Gio Ponti: the real charmer of Italian design

From the graceful Pirelli tower to his classic super-light chair, the Milanese architect’s life and work are celebrated in a huge new tomeAt the dedication of Taranto Cathedral in 1970, its 79-year-old architect, Gio Ponti, gave a speech. His words are not well remembered, but his family kept a recording of what preceded it: 10 minutes of applause, like “thunder”. This was a figure who, according to some anti-modernist mythologies, was supposed not to exist – a modern arc