The armchair, on the other hand, was designed for one of the projects closest to Gio Ponti’s heart, the villa of the Planchart collectors in Caracas (1953-57). It is part of the Gio Ponti Collection, which was curated by Molteni&C under the artistic direction of Studio Cerri & Associati.
The architecture reflected the ideas he had gathered during his trips to Latin America in 1952-53. Today the armchair, which is like a cosy shell, has a rigid polyurethane frame, a soft polyurethane counter-frame and a cushion, and is upholstered in the Molteni&C textile range, with the option of differentiating the three component parts. In 2016 this armchair won the prestigious Wallpaper Design Awards and became a Molteni&C icon.
“I dedicated myself heart and soul to designing Villa Planchart, and in it I was at liberty to express my own approach to architecture, both outside and inside”