The art of too much
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Gio Ponti, designer.
What I despise most about Ponti is that he makes designing look so effortless when it’s never been that for me. I’m not afraid of having design ideas as there’s always some prompt from which to begin and I still believe site conditions are a good place to start. Because, if you do that, the end result is more likely to look like it belongs there – if that’s what’s required. I don’t get the impression Ponti conducted rigorous site analyses or made endless study models before deciding what to do. There may be books of sketches and an entire archive of drawings but it’s unlikely to be as extensive as those of, say, Edwin Lutyens, who never stopped drawing and inventing things on paper. As a writer, Mishima was equally prolific and there’s still much that hasn’t yet been translated into English.
With Ponti, I feel that if you’d asked him to design five villas by tomorrow morning, he’d have just gotten on with it and your five villas would be there for you the next day. He must have had a design process but he never made it explicit. He may not even have been aware of it. For all he wrote, he wrote very little about how he designed. He’s like many other architects in not giving away any secrets but then, I don’t think design for him was ever a conscious act. If he ever compared numerous alternative ways a building or surface could be, they all existed in his head where he processed them apparently instantaneously and effortlessly in a way AI desperately tries to create the illusion of. Design for him was something so simple and easy it never needed automating. And why should it if it’s as natural and effortless as breathing?
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If you have minimalism as a foundation, you can look at many beautiful buildings in different styles throughout time.
I'll never not be a minimalist. I didn't look a lot. It did look like, "too much."
I don't look at the furniture or art at 1stDibs, Rau, or Lang.
The jewelry sections grab my attention every time.
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I want a farmhouse table set in the middle of floor of the living room with the table a rectangle filling in the rectangle of the biggest room. Consoles, shelves, a bench for taking off shoes. Maybe some kind of comfortable chair and an ottoman. This is what I will do it I bought out housemate. I have an idea of it and think it's perfect. Housemate won't hear about. His mother influenced him with deign ideas that work at her house but they don't work here.
I'm rambling. Please forgive me.
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The restrained stuff has aged very well!
