ALVARO SIZA: Iberian minimalism
August 3rd, 2011 § 2 Comments
Designer Feature vol. 5
Sports Center, Llobregat, Spain
I love the work of Siza. His projects arise as natural reactions to the physical, cultural, and, I could almost say, spiritual environment which they inhabit. He masterfully blends *vernacular architecture with minimalism to create poetic references to place while exploring issues of form and space. When I think of Siza’s work I always imagine these large spans of white-washed walls or these intricate plans where every turn and edge has been thought out. That’s part of his genius – being able to work from the largest scale of the site plan to the minute details of where the concrete meets the wood.
The following are some of my favorites of his many projects…
*vernacular architecture uses methods of construction which use locally available resources and traditions to address local needs.
Boa Nova Tea House, Matosinhos, Portugal
Boa Nova Tea House, Matosinhos, Portugal
Mimesis Museum
Mimesis Museum
Mimesis Museum
Mimesis Museum
Mimesis Museum
Mimesis Museum
Church of Marco Canaveses, Portugal
Church of Marco Canaveses, Portugal
Leca Swimming Pools, Leca da Palmeira, Portugal
Leca Swimming Pools, Leca de Palmeira, Portugal
Leca Swimming Pools, Leca da Palmeira, Portugal
Leca Swimming Pools, Leca de Palmeira, Portugal
Portugal Pavillion, Lisbon, Portugal
Serpentine Pavillion, London, UK
Anyang Pavillion, Korea
Anyang Pavillion, Korea
Ibere Camargo Foundation, Porto Alegre, Brasil
Ibere Camargo Foundation, Porto Alegre, Brasil
Ibere Camargo Foundation, Porto Alegre, Brasil
Ibere Camargo Foundation, Porto Alegre, Brasil
Ibere Camargo Foundation, Porto Alegre, Brasil
House in Mallorca, Spain
House in Mallorca, Spain
House in Mallorca, Spain
House in Mallorca, Spain
House in Mallorca, Spain
Serralves Museum, Oporto, Portugal
Serralves Museum
Serralves Museum
Tolo House
Tolo House
Tolo House
Tolo House
Tolo House
Insel Hombroich Architecture Museum, Germany 2008
GIO PONTI: The 20th Century’s Renaissance Man
March 16th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Designer Feature, vol. 4
When you think renaissance man in the world of design Gio Ponti is your guy. This man was a painter, an industrial and furniture designer, an architect and the editor and founder of the quintessential Domus (1928) and Stile magazines.Born and raised in Milan, Ponti was an advent propagandist for the love of architecture and design which he wrote of in his 1957 collection of essays Amate l’Architettura (published in english as In Praise of Architecture).
Ponti utilized Domus to openly explore diverse topics of his concern and express his personal views all the while maintaining a clever openness that established the magazine as Europe’s most influential architecture and design magazine.
Gio Ponti was in Milan around the same time as the avant garde Futurists and Group 7 were exploring their ideas for radical change. Though he was around the key figures of these movements Ponti remained focused on finding the “finite form” in design rather than revolutionizing existing dogmas. He had his own ideals of design that bloomed from Modernism but were more particularly concerned with context, comfort, function, lightness and elegance. He was an admirer of Le Corbusier and the Bauhaus but was certainly not one of those “glass box boys”, as Frank Lloyd Wright once clarified.
Villa Planchart, Caracas 1955
Villa Planchart, Caracas 1955
Villa Planchart, Caracas - This classic Modernist house was designed in 1955. Here Ponti created almost every aspect of the project from the architecture and interiors to most of the furniture and objects as well.
Villa Planchart, Caracas 1955
Villa Planchart, Caracas 1955
Villa Planchart, Caracas 1955
Villa Planchart, Caracas - The garden from this house was designed by infamous Brazilian landscape architect who often worked with Niemeyer and was responsible for the original plans of Miami Beach's Lincoln Road and the cobblestone boardwalks of Rio de Janeiro, Burle Marx.
Model for Villa Planchart in Domus 1955
His daughter summarized Ponti’s career with the following remarks, “Sixty years of work, buildings in thirteen countries, lectures in twenty-four, twenty-five years of teaching, fifty years of editing, articles in every one of the five hundred and sixty issues of his magazines, two thousand five hundred letters dictated, two thousand letters drawn, designs for a hundred and twenty enterprises, one thousand architectural sketches. It was a great deal, and all from one man”.
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INTERIOR DESIGN:
Villa Arreaza, Caracas 1956
Villa Arreaza, Caracas 1956
Villa Arreaza, Caracas 1956
Gio Ponti Hotel in Sorrento, IT
Gio Ponti Hotel in Sorrento, IT
Gio Ponti Hotel in Sorrento, IT
Gio Ponti Hotel in Sorrento, IT
1970 Il Manifesto della Casa Adatta by Gio Ponti
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FURNITURE & INDUSTRIAL DESIGN:
Bilia Table Lamp designed 1931 by Ponti is currently under production by Fontana Arte
0024 Lighting Pendant designed in 1931 by Ponti is also currently in production by Fontana Arte
Diamond Lounge Chairs by Gio Ponti
Designed in 1953 by Gio Ponti and made in Italy for Singer & Sons this table is available on 1st Dibs for $9,750
Flatware set designed in 1960 available for purchase on 1st Dibs
Superleggera Chairs in black and white from 1957 available on 1st Dibs
Italian walnut chest by Gio Ponti from 1950's on 1st Dibs
Rocker from the 1950's designed by Ponti produced by Cassina
Gio Ponti in Caracas, 1954
