2344. Royal Hotel. Swimming Pools. San Remo

 

Querida Cristina,

Una foto de las maravillosas piscinas del Hotel 

Royal de San Remo, creadas por el gran Gio Ponti

a mediados del siglo pasado.

Como Ponti decía, el diseño conforma la cultura,

esta origina los valores de la sociedad que a su

vez condicionan el futuro.

Besos,

R 

2305. Taranto, Concattedrale "Gran Madre di Dio"

 

Dear Lucca,

"Design creates culture, culture shapes

values, values determine the future."

(Gio Ponti)

 

Best,

R

2296. Taranto. Concattedrale Gran Madre di Dio. Veduta interna.

 

Dear Cecilia,

"Original ideas do not exist. Ideas are received and 

re-expressed. We say -I got and idea- not -I created

an idea-." (Gio Ponti)

Sincerely,

R

1467. Venosta. Albergo Val Martello

Dear Romina,

"The architect must imagine for each window a person at
the sill, for each door a person passing through" (Gio Ponti)

Best regards,
R

1446. San Remo, Monastere St. Elie

Querida Paola,

"El material más resistente en la construcción es el arte"
(Gio Ponti)

Besos,
R

1152. Roma - Citta universitaria. Istituto di matematica

 

Dear Marcello,

The Istituto di Matematica at the Campus of La Sapienza
in Rome, is a remarkable example of functionalist
architecture designed by Gio Ponti. It comprises a cubic
front structure that houses the offices for the faculty and staff, and an u-shaped rear building that contains drawing rooms and some lecture halls. This graceful building is the only one that Gio Ponti erected in Rome.

Best wishes,
R

431. Monastere du Carmel de Saint-Elie. San Remo

Querida Cristina,

Para esta maravillosa Iglesia de Gio Ponti, unos versos
profundos de mi admirado Jose Angel Valente que para
mi describen la naturaleza de este espacio:

Limite

Que oscuro el borde de la luz
donde ya nada
reaparece

Mil besos.
R

378. Eindhoven. 18 September Plein

Dear Richard,

The Bijenkorf (The Beehive) department store in Eidhoven
was designed by architect Gio Ponti and built in 1967. It
took the typical Dutch polder landscape as his inspiration
for the façades that are finished almost exclusively with
ceramic tiles in multiple shades of green.

Best regards.
R

280. Taranto. Concattedrale Gram Madre di Dio

Dear Anna,

Towards the end of his life Gio Ponti said to his daughter:
"They say that I reached the apex of my creative life with
the Pirelli Tower; but that was in the 1950s. I went on
working for another 20 years, and the cathedral in
Taranto marks another high point"
The new Murcia City Hall built by Rafael Moneo seems
to me to be somehow in debt to this delicate building.

All the best.
R

271. Milano Via Filippo Turati

Dear Anna,

To the left the first Montecatini Office Building built in
1938 by Gio Ponti. To the right the second Montecatini
Office Building from 1951, also by Ponti. The concave
shape of the first building counterbalances the convex
layout in the second. Architecture begins and ends,
pure as a crystal...

Best
R