A Lasting Legacy

Some of Ponti’s most interesting projects

PIRELLI TOWER

Ponti’s most famous project, the Pirelli Tower, soars 32 storeys above Milan. When it was completed in 1956, it was one of the first skyscrapers in Europe and the tallest concrete building on the continent. Ponti is said to have been so pleased with it that he once declared, “She is so beautiful that I’d love to marry her.”

VILLA PLANCHART

“Your house will be like a great butterfly poised on a hill,” Ponti wrote to art collectors Anala and Armando Planchart when they commissioned him to design their home in Caracas, Venezuela. And he delivered, designing a dramatic tropical villa that he packed with custom-designed furniture. It still stands and can be visited by appointment.

SHUI HING DEPARTMENT STORE AND VILLA KOO

In her 1988 book, Hong Kong, legendary travel writer Jan Morris cites Gio Ponti’s façade of Shui Hing Department Store (pictured right) as one of the most impressive works of architecture in the city, alongside IM Pei’s Bank of China Tower and Norman Foster’s HSBC Building. Daniel Koo, the tycoon who commissioned Ponti for the project, was so happy with it that he asked him to design his residence in Hong Kong and his second home in California (above).

MINISTRY BUILDINGS AND PAKISTAN HOUSE HOTEL, ISLAMABAD

In 1962, Ponti and his studio were commissioned to design the ministry buildings for Islamabad (pictured right), the new capital of what was then West Pakistan. While he worked on them, he was unexpectedly asked to also design the Pakistan House Hotel (below), a place for government officials to stay. For the latter project, Ponti designed an elaborate façade that protected inhabitants from the powerful sun and incorporated geometric patterns that echo traditional Islamic architecture.

Gio Ponti’s Pirelli Tower is a landmark of Milan’s skyline. It is affectionately referred to by locals as Il Pirellone, which translates as “the Big Pirelli”

Clockwise, from above: Ponti’s Villa Planchart is perched on a hill behind Caracas, Venezuela; a dining room that opens onto an internal courtyard; the main double-height reception room, with Ponti’s Mariposa armchairs in the foreground