Italian architect Gio Ponti

• Entrance area. On the wall is the work of Lucio Fontana “Little Theater”. On a glass tabletop integrated into the staircase railing, a sculpture by Alessio Tasso in perspex.
• Joe Ponti.

Joe Ponti (1891–1979) is called the “grandfather of Italian design”. Starting his career shortly after the First World War, he tirelessly promoted the achievements of modernism to the masses for half a century. An architect, designer, writer, publisher, he built houses and hotels unlike anything else, decorated trains, made fantastic ceramics, published Domus magazine – the bible of Italian architecture and design … Joe, this bundle of energy, squeezed more from his life than simple mortal. From seven in the morning until eight in the evening, he rushed like a meteor through his Milan studio, so huge that employees parked their scooters next to their workplaces. Not a single owner of a furniture company could resist his charisma and talent: Ponti managed to work with all the famous brands of his time.

• View of the “Christmas room” from the entrance to the house. A spiral staircase lined with faux fur leads to a gallery in the basement. Two French windows open onto a 3-square-meter garden. m.

Joe worked without respite until his death. He is remembered for his ingeniously designed furniture (like bedside tables with built-in cigar lighters!) And graceful, open-plan buildings, often adorned with colorful mosaics and murals. He loved to work with color and often brought a touch of madness to his interiors, collaborating with the Italian surrealist designer Piero Fornasetti – a lover of strange symbols and optical trickery. Joe regularly published drawings and sketches of imaginary houses on the pages of Domus, which, one might say, served as his personal diary. One of these projects, A Beetle Under a Leaf, attracted the attention of Giobatta Meneguzzo, a collector of contemporary art from the Italian town of Malo near Vicenza. He invited Joe to build such a house for him, on the condition that the artist Nanda Vigo, a friend of Jobatta, would do the interior decoration.

• The heart of the house is the “conversation place” invented by Nanda Vigo. View of the living room from above. In this perspective, the spatial intrigue conceived by Ponti and Nanda Vigo is best read: the contrast between rectangular and rounded volumes (“the place for conversation” and the stairs leading to the gallery).
• Fragment of the living room. The sofa and poufs are designed by Nanda Vigo.

• Above the “place for conversation” – an installation by the Argentine artist Giulio Le Parque. Two panels, similar to blinds made of metal strips, effectively refract and diffuse the sun’s rays.
• The most spectacular view of the skylight is from the stairs.

The House Under the Leaf got its name from the characteristic shape of the roof. The leaf motif was downright pursued by Ponti: it is guessed in the rooftops of the Planchard and Areazza villas in South America, in the outlines of the Due Foglie sofa for Cassina, and even in the plumbing he designed for Ideal Standard. On the west and south sides of the house, the leaf roof slopes to the ground, protecting the rooms from the bright sun, and from the north, it rises to the sky.

• The owners’ sleeping place is located in the “Christmas room”. Instead of a bed, there is a podium with a mattress in a faux fur cover. The bedside table is played by Andy Warhol’s artwork: a giant Campbell soup can.
• Minimalist clocks in the kitchen do not stand out from the general range.

• Kitchen-dining room. The table was designed by Nanda Vigo for Driade. The owner of the house had a habit of making notes on the tiled walls while talking on the phone.
• From the gallery, the fur-lined spiral staircase looks no less impressive than from the living room. On the wall is a painting by Daniel Buren. In the foreground is a dish, designed by Pompeo Pianetzzola. The motif of the leaf was downright pursued by Joe Ponti: this element is guessed in the outlines of the houses, furniture and even plumbing he designed.

Traditional terms: living room, bedroom, dining room – do not apply to this space. Entering the building, you find yourself in a room that Ponti called “the room of Christmas”: from here begins the very life of a person and a home. It plays the role of a bedroom and living room, a staircase leads from it to the gallery. This area is adjoined by a children’s kitchen and a microscopic kitchen – a cupboard in which a stove and a sink are hidden. There is almost no furniture in the house in the usual sense: instead of a bed and sofas, there are floor protrusions covered with faux fur. Due to the fact that there are few things in the interior, and there is a lot of air and light, the illusion of spaciousness arises: it is hard to believe that the building area is only 100 square meters. m. Construction was completed in 1969, and since then nothing has changed in the house. It is self-sufficient, like any work of art. Neither add nor subtract!

• Art gallery. For lighting, Nanda Vigo used neon lamps. On the wall is a work by Raymond Haynes, a modern take on Breakfast on the Grass by Edouard Manet.
• A fragment of the gallery with a statuette by Agostino Bonalumi and a photograph by Luigi Ontani. The mirror reflects the sculpture “Matches” by Raymond Haynes.

• Photo by Luigi Ontani “Harlequin on the Deathbed”.
• Saul Lewitt’s canvas. The lamp is based on a design by Nanda Vigo.

Joe Ponty’s main achievements

• Public building: Pirelli Tower (1956) – the first skyscraper in Milan, one of the symbols of the city.
• Hotel: Parco dei Principe in Sorrento (1962). In the interior decoration, 30 types of tiles of white and blue colors are used.
• Private house: Villa Planchard (1955), aka “Butterfly House” – one of the main attractions of Caracas (Venezuela).
• Furniture: Superleggera ultra-light chair for Cassina (1957). Even a child can lift it from the ground … with one finger!
• Exhibition: Triennial in Milan (1933) – a review of the achievements of Italian design, later “grew” into a permanent museum.
• Award: Grand Prix at the World Exhibition in Paris (1925) for ceramics for the Richard-Ginori factory.
• And finally … four children and eight grandchildren.