Gio Ponti, 4P, Milan, Italy, 1954

Date:November 20, 2015

Tags: balcony, house, irregular, one-family house, three cores, unregular windows

← Luigi Caccia Dominioni, Appartement in Milan, Milan, Italy, 1970

Gio Ponti, Prototype of a “Hotel Bed-room”, Milan, Italy, 1951 →

Gio Ponti, 4P, Milan, Italy, 1954. (view on google maps)

Giovanni (called “Gio”) Ponti was born in Milan on 18 November 1891, After a classical schooling, he enrolled in at the Faculty of Architecture, Milan Polytechnic, but did not graduate until the end of World War One. After the war he was close to the group of “Milanese neo-classicists”.

The one-family house designed by Ponti is a very special place. It was designed for the tenth Triennale in Milan. It was specifically designed for the Togni system of lightweight prefabrication.The simple form of the house from outside is gemmed mainly by unregular windows. The interior space is divided into three cores, sorted by function: Bedrooms, living room, the kitchen-dining room. Parts are connected only with a corridor. The structure of the interior’s three parts is divided into two square –plan-cube. One of the spaces is designed for the saloon, the leaving area with the biggest amount of windows, it is the space that is half-open, because one of the walls is an openwork. The second one is a quiet interior space, equipped in bedrooms – beds and small, next-to-bedroom bathrooms. The last space is a kitchen, where the dining room is open from one side but the cooking place is hidden. This simple construction is filled out with a long balcony.