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Dezza — Gio Ponti
Poltrona Frau
The initiative mentioned above is one of those where Ponti, in the fi nal part of
his prodigious and prolifi c career, now internationally recognized as a master,
worked hard with his customary unselfi sh enthusiasm, creating phenomenal
works right from the 1960s where his architecture and design work are more
and more obviously based on expressing these principles.
While providing a repeated pattern, as required for fabrics, by
using diff erent juxtaposed shapes and colors, the “Redevance”
design follows the criteria of not giving the eye stopping points,
so it can run over its surface freely. It essentially creates an
apparently seamless pattern, where the eye can run over the
surface without any stumbling blocks. This typical Ponti twist,
where the work does not live on its own but in the eye of the
onlooker, a key to reading all of Ponti’s work, emerges and is
particularly evident in his work right from the early 1950s.
It goes without saying that we should recall the linoleum covering which he
called “Giallo Fantastico” and used for the fl oors in the Pirelli Tower, where,
by intervening during production and adding colors as the material was being
coated, a variable decoration was created with no repetitions.03
This criteria, which entrusted the direction of perception to the
eye of anyone who encountered or looked over these works
(“Amate l’architettura” 1957 Page 124 “L’Architettura… uno
spettacolo che si suscita percorrendolo..”), guided Ponti in
creating the wonderful ceramic fl oor for Salzburger Nachrichten
in 1976 04 05. This criteria also guided Ponti in designing, for
example, buildings covered in colorful ceramic, with a varying
appearance depending on the light and point of view, 06 07 or his
proposal for triangular skyscrapers, designed to change shape
and color unexpectedly in diff erent urban perspectives 08 09.
04 Gio Ponti “Project design for a ceramic fl oor for the
Salzburger Nachrichten offi ces in Salzburg 1976”.
© Gio Ponti Archives / Salvatore Licitra
05 Gio Ponti “view of the ceramic fl oor at the
Salzburger Nachrichten offi ces in Salzburg 1976”.
© Gio Ponti Archives / Salvatore Licitra
03 Gio Ponti “Giallo fantastico” Rubber fl oor
for the Pirelli tower 1956/60.
© Gio Ponti Archives / Archivio storico
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