Ready to discover the story of one of the greatest protagonists of Milan‘s architectural history? We are talking about Gio Ponti, born in the Lombard capital and a cornerstone of 20th century Italian architecture and design .
After graduating from the Polytechnic with a degree in Architecture at the end of World War I, Gio Ponti in Milan immediately began to put his talents into practice: he collaborated as early as the early 1920s, with prestigious brands such as the Ginori porcelain manufacturer and curated the International Exhibitions of the Triennial and all the way to obtaining a teaching professorship at the Politecnico itself.
His unmistakable style shines through not only in architecture but also in furniture, a field for which he would start a vast production of pieces and to which the three Milanese houses he designed and lived in bear witness: the first is the one on Via Randaccio, not far from the Arco della Pace, where he went to live in 1925; the second, where he lived in the immediately following years, is Casa Laporte on Via Brin, in the area of the current Citylife district; the last, the most complete representation of the Milanese architect’s taste, is the one on Via Dezza, in which he stayed from 1957 and which is now home to the Gio Ponti Archives.
His designs were marked by the unique way in which the architect observed his hometown. Gio Ponti, in fact, argued that God had given many Italian cities something that distinguished them from others (breathtaking natural landscapes, sea, mountains), and that instead it was precisely Milan, his city, that lacked something and it was therefore up to the architects to make it unique and spectacular: an action possible, however, according to Ponti, only to lovers of the city. How can we fail to remember, moreover, one of his most famous phrases: Italy was made half by God and half by architects.
Ponti and Milanese construction in the 1930s: from the Domus to the Torre Branca
If we want to move around the city in search of the projects left behind by the well-known architect, among the first works built by Gio Ponti in Milan we find the Domus, a complex of ten houses and apartments built between 1931-1933, each named after a Roman appellation, divided between Via de Togni and Via Letizia-Caravaggio; the idea was to create a unified streetscape characterized by the typical and picturesque “colorful Italian style” oscillating between shades of ochre, green, red and brick.
This type of apartment embraces Ponti’s new philosophy of “inhabiting the home” in a different way, creating more open spaces, a technique that would also be adopted for another of his projects, Marmont House, considered the result of happy building thinking. In these buildings, apparent beauty and harmony were not enough: Ponti invited to go further, to study the floor plans and all the living details, from the gatehouses to the top floors, characterized by splendid terraces.
Instead, the ambitious project of creating a “living room in the sky” dates back to 1933: then Gio Ponti created the design of the Littoria Tower, commonly known by the Milanese as Torre Branca and known for being one of the tallest structures in the city. The beautiful panoramic terrace, which can be visited thanks to one of our guided tours, allows you to enjoy Milan from a different point of view: from above! The Tower, a very tall metal prism established in Parco Sempione, was commissioned by the City of Milan at the behest of Mussolini: it was the Duce himself who decided that the structure should not exceed 108 meters in height, so as “not to exceed the divine,” referring to the Madonnina del Duomo.
Having gained notoriety among Milanese architects, Gio Ponti in 1936 began work on the design of the First Montecatini Palace, located on the corner of Via della Moscova and Via Turati, a job that challenged him both for the grandeur of the building and for the integral high design work behind it; built in record time, in only 23 months, the building immediately became popular in Milan.
Gio Ponti and the Pirellone: history of one of Milan’s most famous skyscrapers
A few years after Gio Ponti‘s early designs in Milan, the building Pirelli in Piazza Duca d’Aosta, was commissioned by entrepreneur Alberto Pirelli from the studio of Gio Ponti, Antonio Fornaroli, and Alberto Rosselli. The year is 1956. The building represents a different era now: it is the symbol of the great economic development of the Second Postwar period. The skyscraper – in step with the growth of rebuilt European cities – reaches 127 meters in height, thus surpassing the Duomo and gaining the nickname “Pirellone” from the Milanese. For decades it was the tallest building in the entire city, surpassed only in 2010 and 2011 by the Palazzo Lombardia and the Unicredit Tower in the larger redevelopment project of the Porta Nuova district. Among the most curious aspects of the building is the flooring: together with Pirelli, Gio Ponti decided to opt for a complete covering of variegated rubber, a solution never seen before especially for an official building! The floor, bright yellow in color with white and gray “splashes” almost as if to reproduce the visual effect of marble. A highly original invention, which still confirms today, years later, the importance of Gio Ponti’s experience in Milan in the panorama of architecture and design throughout the Italian twentieth century.
