshadowed in built-in cabinets and bookcases, as well as the Domus on Via De Togni (1931-1936). ‘windows cabinets’, which were intended to On the top floor, this area of the two-storey realise the new, middle-class house to the apartment is in direct communication fullest: “it is no longer a matter of upholstery with the conservatory and outdoor terrace, or arrangement or design of the furniture, inspired by ’s theories on rather it is the composition of spaces, the roof-garden and accompanied by the objects in space, light and colour. [...] You presence of a pool of water, a patch of sand can say that the rooms of this house haven’t and a vegetable garden hidden behind the been “furnished”, nor will they be in the façades, which extend beyond the last floor normal sense of the word. They can be freely to enclose the roof terrace This area can arranged in the lives of the people according still be seen thanks to a large rectangular to their comfort and likes and moods... and opening on the main façade, which seems with things — furniture, books, magazines, to foreshadow the theme of the windows souvenirs, some art objects — that belong opening up towards the sky developed in the intimately, directly, to their lives.” (1937). second phase of Ponti’s career (especially in MANUELA LEONI ecclesiastical projects). The exterior façades were conceived as GROUND FLOOR PLAN (IMAGE COURTESY OF CSAC ARCHIVES AND GIO PONTI ARCHIVES) smooth surfaces on which the openings, surrounded by a artificial stone flush with the walls, are arranged in an almost haphazard fashion, only following the logic of each unit’s internal layout, a concept close to rationalist principles of façade design and fenestration. In this way, the façade facing the inner garden is enhanced by a series of windows of various sizes to enjoy the view, while the main façade on Via Brin is concluded in a balanced dialogue between the vast glazed vertical area that illuminates the stairs, the three round windows and the

GIO PONTI FONDAZIONE DELL’ORDINE DEGLI ARCHITETTI, PIANIFICATORI, PAESAGGISTI E CONSERVATORI DELLA PROVINCIA DI MILANO Cm.136/itinerari

Ponti House / 1956-1957 / Gio Ponti, Antonio Fornaroli, Alberto Rosselli

via Dezza 49, Milano

The house on Via Dezza, Ponti’s last building’s rhythm. The size and layout of residence where he lived with his family on the apartments on each floor, according the eighth floor, represented the sum total to original concept of the project, could be of his reflections on housing and lifestyle for customised and organised to meet each the modern age, faithfully adhering to its occupants’ needs. Homeowners were also spatial inventions. offered the opportunity to decide the texture Built on a lot where the architect had and colour of their apartment’s windows, previously maintained his design studio — a helping to determine a ‘spontaneous’ image vast open-space, located in a garage — the for the building (1956). building’s street façade was developed Each unit was conceived as a large, vertically, made up of layers stacked single room; only the service areas on the on top on one another, establishing the north side were separated by walls. In the

THE FAÇADE ON VIA DEZZA WITH ITS LIVELY PLAY OF STUDY PLAN OF THE PONTI FAMILY’S APARTMENT COLOURS (PHOTO BY STEFANO SURIANO) (IMAGE COURTESY OF GIO PONTI ARCHIVES)

GIO PONTI Ponti House / 1956-1957 / G. Ponti, A. Fornaroli, A. Rosselli case of the apartment designed by architect from the wall), table-top paintings and for his own family, this open plan would be windows, used as a support for bookcases extended to encompass even the bedrooms and self-supporting shelves. In this way, and study that finally realized the notion of the pattern of each opening becomes a an uninterrupted, continuous open plan, “furnished window” (“finestra arredata”) reinforced by a uniform expanse flooring, that establishes the boundary between the clad in ceramic tiles with diagonal stripes. private areas and the landscape “so that The spaces of the house, which could ‘from the inside’ the outside is always seen be closed off only when needed thanks through the top shelves of the furniture. to movable walls called “modernfold”, And therein lies its charm” (1954). Chairs, were accompanied by “fully-equipped tables and beds were designed as a set headboards” (“testiere cruscotto”, complete and the apartment’s identity as a domestic with shelves, drawers, lights, etc.), space is consigned to the use of ceramics, “self-illuminating” furniture (detached paintings or travel souvenirs. Ponti’s focus also concentrated on the

THE FAÇADE ON VIA DEZZA IN A VINTAGE PHOTO need to design buildings according to the (IMAGE COURTESY OF GIO PONTI ARCHIVES) inherent differences between how they were seen by day compared to the way they were perceived at night. This, in turn, arose from contemporary architecture’s predilection for large expanses of glass, making it both transparent and reflective that required finding a balance between these two possible interpretations, because, if by day the façades are mainly seen as opaque surfaces, at night the reverse is true “with completely different visual relationships in terms of the rooms and the façade design, with the abolition of plastic and relief (i.e. negating its three-dimensionality)” (1956).

MANUELA LEONI

GIO PONTI FONDAZIONE DELL’ORDINE DEGLI ARCHITETTI, PIANIFICATORI, PAESAGGISTI E CONSERVATORI DELLA PROVINCIA DI MILANO Cm.335/itinerari

Montecatini Office Buildings/ 1936-1938, 1947-1951 / Gio Ponti, Antonio Fornaroli, Eugenio Soncini

via Moscova 2, largo Donegani 2, Milano

Built in separate decades on two lots The first building, located on a facing each other across Via Turati, the trapezoidal-shaped site, was divided into buildings for Montecatini were designed as a three distinct volumes of varying heights that unified, modern complex to accommodate all formed an ‘H’ in plan and were set back from the administrative offices of the Milan-based Via Moscow to create an area for parking. company, a manufacturer of materials such The entire complex — described by Ponti as aluminium and marble that Ponti will as one of the first examples of an architect incorporate in the building’s construction, being submissive in regards to a commission conceived as a 1:1 scale model of potential (1957) — stemmed from a careful analysis offered by Italy’s industry. of the minimum size necessary for a

VINTAGE PHOTO OF THE AREA AROUND LARGO DONEGANI ONTO WHICH THE TWO MONTECATINI COMPLEXES OVERLOOK (IMAGE COURTESY OF GIO PONTI ARCHIVES)

GIO PONTI Montecatini Office Buildings/ 1936-1938, 1947-1951 / G. Ponti, A. Fornaroli, E. Soncini workspace, consisting of desks for four architectural language during the fifties, the employees and connected to energy supplies concept of finite form, unalterable because and communication systems, including self-conclusive. cutting-edge equipment (such as air The second building, built fifteen years conditioning, a telephone switchboard and after the first on a lot across the street, pneumatic tubes) making it an emblem of maintained some of the previous project’s modernity in Milan. Indeed, the building compositional principles, even though — as was praised by both Curzio Malaparte and Piero Bottoni observed — “compared to the Giuseppe Pagano, who defined it “a lesson in external form of the neighbouring building, bold expressive independence with its fully it seems overwhelmed by the opulence and up-to-date architecture” (1939), designed ostentatious flashiness of the materials” down to the smallest detail, from the sheet (1954). He was referring to the Apuan metal desks to the chairs in anticorodal marble cladding of the exteriors facing the aluminium; from the partitions, the street and the white mosaic tiles used for luminous signing and washroom facilities the façades on the courtyard. Once again, to the lift cabins and much more. The two lateral volumes are united through a uninterrupted vertical surfaces of the façades significantly taller central structure, which have aluminum window frames that are is set back from the street to form, this time, perfectly flush with cladding in green Apuan Here, too, a tall element connecting two marble, cut the against the grain to achieve shorter volumes is set back from the street, the special, so-called “stormy” effect. And this time forming a small public square no longer are the buildings crowned with leading to a public gallery where Montecatini obelisks, like his idea for the houses of the products were on display. The complex, twenties; now a row of aluminum rods rise however, is closed off by a fourth wing, on top of the slightly-concave central portion confirming the urban planning scheme for of the building facing Via Moscova. the site, which called for the development of Severely damaged by the bombings of a city block surrounding an inner courtyard. World War II, the first Montecatini building Overlooking Via Montebello, this portion was partially rebuilt and a floor was added of the project has a very different character at the behest of the company president, from the others, with the façade charcterised Donegani, despite Ponti’s manifest by horizontal bands and animated by slightly opposition. As a result of this episode, protruding elements. the architect began reflecting on what MANUELA LEONI would later become one of the tenets of his

GIO PONTI FONDAZIONE DELL’ORDINE DEGLI ARCHITETTI, PIANIFICATORI, PAESAGGISTI E CONSERVATORI DELLA PROVINCIA DI MILANO Cm.026/itinerari

Pirelli Skyscraper / 1952-1961 / G. Ponti, A. Fornaroli, A. Rosselli, G. Valtolina, E. Dell’Orto, A. Danusso, P. L. Nervi

piazza Duca d’Aosta 3, Milano

The Pirelli skyscraper is certainly one of backlit bands, which emphasize the beams the buildings that best exemplifies Ponti’s in contrast with the opacity of the ceiling reflections on the notion of finite form and panels. The most obvious changes to the the need to integrate art and technology (i.e. project, however, can be found in the design form and structure), a concept repeatedly of the roof — which in this case, is detached expressed by both Ponti — already in the from the top floor, leaving the culmination thirties — and . of the structural system visible — and to A native of Sondrio, a town in northern the façade’s curtain wall, which was pushed Italy, Nervi joined the design team in 1954 along with Arturo Danusso, lending VIEW OF THE BUILDING FROM PIAZZA DUCA D’AOSTA (PHOTO BY STEFANO SURIANO) his engineering expertise to the planning of the Milanese tower. Consequently, although the final solution had already been prepared, it underwent fundamental changes responsible for the successful outcome of the building, which received accolades in specialist publications from around the world. The tower stands on a plinth that covers the entire surface of the site and houses both the technical areas and an impressive auditorium. The latter is characterised by beams, which have a variably-sized rectangular cross section, that are woven together to form diamond- shaped bays, illustrating Ponti’s affection for the rhombus, in this case applied to the structure itself. The load bearing framework — very similar to that designed by Ponti and Nervi around the same time for the Lerici Foundation in (1952-1959), — is perfectly integrated with the hall’s finished ceiling system, ordered by transparent and

GIO PONTI Pirelli Skyscraper / 1952-1961 / Ponti, Fornaroli, Rosselli, Valtolina, Dell’Orto, Danusso, Nervi back flush with the columns, allowing their close off the lifts, pierced by their shafts, structural tapering to be visible: as loads which once again is an interpretation of decrease, so too does the cross-section. the correct relationship between form and Based in plan on an elongated diamond structure: in this portion of the elevation shape, its tips have been splayed offering a they are not load bearing and should not glimpse into the building’s inner workings, be visually confused with the ceramic-clad and revealing its bi-valve configuration “tips”, which function statically as pylons both in plan and structurally (solved with a and therefore are closed for their full height. mere four bearing walls, “like a butterfly”). The process of perfecting the project is Paradoxically, this central gap actually acts fully described by Ponti, who referred to as a fulcrum around which the building it as easy and natural, having found a full is organised. This is even more evident understanding with Nervi, “the simplicity at night, when the skyscraper becomes achieved is not the result of simplification, a paradigmatic example of the discourse but rather of a structural invention, to on illuminated architecture, a notion the point it being identified with the previously addressed in the house on Via architecture without any elements being Dezza (1956-1957). Appearing on the rear added gratuitously” (1956). façade of the skyscraper is a “trellis pattern” MANUELA LEONI — as defined by Ponti — of the walls that

A TYPICAL FLOOR PLAN (IMAGE COURTESY OF ARCHIVE CSAC AND GIO PONTI ARCHIVES)

GIO PONTI FONDAZIONE DELL’ORDINE DEGLI ARCHITETTI, PIANIFICATORI, PAESAGGISTI E CONSERVATORI DELLA PROVINCIA DI MILANO Cm.143/itinerari

Church of San Luca Evangelista / 1955-1961 / Gio Ponti, Antonio Fornaroli, Alberto Rosselli

via Ampère 75, Milano

Located in the Città Studi district, the tapering off towards the altar. The entire church of San Luca is a small, two-story construction is based on the dialectic building situated above street level on a between structure and bearing loads: the raised platform and accessible via a short roof and the façades are bent in order to staircase. Begun in 1959, it was built to reveal their role as simple infill. accommodate the parish that had been Ponti’s first work of sacred established a few years earlier. Originally architecture in Milan, it turned into a housed in a small room in an apartment kind of experimental laboratory for all on Via Jommelli, the modest space his reflections on the Catholic church, consisted of the temporary chapel — able to which were then further developed and accommodate up to seventy people — the honed in the projects ranging from the archive and the priest’s home. Church of San Francesco al Fopponino The church is rectangular in plan, and Santa Maria Annunciata in the San

LONGITUDINAL SECTION OF THE CHURCH (IMAGE COURTESY OF ARCHIVE CSAC AND GIO PONTI ARCHIVES)

GIO PONTI Church of San Luca Evangelista / 1955-1961 / G. Ponti, A. Fornaroli, A. Rosselli

Carlo Hospital to the co-cathedral of by crystalline shapes, recalling the form of a Taranto. The front entrance, protected hut and bordered by transparent windows. by a massive cantilever and side walls, is The liturgical space is concentrated in a tilted slightly inward around a glass-filled central nave with a gabled roof and two slit, which marks the axis of symmetry of side aisles, closed by a trapezoidal apse. the façade, which is clad in grey tiles that The structure can also be understood from are either flat or have a diamond pattern the interior’s spatial volume, with two rows in relief. The façade carries the cross motif of exposed, tapered, reinforced concrete represented by a group of bronze sculptures pillars that increase in section rising up suspended to the side of the left portal, towards the structural node where the establishing a dialogue with the statue of beams converge. The soffit of the roof, the Redeemer, a work by Carlo Paganini. painted blue, contrasts with the pure white The secondary entrances are framed by of the walls. tall glass enclosures, while the main one is Natural light comes in through marked by a wooden doorway characterised numerous stained glass windows — placed along the sides of the church — and the PLAN (IMAGE COURTESY OF ARCHIVE CSAC AND GIO PONTI vertical slit that marks the façade facing ARCHIVES) the churchyard, but especially from the insertion of a narrow strip in glass blocks, visually separating the vertical surface of the cantilevered roof produce a feeling of suspension that resembles Le Corbusier’s solution for the chapel at Ronchamp. Parish halls, meeting rooms and spaces for recreational activities have been located in the basement in order to take full advantage of the small size of the available lot. Recently, the church has undergone maintenance, the removal of architectural barriers and the courtyard was completely repaved.

MANUELA LEONI

GIO PONTI FONDAZIONE DELL’ORDINE DEGLI ARCHITETTI, PIANIFICATORI, PAESAGGISTI E CONSERVATORI DELLA PROVINCIA DI MILANO Cm.144/itinerari

Church of San Francesco d’Assisi al Fopponino / 1958-1964 / Gio Ponti, Antonio Fornaroli, Alberto Rosselli

via Paolo Giovio 41, Milano

The church of San Francesco, form, recalling — in an explicit fashion commissioned as part of a programme to — the site plan that had already adopted build twenty-two works in celebration of the for the Pirelli skyscraper. The distinctive Second Vatican Council, was part of a very element of the project is that the façade on dense urban fabric within which Ponti tried Via Giovio extends beyond the confines of to isolate the sacred structure by placing the building and connects the church itself a small, public square in front of it. The to the adjacent parish buildings, allowing building has an asymmetrical, hexagonal Ponti to organize a sort of urban stage plan, which invokes the concept of the finite for religious rites. The elevation has four

CROSS SECTIONAL DRAWING AND A DETAIL OF THE ALTAR (IMAGE COURTESY OF ARCHIVE CSAC AND GIO PONTI ARCHIVES)

GIO PONTI Church of San Francesco d’Assisi al Fopponino / 1958-1964 / G. Ponti, A. Fornaroli, A. Rosselli windows opening towards the sky. Their was also extended to the façades of the arrangement reiterates his favorite motif, attached parish buildings, successfully the diamond shape, which can also be seen creating an effect that seemingly expands in the central openings inserted into the the space, invoking the concept of building’s massive walls. Completed by illusionism, understood as a transposition windows designed by Christoforo De Amicis — for true works of art — of material values in the seventies, these thin, vertical slits into optical illusions. For the church of San create an interesting pattern of light and Francesco, Giovanni Muzio also drafted a shadow across the entire interior elevation, project in 1958 and documented by a model. accentuated by the diamond-pattern relief MANUELA LEONI of the ceramic tile cladding that creates a lively play of reflections. Inside, the same spatial order that had already been adopted in the church of San Luca was used once again, with a wide nave flanked by two aisles, from which the main space is separated thanks to the row of SITE PLAN OF THE COMPLEX (IMAGE COURTESY OF ARCHIVE CSAC AND GIO PONTI ARCHIVES) pillars in reinforced concrete with a variable cross-section, that, tapering, join the beams of the gable roof. As with the temple of San Luca, the spaces designed for parish activities are located in the basement and all the furniture, even the sacred vessels and liturgical vestments (in the manner of Henry van de Velde) were designed by Ponti, who also oversaw the definition of artistic and decorative elements, personally designing a Way of the Cross in wrought iron. Taken together, these elements contribute greatly to the realisation the concept of a total work of art, as set out by many Art Nouveau artists and architects. The motif of diamond-shaped windows

GIO PONTI FONDAZIONE DELL’ORDINE DEGLI ARCHITETTI, PIANIFICATORI, PAESAGGISTI E CONSERVATORI DELLA PROVINCIA DI MILANO Cm.336/itinerari

Church of San Carlo Borromeo, part of the Hospital / 1964-1969 / Gio Ponti, Antonio Fornaroli, Alberto Rosselli

via San Pio II, Milano

The church — known today as Santa entrances. Placed on the long, north Maria Annunciata — stands on property and south façades, they are preceded by pertaining to the San Carlo Hospital in stairs that frame the portals, composed Milan. A covered walkway connects it of four arches surmounted by triangular directly to the hospital’s west wing, near pediments. Four hexagonal chapels, covered the rear entrance. It is also accessible, pavilion-style, have been placed at the independent from the hospital complex, rear façade, accessed through an atrium from Via San Giusto. that functions as a connecting hub to the The building, once again based on a hospital. lozenge-shaped plan, has two different As with the church of San Francesco,

PIANTA DI STUDIO E PROSPETTO DEL FRONTE SUD (IMMAGINE GENTILMENTE CONCESSA DA ARCHIVIO CSAC E GIO PONTI ARCHIVES)

GIO PONTI Church of San Carlo Borromeo, part of the Hospital / 1964-1969 / G. Ponti, A. Fornaroli, A. Rosselli the diamond shape can be seen in both the on twenty-two pillars. Taken as a whole, windows that punctuate the façades, and in the structural system establishes a colour the tile cladding (produced by the Milanese contrast with the interior walls, which are company Ceramics Joo). This time, whitewashed. however, it does not invade the reinforced Natural lighting is augmented both by concrete structure — left exposed on both the large stained-glass window designed by the interior and the exterior of the church Ponti and Zuccheri over the north portal — and, actually, gives way to flat tiles in the (created by Venini Murano), and the many designs surrounding the windows. slits in the south façade, screened on the The pitched roof is entirely covered with interior by a series of oak louvres — by large sheets of copper and supported by a Father Costantino Ruggeri — on which the truss system in exposed concrete resting Hospital’s Saints are depicted. Describing the building, Ponti wrote of how “the chapel PLANIMETRIA GENERALE (IMMAGINE GENTILMENTE ‘appears’ bigger than it is; thinner than it is; CONCESSA DA ARCHIVIO CSAC E GIO PONTI ARCHIVES) lighter, in the sunshine, than it is; changing colours and reflections... the illusionism and the reality of works of art”(1966). The two long façades are distinguished by their respective roles in how the building is viewed, whether during the day or at night when the church of San Carlo becomes a self-illuminated architecture. The altar area, elevated along with the terminal portion of the hall, is marked by a concrete backdrop on which stands a sculpture of three crosses. Designed to accommodate seating for up to six hundred parishioners, the chapel also has a basement, divided into two auditoriums and the crypt.

MANUELA LEONI

GIO PONTI FONDAZIONE DELL’ORDINE DEGLI ARCHITETTI, PIANIFICATORI, PAESAGGISTI E CONSERVATORI DELLA PROVINCIA DI MILANO Cm.337/itinerari

Building for the Istituto Nazionale Assicurazioni / 1963- 1967 / Gio Ponti, Antonio Fornaroli, Alberto Rosselli

via San Paolo 7, Milano

The building on Via San Paolo is the building regulations with the principles second project that Ponti designed for INA, related to the concepts of decorum and the National Insurance Institute. Already representation that came to bear on the in the late thirties/early forties, he had masterplan. Axes of symmetry, overhangs been commissioned to design an apartment and ledges, frames and windows, all had to building that would have been constructed contribute — just as much as the obelisks on Via Manin as part of a real estate that topped the building, like those in the development planned for via Palestro. project for villa Marzotto in Valdagno The same as it had been for the buildings (1936) or the following “house with three in Piazza San Babila from the same obelisks”, (1947) as well as the house on Via period, the attempt was to reconcile the Randaccio (1924-1926) — to the creation

THE STREET THAT CROSSES THE LOT AND CONNECTS VIA AGNELLO AND VIA SAN PAOLO IN A VINTAGE PHOTO (IMAGE COURTESY OF GIO PONTI ARCHIVES)

GIO PONTI Building for the Istituto Nazionale Assicurazioni / 1963-1967 / G. Ponti, A. Fornaroli, A. Rosselli of a volumetric scheme able to orchestrate image of an entire city. The alternation the architectural rhythm of the entire between the voids (the windows) — construction. concentrated at the base of the building and Here, too, the focus was on the thinning out as one rises — and solid areas fenestration, detailing flush windows — produces, in reality, the effect of reflecting thus eliminating the weight and thickness skylight onto what Ponti considered were of the building’s exterior finish — arranged the walls of the street, the raw material in an ever-changing layout. “Why settle that makes up the urban landscape. The for aligning equally-spaced windows that resulting shininess is augmented by the use are all the same size?” asked Ponti, as he of his beloved ceramics (both flat or with a proceeded to reshape the façade of this diamond relief pattern), illuminating the office complex as a paradigmatic example narrow streets of “smoky” Milan. of harmonic rhythms able to improve the In this way, the façades take on a key role in the project, being broken down into ten short spans marked by white, exposed- THE FAÇADE ON VIA AGNELLO (IMAGE COURTESY OF GIO PONTI ARCHIVES) concrete pillars. A continuous copper awning runs the length of the building above the shop windows, emphasising the transparent base upon which the entire building rests. The two upper levels are framed by a long string course, interrupted by the sole protruding element consisting of a continuous ribbon window straddling the pillars placed near the entrance driveway. The composition concludes with the top floor, which set back from the main façade.

MANUELA LEONI

GIO PONTI FONDAZIONE DELL’ORDINE DEGLI ARCHITETTI, PIANIFICATORI, PAESAGGISTI E CONSERVATORI DELLA PROVINCIA DI MILANO Cm.020/itinerari

Montedoria Building / 1964-1970 / Gio Ponti, Antonio Fornaroli, Alberto Rosselli

via Pergolesi 25, Milano

The process of designing the building different surface treatments for each for Montedoria’s offices began in 1963 with buildings’ exterior; the rhythms of the lower the presentation of a preliminary project structure’s fenestration were designed by Ponti’s studio. The proposal was to according to traditional window placement. construct a fifty-metre tall tower flanked The final configuration in plan, however, by a four-storey building along the street, was based on a single building. Divided similar to the massing of the Rasini house. into two wings that were placed along Vetoed by the Building Commission that the sides of the triangular lot and grafted judged its height excessive, it envisioned together forming a wedge, each façade was

THE COMPLEX SEEN FROM THE INTERSECTION OF VIA MACCHI AND VIA PERGOLESI (IMAGE COURTESY OF GIO PONTI ARCHIVES)

GIO PONTI Montedoria Building / 1964-1970 / G. Ponti, A. Fornaroli, A. Rosselli approached as if independent and bestowed with considerable lightness. The constraints with its own compositional autonomy. imposed by building regulations — those The long façades are characterised by a play that had prevented the vertical solution of protrusions and recesses, punctuated by — lead the designers to opt for a structure the ceramic cladding which, in this case, full of movement. Only a few years later, has four variations, including one which the events will be remembered by Ponti: resorted to the use of a flat surface. The tiles “When, in the city, a building’s façade is were arranged to form a very rich texture determined by external, non-architectural and kept flush with the aluminum window factors (financial reasons, building codes...), frames — as previously seen in the INA you reduce it to a sequence of properly- building — in order to bring the sky in this dimensioned partitions, façades without the area of the city as well. façade... a rhythm is achieved ” (1981). The narrow façade, however, presents MANUELA LEONI a different language, focusing on the use of full height glazing that embues it visually

THE PROTRUSIONS AND RECESSES ON THE FAÇADE IN VIA ANDREA DORIA (PHOTO BY FABIO BERTOLA)

GIO PONTI PEOPLE Portraits of Milanese professionalism other itineraries in the series on www.ordinearchitetti.mi.it

Aldo Rossi e Milano Alberto Ferlenga, Massimo Ferrari

Asnago e Vender Massimo Novati

Carlo De Carli a Milano Gianni Ottolini, Claudio Camponogara, Elena Demartini

Figini e Pollini Giacomo Polin

Franco Albini e Milano Stefano Poli, Carlo Venegoni

Giovanni Muzio Annegret Burg

Giulio Minoletti e Milano Maria Cristina Loi

Il segreto dell’Assoluto: Francesco Somaini e Milano Paolo Campiglio

Lo studio BBPR e Milano Paolo Brambilla, Stefano Guidarini, Luca Molinari

Luigi Caccia Dominioni Alberto Gavazzi, Marco Ghilotti

Piero Bottoni: la dimensione civile della bellezza Giancarlo Consonni, Graziella Tonon

Piero Portaluppi Stefano Poli

Vico Magistretti Fulvio Irace, Federico Ferrari

Vittoriano Viganò Roberto Rizzi, Marta Averna