描述
Throughout his career, the Genovese architect Alberto Ponis has combined the practice of architecture with that of painting, a tool and a stimulus for his activity as a designer of buildings. He has repeatedly drawn each of the sites for his projects, attentive to every detail in his designs with profound precision. This includes the nature of the places and the landscapes where they are located, the characters and needs of those who will inhabit them, and the specific conditions of their construction, always carried out with local builders and using local materials. This monographic edition of the magazine surveys the scope of his breathtaking practice and its context in meticulous detail.
Alberto Ponis (Nervi, Genoa, 1933) grew up in contact with some of the main Italian artists and designers of the first half of the 20th century – among others, Giò Ponti, Arturo Martini, Tomaso Buzzi, Paolo Buffa or Fortunato Depero – thanks to his father, Mario Alberto Ponis, who collaborated with them through his company MITA (founded in Nervi in 1926) specialized in the production of “artist tapestries”, as well as carpets and textiles.
He enrolled in 1953 at the Faculty of Architecture in Florence, graduating summa cum laude in 1960. Shortly after, he moved to the United Kingdom. From 1960 to 1964, he worked in London with Ernö Goldfinger and Denys Lasdun, where he came into contact with Brutalism, then dominant on the British scene, but also became familiar with the relationship between the concept of landscape and painting.
In 1963, he arrived in Gallura, on the northern coast of Sardinia, an unspoiled place of extraordinary beauty, accompanying a group of British investors. He began his work in Palau—then a small port connecting to the island of La Maddalena—where he has lived ever since. Since his arrival on the island, Ponis has felt a profound fascination with the beauty of its nature, the presence of granite rocks, the Mediterranean macchia , and the extraordinary morphology of the coastline. Sardinia was then a virtually uninhabited place, with small rural settlements and stazzi scattered throughout the landscape.
Texts
Notes on Architecture
by Alberto Ponis
Midsummer: The Mediterranean Adventure of Alberto Ponis,
Inmaculada Maluenda, and Enrique Encabo
The housing projects of Alberto Ponis
Jonathan Sergison
Hidden Structures by
Irina Davidovici
Promenade and Yacht Club
Martínez House
Bak House
Hartley House
Yasmin Brandolini Studio
Porto Rafael Houses
Figini House
Scalesciani House
Stazzo Pulcheddu
K1 Village
Heintzschel House
Cirillo House
Ivan Baj House
Lusmifin House
Gostner House
Rangoni House
