Villa Ponti Bellavista is a Gio Ponti revival for lease on Lake Como

A Gio Ponti revival, triggered partly by a 2022 Taschen publication that reappraises the Italian maestro’s huge design and architectural legacy, makes the invention of Villa Ponti Bellavista notably thrilling.

Villa Ponti Bellavista: dramatic views and a visit again in time

The five hundred sq m villa on Lake Como, not too long ago renovated and obtainable for lease, was Ponti collaboration, initially conceived as a summer season retreat for Milanese mates of the architect, the Fossati household, within the mid-Nineteen Sixties when Ponti was on the peak of his fame. Cesare Casati and Enzo Hybsh, who labored as a designer and editor on the journal Domus, which Ponti based and directed till his demise within the late Seventies, undoubtedly performed key roles within the conception and building of the villa. Their signed sketch and ground plan are framed on the villa entrance.

Lake Como, as a vacation spot, has lengthy attracted grand designs – legendary villas with epic views overlooking expanses of blue-green glacial water framed by cypress, chestnut, and conifer. For the reason that time of the Roman Empire, when the primary outsiders got here and have been captivated by the delicate micro-climate, the deep glacial waters holding the solar’s warmth properly into autumn, and the distinctive mild with the unreal high quality of mother-of-pearl, the highly effective and rich have sought to go away their mark on the panorama.

Villa Ponti Bellavista is barely 7km from Bellagio, but excessive sufficient to really feel like a mountain aerie moderately than a part of the touristic theatre of the legendary lakeside city. At night time, 600m up, it appears to hover on the sting of the cliff face. Its fourth wall is an illuminated arc of 11 home windows that look over the Grigne mountains and the distant Alps, curved like an remark deck of a ship.

Ocean liners of the final century have been symbols of modernity and technological progress – expressions of optimism and a world on the transfer. They served as backdrops for cutting-edge design and the evolving aesthetics of the day, inspiring architects from Le Corbusier to Gio Ponti. Right here, chimneys are represented as ship-like funnels, with nautical lanterns on exterior partitions and tiered balconies that jut into house just like the decks of a cruise liner related by a helix staircase.

Within the final years of his life, Ponti was, greater than ever, in quest of transparency and lightness in design and interiors. This villa conjures it, performs with it, and gives a way of house and sky so exhilarating and beneficiant it looks like a privilege that no modern-day architect might afford. The sense of largesse is sort of a scent of nostalgia within the time-capsule villa.

There are six bedrooms, with three that open onto terraces providing lofty lake views. The master suite has the outsized headboard that was a Ponti signature. His dashboard-style headboard, composed of cabinets and management buttons for lighting and radio, is taken as a right as a lodge fixture right now, however on the 1951 Milan Triennial, it was cutting-edge and revolutionary.

The sitting room has a playful sunken lounge space round a stomach hearth and unique orange and pink sofas, contributing to the integrity of the Nineteen Sixties aesthetic. From the swimming pool carved out of a bocce courtroom and planted up with lots of of blue hydrangeas to a sauna and sizzling tub with Perspex solar loungers on the lip of the cliff, it’s a stage set that vibrates to an genuine James Bond/Mad Males beat.

There may be rhythmic concord within the element – from the hand-crafted curvature of doorways to the signature Ponti ceramic tiles of the loos, all the way down to the cutlery drawers and door handles which evoke Ponti’s love of craft, layered texture, house and lightweight.

villapontibellavista.com