Essential Design 
26 September 2024
Essential Design 
257

Gio Ponti

Collection of six tiles from Hotel Parco dei Principi, Rome

Ceramica D'Agostino
Italy, c. 1964
glazed earthenware 7¾ h × 7⅞ w × ⅝ d in (20 × 20 × 2 cm)
estimate: $500–700
result: $3,024
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Molded manufacturer's mark to reverse of each example ‘Made in Italy DA SS’.
provenance: Hotel Parco dei Principi, Rome | Private Collection

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Hotel Parco dei Principi

Designed by Gio Ponti

The Hotel Parco dei Principi, Rome, designed by Gio Ponti 1961–1964

In 1961, engineer and entrepreneur Roberto Fernandes bought two plots of land–one in Sorrento and one in Rome–to build the Hotel Parco dei Principi and recruited Gio Ponti to design both. The hotel in Sorrento was built from the ground-up while in Rome, Ponti had the challenge of working with a pre-existing structure. The hotel in Sorrento prominently featured ceramic mosaics, circular motifs and was almost completely blue and white, complementing the vast sea and sky that surrounded it. The look of the Rome hotel took on a decidedly more mod style, with green being the predominant color, diamond shapes being used throughout, marble and travertine accents and furnishings designed by Ponti and produced by Cassina. Mirrors were also employed to bring light and expansiveness into the re-purposed spaces, creating a more modern feel in the older building. 

The hotel featured 200 rooms, two bars, a beauty salon, restaurants and banquet halls that could accommodate over a thousand people. 

While the Sorrento Hotel Parco is preserved nearly exactly how Ponti designed it in 1961, the Rome Hotel Parco's interiors have since been re-designed by Massimo and Maurizio Papiri in the style of a luxurious 17th century Italian villa. 

Hotel Parco dei Principi

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The salon at the Hotel Parco dei Principi. Image courtesy of Archi DiAP

Gio Ponti 1891–1979

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Gio Ponti excelled at painting as a child and expressed a fervent interest in the arts. Feeling that a career in architecture was preferable to that of a painter, Ponti’s parents encouraged him to pursue the former and in 1914 he enrolled at the Faculty of Architecture at the Politecnico di Milano. His studies were interrupted by war, and in 1915 he was forced to postpone his education. He served as a captain in the Pontonier Corps until 1919, earning multiple military honors. After graduating in 1921, Ponti married Giulia Vimercati, the daughter of local aristocracy and started an architecture firm. During this time, Ponti aligned himself with the neoclassical movement, Novecento and championed a revival of the arts and culture. In 1928, Ponti founded Domus, a periodical tailored to artists and designers, as well as the broader public. A shift occurred in the 1930s when Ponti took up a teaching post at his alma mater, the Politecnico di Milano. In search of new methods to express Italian modernity, Ponti distanced himself from the sentiments of Novecento and sought to reconcile art and industry. Together with the engineers, Eugenio Soncini and Antonio Fornaroli, Ponti enjoyed great success in the industrial sector, securing various commissions throughout Italy. In the 1950s, he gained international fame with the design of the Pirelli Tower in Milan and he was asked to be a part of the urban renewal of Baghdad, collaborating with top architects from around the world. His 1957 book, Amate l’architettura, is considered to be a microcosm of his work —an incredible legacy spanning art, architecture, industrial design, publishing and academia.

Auction Results Gio Ponti

Gio Ponti

Room from the 9th Triennale of Milan 1951

estimate: $300,000–400,000

result: $324,000

Gio Ponti and Piero Fornasetti

Important sideboard

result: $240,000

Gio Ponti and Piero Fornasetti

Madrepore dining suite

estimate: $70,000–90,000

result: $173,000

Gio Ponti

custom coffee table from Villa Arreaza, Caracas

estimate: $50,000–70,000

result: $170,500

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