Molteni - D.357.2 bookcase

Designed in 1956-1957, the bookcase is part of the furniture of Gio Ponti’s private house in Via Dezza in Milan.
This re-edition is produced based on the original drawings from the Gio Ponti Archives. It is part of the Molteni&C Gio Ponti Collection.
Made from shaped multi-layered material with elm veneer, partly with natural transparent finish, partly hand-painted in white. Available in the versions with or without applied mirror.

Gio Ponti

Giovanni Ponti, known as Gio (1891–1979), is considered one of the masters of Italian architecture, designer and essayist, among the most important of the 20th century. The architectural works that bear his unique signature are accompanied by a vast production of furnishings, as evidenced by the three houses, fully furnished "alla Ponti". Indeed, we recall those in via Randaccio (1925), Casa Laporte (1926) in via Brin and those in via Dezza (from 1957), the "manifesto" of his design. Gio Ponti, promoter of Italian industrial design, proposes mass production in interior design as a "sophisticated", economic, "democratic" and modern solution. Molteni&C takes care of a re-edition project of furniture and furnishings designed by Gio Ponti, some originally produced precisely for these private homes. After a long process of research, selection and study of prototypes the collection was presented on the occasion of the Salone del Mobile 2012, thanks to the collaboration and exclusive agreement signed with the Ponti heirs. Gio Ponti graduated from Architecture at the Politecnico di Milano at the end of the First World War, where he served on the front line earning some decorations in the field. In 1921 he married Giulia Vimercati, with whom he will have four children: Lisa, Giovanna, Letizia and Giulio.

Molteni

Angelo Molteni, born in 1912, began his entrepreneurial activity in Giussano, now the province of Monza and Brianza, the furniture district. His workshop becomes, in a short time, synonymous with high quality product. The 60s began in the best way, in fact Angelo Molteni is in the founding committee of the first Salone del Mobile in Milan, which opened on 24 September 1961 with great success. This is the decade of the revolution: in a few months, the production is converted from classic to modern, to create well-designed furniture, designed for the series. Luca Meda, a student of the Ulm School, is the man of the revolution, his Iride containers presented at the Salone del Mobile in 1968. From the 70s until today, Molteni grows, is renewed and concretizes in a definitive way its value, and the undisputed style in the world panorama. In 2008 the distribution expanded beyond the Italian borders and was structured with foreign branches. New molteni&c | Dada monobrand stores are opening: about 600 in the world, including 40 Flagship Stores, also present in the largest international design metropolises such as London and New York. Moltenigroup.com is born, the web address of the new website of the Molteni Group. Key words are narration, inspiration, contemporaneity of molteni&c and Dada brands. As of April 2016, Belgian architect and designer Vincent Van Duysen has been appointed creative director of molteni&c and Dada. After the success of the Gliss Master wardrobe collection, the new collaboration focuses on image coordination and the retail concept.