Gio Ponti & Lio Carminati Biography
Gio Ponti & Lio Carminati Gio Ponti (1891–1979) was a prominent architect, industrial and furniture designer, artist and publisher. Born in Milan, Ponti studied architecture at the Polytechnic. After serving in the army during World War I, he graduated in 1921. In 1923 Ponti entered into a partnership with Mino Fiocchi and Emilio Lancia and was influenced by the neoclassical movement of the Italian twentieth century. In 1928 he founded the magazine Domus, which covered architecture, art and design, and is still published today. During the late 1920s, Ponti built houses in Milan and Paris, including domus, which from the outside looked like typical Milanese houses, but had innovative interiors, with flexible spaces and modular furniture. In the mid-1930s he received prestigious assignments, including one in 1934 for the Department of Mathematics of the University of Rome and, in 1936, for the headquarters of Montecatini. Ponti believed that, as an architect, it was his responsibility to create buildings that blended form and function. Also in this period, he curated the Biennale of Decorative Arts, in Monza and Milan, where he was appointed to the executive committee of the fifth Milan Triennale. In 1941 Ponti left Domus and founded the magazine Stile, of which he was editor until 1947, the year in which he returned to Domus. At this point, his work expanded to include set and costume designs for Milan's La Scala, Murano glass, and the 1948 La Pavoni coffee machine. During the 1950s, Ponti created an increasing amount of industrial design, including the Distex armchair of 1953 and the Superleggera chair of 1957. Ponti also built one of the most representative buildings of the 20th century in Milan, the Pirelli skyscraper of 1956. From 1936 to 1961 he was a professor of architecture at the Polytechnic University of Milan.
Among the many furniture projects for Italian industrial design, together with Lio Carminati, he conceived the "Emanuelle" armchair for Bonacina in 1950. It was originally designed for the "Conte Biancamano" cruise ship in the early 1950s. It was used also by Carlo Mollino for his famous Polaroid series. It appears in "La Rivista dell'Arredamento-Interni", n.56, 1959, page 44.
