Gio Ponti: Early Activities of Design in His Career: Toward

Gio Ponti: Early Activities of Design in His Career:
Toward ‘Rationalism’ and the Idea ‘Good Taste’
Naoko Hirai
In the 1920’s and 30’s Gio Ponti thought out designs of apartment houses for the middle classes in the city and
tried to create economical and ‘standard’ furniture. He had the critical mind common to other great architects in the
1920’s and until today he has been said to have got close to ‘rationalism’ stylistically in the mid 1930’s. But it
seems that he did not totally sympathize with this ‘rationalistic’ style. He didn’t go to ‘prototype’ all composed by
abstract forms and ‘rationalism’ according to structure like Le Corbusier and the ‘rationalistic’ group in Italy. At the
same time he praised ‘pre-rationalistic’ Josef Hoffmann and Wiener Werkstätte using the words ‘good taste’ in
highest praise of them. It can be said that Ponti was more or less influenced by them. Therefore in those days he
valued decorative patterns and variety in materials and lead himself to an original interpretation of form of facade.
Keywords: Gio Ponti, Rationalism, 1920’s and 30’s, Le Corbusier, Josef Hoffmann
was quite different from designers of a generation
Introduction
before, like William Morris and other artists of the
Until today the early works of Gio Ponti in the
movement Arts and Crafts, Josef Hoffmann and
1920’s and 30’s have been questioned as to
Koloman Moser. Ponti tried to create excellent
whether they were ‘classical’ or ‘rationalistic’. It
designs, adjusting to outside conditions. Ponti
seems that preceding studies reached an agreement
thought, in the early days, that good design was
upon that his works from the 20’s to the early 30’s
useful, easy to use, economical and in ‘good taste’.
were ‘classical’ and the ones after that time were
And in the latter days after the Second World War
‘rationalistic’. So they interpreted him as slowly
he would take a pure and complete form like a
getting close to modernism. Obviously in the
hexagon and use it repeatedly as we see in the plan
history of architecture and design he is not
for the <Pirelli Building> (Milan, 1956).
avant-garde and sometimes he is called an eclectic.
In fact Ponti was tolerant of various styles, as he
was good in his role of cultural organizer, such as
director
of
an
international
exposition
of
architecture and design every 3 years in Milan,
Milano Triennale, and chief editor of the monthly
magazine of design, Domus (1928-present). He
opened his own architectural studio with Emilio
Lancia in 1924, but he was in a sense a
professional designer who worked upon external
requests, responding to the conditions of an
orderer’s demand, social needs and economical
efficiency, etc. This new working characteristic
Design Discourse Vol.II No.1 September 2006
In the early days, he thought out a series of
designs for apartment houses for the middle classes,
which began to be needed as the population of
Milan grew and the city expanded to the suburbs.
We can find that he had the critical mind common
to other great architects such as Walter Gropius, Le
Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe, etc. who had
presented many plans for apartment houses in the
1920’s, which were put together especially in the
Exposition
of
Weissenhofsiedlung
of
1927.
However we find some points for which it can not
be
said
that
Ponti
sympathized
with
this
1
Gio Ponti: Early Activities of Design in His Career
Hirai
‘rationalistic’
style
which
would
be
called
Not only as projects but also in reality he
‘International Style’ in 1932. At that time he
constructed a series of apartment blocks in Milan
admired ‘pre-rationalistic’ Josef Hoffmann and
from
Wiener Werkstätte using the words ‘good taste’ in
constructions were called ‘the typical house’ and
highest praise of them at that time. Therefore, in
he attempted to create a certain form for the house
this paper I will describe how Ponti designed the
in the urban city. In other countries, since the
‘rationalistic’ theme, the apartment house, and how
second half of the 19th century, many plans for
it was concerned with the idea of ‘good taste’ he
apartment houses had been presented. As some
used for Hoffmann. I will take notice of the
pioneer examples, at the Great Exposition of 1851
diversity behind the word of‘ rationalism’ and aim
Henry Roberts (1803-76) exhibited the plan of an
at revealing the features of Ponti’s works that have
apartment house for workers and in France G.
been said to be ‘rationalistic’.
Haussmann (1809-91), who began to redevelop the
1931
to
1938.
Those
10
housing
city of Paris from 1853, presented the standard
Gio Ponti’s ‘rationalistic’ theme of housing
design for the urban city
th
plan of apartment houses. In Chicago, where at the
end of the 19th century the population grew
tremendously, many apartment houses for workers
Milano Triennale (The
were constructed. And in about 1910 Walter
International Exposition of Modern Decorative and
Gropius began to think about the industrialization
Industrial Art), Ponti presented the design of a
in the field of housing. Their aim was the creation
single apartment which was titled ‘a small house’.
of appropriate styles in space usage for modern
This can be interpreted as the plan of his
apartments. Gio Ponti’s plan may be an example of
“minimum house” the concept of which was the
those apartments for the middle classes, which
effective use of reduced spaces. Since the end of
were
the 1920’s he had projected several apartment
industrialization
houses with plans being reduced to this simple
Furniture in the typical house by Ponti was devised
In 1936, at the 6
th
being
constructed
and
and
economical
aimed
at
efficiency.
plan at the 6 Triennale. This flat consists of only
among pieces which were sufficiently economical
four divided elements, ‘a living room’, ‘a
and ‘standard’.
bedroom’, ‘a terrace’, ‘a bathroom and a kitchen’.
The division was not used in 1932 when he
presented the plan of an apartment house in the
monthly magazine Domus. But it is very similar to
another division by Ponti, ‘the space for the
daytime’ ‘the space for the night’ ‘a terrace’ ‘a
bathroom and a kitchen’, which he explained in
1933 and also in 1935 detailed again in the article
of his architecture <Marmont House (Casa
Marmont)> (Milan, 1935) in the same magazine.
Therefore it can be said that in the early 30’s he
was developing this idea of dividing the space of
an apartment house into different elements.
Design Discourse Vol.II No.1 September 2006
The ‘standard’ style was aimed at suitability for
mass production. Gio Ponti had been very
interested in this problem since the middle of
1920’s when he had began his role as art director
of the ceramics company, Richard Gionri. In 1929
he insisted, as the director for the 4th Milano
Triennale (1930) that industrial design needed
‘manufacturing efficiency’.1 And also in his book
La casa all’italiana (1933) he expressed his view,
directed toward industrialization in this way:
‘There are, very interestingly, relations between
industry and art. […] The art has fallen in love
with industry.’2
2
Gio Ponti: Early Activities of Design in His Career
Hirai
From the beginning of the 1930’s Ponti started
We may easily associate the illustration of
to present furniture designs of ‘standard’ style in
wardrobes by Gio Ponti with those of Le Corbusier
Domus. In 1934 he presented designs for
in his magazine l’Esprit Nouveau (1920-25). Le
wardrobes in a two-page spread in Domus. On the
Corbusier had also developed the style of
left page, there was an illustration of various pieces
‘standard’ since the 1920’s and he presented the
of clothing: a jacket, a coat, a pair of trousers,
pavilion of l’Esprit Nouveau at the International
shoes a dress, a tie, a hat, and a hanger, a walking
Exposition of Decorative and Modern Industrial
stick, etc. The size measurements of which were
Arts (1925) and that of Salon d’Automne (1929) in
all included. On the right page, there was that of
Paris. His ‘standard’ was based on the idea of
wardrobes which were measured by this size of
creation of an absolute form, that is ‘prototype’ as
clothing of left page. In this illustration he
we observe in his famous plan of Meison Domino
explained that he used his ingenuity in the inside
(C.1914), and he sought it in abstract forms. In
hanging area to enable you to take your clothes
1935, he presented the plan of Casiers modulès,
easily. And how practical it was was emphasized
which was all composed by a square as a unit. In
in the side explanation which said ‘Two wardrobes
Italy the group of ‘rationalism’, which was quite
3
was designed as the need of practicality’. In 1938,
influenced by Le Corbusier, also presented
he presented a kind of jigsaw puzzle titled ‘to
furniture all of which was composed of a square at
study your interior design’ which may have been a
the 6th Milano Triennale when Gio Ponti presented
conclusion to his many attempts of ‘standard’
‘a small house’.
4
design. (Figure 1) On the left page, there was a
sheet of furniture drawings, with a piano, a desk, a
table, a chair, a bed, a sofa, a wardrobe, etc. which
were numbered from 1 to 1 4. On the right page, a
woman’s hand was moving these jigsaw pieces,
which had been cut out by scissors separately, onto
a plan for a single apartment. Now furniture of a
fixed style could be placed in a house of fixed style.
The arrangement of paper furniture, which had
been cut out by hand, helped make the placement
of furniture an easier task.
On the other hand, Ponti’s furniture was
explained as ‘economical’ and ‘standard’, but it
was composed of ones curved lines not abstract
although some straight lines are found in forms
such as the shelf fixed on a wall, the sofa, and the
wardrobe. In the living room the floor was clear
stripes, armchairs were either a flower or a plant
pattern and the glasses on the table were of
horizontal stripes, all of which harmonized each
other. In the bedroom a comfortable space was
produced. Both the bed and the dressing table were
decorated by plenty of frilled cloth and a furred
carpet was laid on the floor. His wardrobe of 1934,
which I have already mentioned, had 3 or 4
variations: the shapes of frames outside were the
same but the number of shelves inside, i.e. the
design of pulls and the pattern of boards, were
different each other. (Figure 2) The design for the
desk of the same year, which he called ‘the
table-desk’ , had 4 variations. On other pages two
Figure 1. Gio Ponti, a plan for a single apartment house
dressing tables for women were presented. One
‘to study for your interior design’, 1938.
had legs made of wood, an upper board of red
Design Discourse Vol.II No.1 September 2006
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Gio Ponti: Early Activities of Design in His Career
Hirai
crystal glass and a round mirror, while another had
<<Machine à habiter>> is today really useful
legs of steel, an upper board of silver crystal glass
to study the problem of modern living even if it
and a quadrilateral mirror. Both are different
has a bare appearance in comparison with the
stylistically and the latter seems to be more
traditional romantic concept, <<my house>> […]’5
modern than the former. Besides, he designed 9
variations of balusters whose inside patterns were
different although the frames, the balustrades and
the banisters, were same. Another interesting point
is that Ponti’s furniture was mainly made of wood.
While not only Le Corbusier but also members of
Bauhaus and Mies van der Rohe used steel,
aluminum and synthetic fiber that reflected a new
technology at that time, Ponti continued to use
He
also
praised
works
by
the
Italian
‘rationalistic’ group, which was quite influenced
by Le Corbusier, such as Giuseppe Terragni
<Novocomun> (1927-28) and Gruppo 7 <the
Electric House> (1930) in Domus while in Italy
there were many critical opinions about them. 6
Although he valued them highly, why did he
sympathize with them stylistically?
wood for furniture and added those new materials
to it. In short, Ponti’s ‘standard’ did not limit the
variety of patterns and materials, and the idea to
create ‘prototype’ is not recognized.
Figure 2. Gio Ponti, the interior of a single apartment
house/ the living room, 1936.
Figure 3. Gio Ponti, the first page of the article devoted to
Josef Hoffmann in Domus, 1935.
In 1935 when Ponti is said to have got close to
The ‘Good taste’ of J. Hoffman and the
‘rationalism’, he devoted 30 pages of Domus to
‘rationalism’ of Gio Ponti
Josef Hoffmann titled ‘the taste of Hoffmann’. 7
these
(Figure 3) Only 2 years before, Ponti had realized
‘rationalistic’ movements? In 1928 he early
the steel tower TorreLittoria (Milan, 1933) which
introduced
epigram
was totally composed of straight lines, Edoardo
‘Machine à habiter’ to Italy in Domus. He praised
Persico, the director of the architectural magazine
Le Corbusier like this:
La Casa Bella had read the ‘rationalistic’ group of
How
did
Le
Gio
Ponti
think
Corubusier and
about
his
[…](Le Corbusier) in France has expressed most
clearly and effectively the rational tendency of
modern architecture. […] the essential concept of
Milan critically, and praised this tower. In short it
can be said that he directed his eyes to
‘rationalism’ and ‘pre-rationalistic’ Hoffmann at
the same time. In this article he presented Hoffman,
Wiener Werkstätte, Kunstgewerbeshule (the school
Design Discourse Vol.II No.1 September 2006
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Gio Ponti: Early Activities of Design in His Career
Hirai
of applied arts) with many pictures of their works.
words in boldface. In short he thought wooden
However this feature article cannot be said to have
furniture and decorative works had contemporary
a pioneer meaning because Wiener Werkstätte had
worth in the Milan of 1935, and that may
already been closed down in 1932 on account of
obviously testify that his view was different from
financial difficulties. Why did he intend to feature
Le Corbusier or the ‘rationalistic’ group in Italy. In
them? First he presented Hoffmann’s architectural
relation to this, last year Lucia Miodini has
works and interior designs from 1904 to 1934, and
mentioned that in the early years after 1910 Ponti’s
thereafter
by
works obviously had relevance to Viennese culture,
Hoffmann, Dagobert Peche, Wiener Werkstätte,
Secession and Jugendstil. And according to her,
Kunstgewerbeschule. These are not only works of
this can be easily observed in his self-portrait
around 1900, that were created in the atmosphere
which was exhibited in a space of Famiglia
of Secession, but also works of various decorative
Artistica di Milano in 1916, and his design of a
patterns, rather than linear, after 1907 when
book cover which was presented at a competition
Koloman Moser left the workshop. In Domus he
held by a magazine Emporium in 1919.10 Besides,
illustrated interior designs showing sofas, chairs
at the Exposition in Paris in 1925 it seems that
and tables, which were made of wood and
Ponti directly saw <the Austrian Pavilion> of
decorative texture patterns, and were curved
Hoffmann because at that time Ponti exhibited his
gracefully not abstractly. He wrote about Peche,
ceramics designed for Richard Ginori.
silverware,
tea
utensils,
etc.
who was a principal designer at Wiener Werkstätte
between 1915 and 1923 the year of his sudden
death, describing him as ‘<<the greatest genius in
ornament>> in modern age’ 8 ; this testifies to
Ponti’s interest in various ornamental patterns. It is
interesting
that
he
dealt
with
architectures
characterized by decorative or classical elements
such as <the Austrian Pavilion> (1925) at the
Exposition of Paris, while mentioning <the Palace
Stoclet> (1905-1910), which has pioneer meaning
taking the lead in later linear style. He said the
following:
<Laporte House (Casa Laporte)> (Milan,
1935-1936) has been said to be one of the most
‘rationalistic’ works of Gio Ponti because he quit
using certain colors, round arches and marble on
facades as he had been designing since 1925 and a
white cube was realized. Besides he quit holding
the symmetry of windows he created the facade of
<Laporte House (Casa Laporte)> like an abstract
painting which was composed of some circlular
and rectanglular windows. But can we really call it
‘rationalistic’? When it is compared with Le
Corubusier we observe many different points in
These pictures are chosen more by the
relation to him. First, on the inside of this house he
relationship between Hoffmann and us today,
placed wooden and decorative furniture similar to
rather than Hoffmann by himself during his own
that of the abovementioned 6th Triennale. The next
epoch.
interesting difference is the design of the facade. It
Therefore not all works ---such as Palace
Stoclet---expressing a certain period, but others, in
which <<the taste of Hoffman>> is living for us
and our education, and in which the functions are
still representative and lively through a very noble
evolution, are here specially illustrated and
presented.’ 9 He emphasized ‘for us’ typing the
Design Discourse Vol.II No.1 September 2006
seems that he interpreted the facades of modern
architecture in an original way. He did not define
the form of facades as Le Corbusier had written in
‘5 points of new architecture (Les 5 points d’une
architecture nouvelle)’in 1926. In 1934 Ponti said,
obviously keeping in mind Le Corbusier’s fourth
point ‘the long horizontal window’. ‘[…] today the
5
Gio Ponti: Early Activities of Design in His Career
Hirai
important point is not that we design a horizontal
influenced by him did likewise, this character
window rather than a vertical ones but that we
cannot be observed in Ponti and Hoffman. The
study and work for the system which totally
former found a beauty in structures and new
11
materials, but Ponti supported the idea of ‘good
He was not tied down to fixed window forms in
taste’ by Hoffmann. Therefore, although Ponti
this house like Le Corbusier. In fact he designed
tried to solve problems of ‘standardization’ and
bigger windows with terraces looking on toward
‘industrialization’
the courtyard for practical reasons, and made
‘rationalistic’ group did similarly, he didn’t go to
smaller and various formed ones on the facade
‘prototype’ totally composed of abstract forms and
facing the street. We can see that both rectangular
‘rationalism’ according to structure. He valued
and circular windows compose an excellent visual
decorative patterns and variety in materials and
balance, which he must have considered of
lead himself to an original interpretation of form of
historical aesthetic importance. That is to say, he
facade. And also in latter works by Gio Ponti this
freely designed a facade which was free from any
tendency toward ‘jism’ and that to value ‘good
obligation to support a building by the invention of
taste’ would continue to coexist.
represents <<the way of living>> in our times.’
as
Le Corbusier and
the
th
ferroconcrete at the end of the 19 century, while
Le Corubusier tried to express the form according
to ferroconcrete’s structure of steel rods and slabs.
This may be the first example of his later facades,
Endnotes
1
Ponti, 1929, pp.20-21.
2
which look like a panel. We can see them
Ponti, 1933, p.73.
3
especially in some his plans of churches in the
Ponti, 1934, p.31.
4
1960’s and 70’s. After admiring Le Corbusier in
Ponti, 1938, pp.30-31
5
1928, Ponti began to feel ambivalence toward him.
Ponti, 1928, p.10
6
In 1929 he wrote as follows: ‘we certainly neither
Ponti, 1930, no.28, pp.28-31 and no.32, pp.26-34.
7
wish nor would we satisfy ourselves that a house
Ponti, 1935, pp.3-33.
8
were and were to become a perfect machine, that is
ibid., p.4.
9
the “Machine à habiter” by Le Corbusier.’12 And
ibid.,p.3.
10
in 1933 while he was praising him in the same
Miodini, 2001, pp.51-62.
11
article, he said that he found ‘an intentional pose’
Ponti, 1934, p.3.
12
in Le Corbusier’s works and they, Italians, didn’t
Ponti, 1929, p.29.
13
Ponti, 1933, p.264.
do things like him, and he clearly expressed his
different direction from Le Corbusier’s.13
On other hand, if we compare <Laporte Hause>
with houses by J. Hoffmann around 1930, we find
similarities between them both rather than Le
Corbusier in some respects, the use of circular
windows on facades, the proportion of windows to
the wall and the balance of rectangular windows
and circular ones. While Le Corbusier designed
buildings according to structures of modern
Bibliography
• Gio Ponti ‘La “Machine à habiter” ’ in Domus, no.7,
1928.
• Gio Ponti ‘Il programma della prossima
manifestazione[…]’ in Domus, no.3, 1929.
• Gio Ponti ‘Lo stile moderno fuori di casa’ in Domus,
no.5, 1929.
• Gio Ponti ‘Una Modernissima Costruzione in Como’ in
Domus, no.28, 1930.
architecture and the ‘rationalistic’ group of Italy
Design Discourse Vol.II No.1 September 2006
6
Hirai
Gio Ponti: Early Activities of Design in His Career
• Gio Ponti, ‘La “Casa Elettrica” alla Triennale di Monza’
in Domus, no.32, 1930.
• Gio Ponti ‘arte e industria’ in La casa all’italiana,
Domus, Milano, 1933.
• Gio Ponti ‘Antico e Moderno’ in Domus, no.65, 1933.
• Gio Ponti, ‘L’amore per gli armadi’ in Domus, no.80,
1934.
• Gio Ponti ‘Le idee che ho seguite in alcune costruzioni’
in Domus, no.84, 1934.
• Gio Ponti ‘Il gusto di Hoffmann’ in Domus, no.93, 1935.
• Gio Ponti ‘Per studiare il vostro arredamento’ in Domus,
no.124, 1938.
• Fulvio Irace, Gio Ponti: la casa all’italiana, Electa,
Milano, 1988.
• Lisa Licitra Ponti, Gio Ponti: l’opera, Leonardo, Milano,
1990.
• Gloria Arditi e Cesare Serratto, Gio Ponti: venti cristalli
di architettura, Il Cardo, Venezia, 1994.
• Lucia Miodini ‘Anni Venti: Gio Ponti fra Vienna e
Palladio’ in Gio Ponti: Gli anni trenta, Electa, Milano,
2001.
Design Discourse Vol.II No.1 September 2006
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