Molteni - Round Gio Ponti D.154.5 armachair

The iconic Round D.154.5 designed by Gio Ponti has very modern shapes, almost out of this world, which had never been thought of before.
The early 1950s marked a turning point in Gio Ponti’s furniture designs, towards highly innovative solutions linked to functional and essential shapes: the end of the Second World War, with the desire to restart and rebuild a modern world full of novelties, thus moving away from the past; the availability of innovative materials, which made it possible to conceive objects that were previously unfeasible.

The Round project D.154.5 fully satisfied Ponti’s design mind-set of the period.

Characterized by avantgarde materials and technologies, such as the Vipla (a plastic material that resembles leather) for the upholstery, curved plywood to join the backrest and seat, and metal feet with non-slip tips that are easy to assemble.
Round (D.154.5) is also referred to as ‘Otto Pezzi’ (Eight Pieces) in the Ponti/Fornaroli/Rosselli study. In fact, there are eight
pieces that make up the chair: backrest, seat, two curved plywood elements and four legs, which screw into the seat to hold the whole thing together.
Designed in 1954, full production began in 1956/1957 and it was officially presented at the 11th Milan Triennale in 1957 (Feal Pavilion), along with other innovative Ponti
furnishings, in a limited number of examples which are now highly sought after by collectors.

Gio Ponti was very fond of this chair and often used it to furnish his architectural projects.

More than 60 years after the original idea, Round (D.154.5) was reborn thanks to the Heritage Collection reissue project by Molteni&C, in collaboration with the Gio Ponti Archives.

Gio Ponti

Giovanni Ponti, known as Gio (1891–1979), is considered one of the masters of Italian architecture, designer and essayist, among the most important of the 20th century. The architectural works that bear his unique signature are accompanied by a vast production of furnishings, as evidenced by the three houses, fully furnished "alla Ponti". Indeed, we recall those in via Randaccio (1925), Casa Laporte (1926) in via Brin and those in via Dezza (from 1957), the "manifesto" of his design. Gio Ponti, promoter of Italian industrial design, proposes mass production in interior design as a "sophisticated", economic, "democratic" and modern solution. Molteni&C takes care of a re-edition project of furniture and furnishings designed by Gio Ponti, some originally produced precisely for these private homes. After a long process of research, selection and study of prototypes the collection was presented on the occasion of the Salone del Mobile 2012, thanks to the collaboration and exclusive agreement signed with the Ponti heirs. Gio Ponti graduated from Architecture at the Politecnico di Milano at the end of the First World War, where he served on the front line earning some decorations in the field. In 1921 he married Giulia Vimercati, with whom he will have four children: Lisa, Giovanna, Letizia and Giulio.

Molteni

Angelo Molteni, born in 1912, began his entrepreneurial activity in Giussano, now the province of Monza and Brianza, the furniture district. His workshop becomes, in a short time, synonymous with high quality product. The 60s began in the best way, in fact Angelo Molteni is in the founding committee of the first Salone del Mobile in Milan, which opened on 24 September 1961 with great success. This is the decade of the revolution: in a few months, the production is converted from classic to modern, to create well-designed furniture, designed for the series. Luca Meda, a student of the Ulm School, is the man of the revolution, his Iride containers presented at the Salone del Mobile in 1968. From the 70s until today, Molteni grows, is renewed and concretizes in a definitive way its value, and the undisputed style in the world panorama. In 2008 the distribution expanded beyond the Italian borders and was structured with foreign branches. New molteni&c | Dada monobrand stores are opening: about 600 in the world, including 40 Flagship Stores, also present in the largest international design metropolises such as London and New York. Moltenigroup.com is born, the web address of the new website of the Molteni Group. Key words are narration, inspiration, contemporaneity of molteni&c and Dada brands. As of April 2016, Belgian architect and designer Vincent Van Duysen has been appointed creative director of molteni&c and Dada. After the success of the Gliss Master wardrobe collection, the new collaboration focuses on image coordination and the retail concept.