In the history of architecture and design the Mediterranean has been a great muse and an almost obligatory stage of the Grand Tour of intellectuals of all eras. Le Corbusier, for example, repeatedly indicates the lessons of mediterranean architecture, with its dynamic volumes of full and empty parts.
But perhaps the most devoted disciple the Mediterranean was Gio Ponti, commissioned in 1961 by the engineer Fernandes to design the Parco dei Principi Hotel in Sorrento. Here Ponti fully embraced the Mediterranean and its colors as the point of reference, designing a previously unthinkable kind of luxury, a lively sequence of variations on a theme.
Instead of ostentation, he opted for uniqueness in the midst of multitude, with sober nautical lines in a marine landscape that seamlessly enters the living spaces. Sky blue, deep blue and white become almost obsessive motifs in the itinerary through smooth textures and reliefs, furnishings and architecture, interiors flooded with crystalline light, balconies overlooking the sea.
The geo-economic history of the Mediterranean was a perfect context for Ponti’s program of reconciliation between the crafts tradition and industrial production; a place where craftsmanship never really gave in to industry (apart from the heavy industry imposed by political logic), remaining a base even today for those who operate in that territory, finding precious opportunities for knowledge and reflection.
The Mediterranean, in fact, is still the great sea of culture and tradition, in which the ‘handmade’ somehow keeps pace with globalization (though with effort); but it is also a place of exchange among cultures bearing an intensity and complexity never recorded in any other geographical context.
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