pirelli tower

gio ponti, architect of the pirelli tower, or 'pirellone' in milan, italy.....................................................................................................................................

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gio ponti / pirelli tower

18 april, 2002
6 p.m. the pilot of a light aircraft turned away from his
approach into milan's linate airport and veered off toward
the central station, to crash straight into the middle of
gio ponti's landmark, the 'grattacielo' pirelli.
the two-seat plane hit between the 24th and 25th floors
of the 32-story building just at the end of the business day,
after circling the city and reporting trouble with its undercarriage.
the pilot was en route from switzerland on a 20-minute flight
to milan.

the pirelli building was built by the same pirelli family that
founded the tire and cable giant of the same name,
but the company is no longer associated with the structure.
instead, the building, in the heart of Italy's most important
financial district is the headquarters of the lombardy
regional government.

ponti himself described the pirelli tower, or 'pirellone'
as 'a graphic slogan'. that diamond shape was for a
his trademark (ponti used the diamond motif everywhere
in the 1950s and 1960s both as an ordering device
and as a surface treatment, particularly using facetted tiles).

the graceful 1956 building is one of the city's 20th century
icons. the tower was planned by architect gio ponti in
collaboration with antonio fornaroli and alberto rosselli,
structural engineers were pier luigi nervi and a. danusso.

ponti believed that 'architecture is made to be looked at.
it is public landscape. facades are the wall of the street,
and a city is made of streets. the facades are the visible
part of the city, they are all of the city that appears'.
as an architect, ponti's goals were that his buildings should
harmonise form with function, and be exemplars of the
correct use of materials.