Courtesy Rubelli
Molteni&C is re-releasing an armchair that Gio Ponti designe…
Once you learn to build for others, architects, the temptation grows to build for yourselves. And once you build for yourselves, the temptation grows to build your own custom furniture—a kit of your own parts, if you will, à la Frank Lloyd Wright. Italy’s own Gio Ponti (1891–1979) succombed to that hankering: Ponti first designed his 1957 Via Dezza family home in Milan, and then the furniture for it, including an angular upholstered armchair on a linear metal frame. For those that might want Ponti’s custom armchair in their own home, Molteni&C is now reissuing it in limited quantities in two velvet, Ponti-designed fabrics—Punteggiato and Rattoppato—produced by Italian fabric house Rubelli. Molteni&C, Rubelli, and the Milan Order of Architects are exhibiting the chair as well, for those that want to look but not buy, at Venice Biennale’s 13th International Architectural Exhibition. “Vivere alla Ponti: Experiments of Domestic Life and Architecture for Home and Work” includes the armchair and other pieces of furniture and décor from Casa Ponti: bookcase, chest of drawers, small table, frames, and rug. Letters, family photos, and films are also on display. By appointment only at Rubelli’s showroom in Venice, from Aug. 27 through Sept. 28. • rubelli.com
