Gio Ponti was a highly influential Italian architect / designer and the creative force behind Domus magazine, which he founded and edited from 1928 to 1941 (and again from 1948 to 1979). He was also a faculty member of the school of architecture at the prestigious Milan Polytechnic and practiced architecture and design professionally with Alberto Rosselli. While he paved new ground in the fields of design and furniture making. Ponti is perhaps best known for the Pirelli Tower, a 33 story skyscrapper in central Milan that was built with 33,000 cubic meters of pre-stresses, reinforced concrete.

A master in all areas of design, Ponti often worked day and night to ensure that the interiors of his buildings (and in some cases, ocean liners) were custom fitted with creations of his own doing. Gio Ponti’s furniture, which can be found in the catalogs of over 120 companies to this day, include the groundbreaking Superleggera (“super light”) Cassina chairs, as well as his brass-casted lamps and sleekly shaped mirrors.