Gio Ponti

1891–1979 · Italian · 6 buildings on the wall

Gio Ponti (1891–1979) was an Italian architect, industrial and furniture designer, artist, teacher, writer and publisher from Milan. In 1928 he founded the magazine Domus, which he edited for most of his life, and through it and the Milan Triennial he championed Italian design. His Superleggera chair, made by Cassina from 1957, is a classic of Italian design.

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The Torre Branca in Milan (1933), first called the Littoria Tower, is a 108-metre steel tower. His best-known building, the Pirelli Tower in Milan (1960), was designed with the engineer Pier Luigi Nervi: 127 metres and 32 storeys, with a structural skeleton, curtain walls and tapered sides, it was among the first skyscrapers to give up the usual block form. In Caracas he designed one of his masterpieces, the Villa Planchart (Quinta El Cerrito) (1957), a house conceived as a work of art in a tropical garden. The Co-Cathedral of the Great Mother of God (Gran Madre di Dio) in Taranto (1970) is crowned by a tall concrete screen pierced with openings, known locally as "the sail". Gio Ponti's work is studied for joining architecture, furniture and decoration.

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