He is a master of Italian design and he has cultivated a passion for motorboats, ships and ocean liners since the 1930s. He considered them laboratories for experimenting with innovative solutions that he would then transfer to the design of home interiors with artisans and artists. Painters, sculptors, ceramists, outside the ateliers, could thus feel and face the needs of the emerging furniture industry
Gio Ponti, the “father” of Italian design, had a deep and long-standing passion for ships, motor vessels, and ocean liners. For nearly thirty years, from 1929 to 1957, the Milanese architect published articles in Domus, the magazine he had directed since founding it in 1928, dedicated to Italian vessels. He viewed ship interiors and furnishings as laboratories for experimentation, sources of inspiration for the most beautiful land-based architecture, and manifestos of what would come to be known as Italian design.
As early as 1931, in an article titled “L’arredamento navale oggi e domani”- Naval Furnishing Today and Tomorrow - (Domus no. 46), Ponti criticized the “outdated, if not abandoned, manner of furnishing the beautiful modern hulls in an antique and pompous style.” He argued that ship interior design went beyond issues of comfort, elegance, and taste, and should be “through the work of artists and craftsmen, a living testimony to the level of civilization of the Nation offering hospitality on board.”
Even in this field, Ponti pursued the renewal of the arts, taste, and Italian lifestyle that defined his long career, decade after decade from the 1920s to the 1970s, towards a modern way of conceiving and designing human spaces. He did not merely comment on naval design; he tested himself as a designer. Already an established name, transitioning from his artistic direction at Richard Ginori to full-time leadership of Domus, Ponti met Gustavo Pulitzer Finali of Trieste, one of the most renowned naval interior architects of the time. Pulitzer commissioned him to design a ceramic cladding, with geometric patterns in coral-red hues, for the first-class bar adjacent to the smoking lounge on the motor ship Saturnia. In 1929, the Cosulich Società Triestina di Navigazione, or Cosulich Line, launched the first architectural competition for furnishing a ship with a modern spirit. Ponti wryly commented in Domus: "We have never been amazed by the ostentatious interiors of our ocean liners. On the contrary, we've regretted that these ships carried around the world such a gaudy testimony to Italian aesthetic education."
At the IV International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Monza (1930), Ponti presented a Luxury Cabin for Ocean Liners, created by the Milanese furniture maker Quarti. The following year, Pulitzer Finali brought him in again, this time for the ceramic cladding of the second-class bar on the Victoria, Italy’s first modern passenger ship. Ponti designed the tiles, produced by Richard Ginori, along with the dinnerware, tea service, and cutlery made by the Italian division of Krupp. “The interiors of the Victoria comprise a full repertoire of furnishings of every kind and level, and a repertoire of materials, techniques, works, and innovative solutions that are extremely interesting,” Ponti wrote.
He was particularly focused on three aspects. The involvement of skilled artists and craftsmen in all applied arts (“from carpets to furniture, inlays, ceramics, and textiles”) to address both aesthetic and technical needs (“such as lighting” and “acoustics, ventilation, hygiene, etc.”). Stylistic unity in interior design to create cohesive, flowing environments (“Visitors to the Victoria are struck by the second class, where the spaces, though varied, are ‘coherent’, coordinated in their diversity so that moving from one to another always offers a pleasant spectacle.”). Lastly, the inclusion of artists from the earliest phases of ship design (“This is another testimony to our civilization and a wonderful opportunity to employ the magnificent talents of worthy individuals.”)
From these early writings and projects, several principles emerge that would not only revolutionize nautical design but reshape the very concept of the “Italian home”, so dear to Ponti. The importance of artisans and craftsmen working alongside and in harmony with architects in the design of interiors and single furnishing. Stylistic and design unity, everything perfectly conceived down to the smallest detail by a single guiding hand. Collaboration with great artists, painters, sculptors, ceramicists, friends and whom Ponti, a skilled talent scout, brought from their studios into direct engagement with architecture and decorative arts.
One significant example is Fausto Melotti, a sculptor, painter, and musician, discovered by Ponti in his twenties during the Richard Ginori period and supported throughout his life. Together, they would go on to create projects like the Alitalia Terminal in New York, Villa Planchart in Caracas, and Villa Nemazee in Tehran. In the 1930s and ’40s, Ponti continued his pursuit of modernity, designing everything: homes, offices, public buildings, interiors, factories, public spaces, furnishings, lamps, vases, textiles, even stage sets and costumes. With Austrian architect Bernard Rudofsky, he developed a “Mediterranean” design philosophy, focusing on outdoor living spaces and a deep relationship with nature, where interior and exterior became one, blending seamlessly with the landscape.
It was only after World War II that Ponti received his first formal naval architecture commissions. Writing in the Corriere della Sera in 1950, he stated: “An Italian ship is a piece of Italy; it must represent the highest and most prestigious aspects of Italian taste, culture, arts, and craftsmanship. It is not just a means of transporting tourists to Italy, it is something more. It must be an exciting testament to the cultural, civil, and human climate of our country. Tourists must learn about Italy aboard the ship.”
He designed interiors for four ocean liners and two motor vessels, renewing the image of the Italian merchant fleet after the war and contributing to the myth of the Italian Line in the 1950s. The Conte Grande, Conte Biancamano, Giulio Cesare, and Andrea Doria connected Italy to North and South America, while the Oceania and Africa motor ships served their namesake continents. These ships showcased Italian industrial creativity abroad.
Although, it was always a matter of outfitting, not designing, the ships, laden with art, traveling heraldry of Italy. Two innovations stood out: walls and columns made of ultra-light aluminum, never before used this way, and illuminated ceilings, transforming the low ship ceilings into light, airy scenes. Like in his home interiors, Ponti indulged in a joyful decorative excess. And, as in the interiors of houses and the pages of Domus in these years, the Italian art that Ponti embarks on is mostly ceramics: Fontana, Melotti, Leoncillo, vases by Gambone, Melandri, Zortea, enamels by De Poli, and large-scale paintings by Fiume. Fornasetti provided fantastical decorations. Ponti conceived these ships as floating homes, even small moving cities with dining rooms, dance halls, lounges, social spaces designed in collaboration with artist friends, intended to reflect the liveliness of Italian culture. His projects focused mainly on public areas: main salons, reading and game rooms, bars, restaurants, and staircases connecting the ship’s decks. Only on the Andrea Doria he designed one of four luxury suites, the Zodiac Suite, with Piero Fornasetti. In Domus, March 1950, Ponti wrote: “In returning to sea fully renewed, the Conte Grande and Conte Biancamano reconnect, after the hardships of war, with the expressions of modernity seen in earlier Italian liners like the Conte di Savoia, and also the Victoria, a smaller yet beautiful ship.”
For the Conte Grande, Ponti worked with Venetian technician Nino Zoncada on the executive design and detailed drawings. His focus was on spatial continuity, light source studies, and materials suited to maritime use: anodized gold and silver aluminum, bronze, rubber, linoleum, and a variety of woods. “Aluminum is a perfect material for shipbuilding: maintenance-free, lightweight, fireproof, and solid.” The second ship returned by the U.S. to Italy post-war was the Conte Biancamano, which reached the Monfalcone shipyard in 1948. Ponti noted: “In designing this ship, we aimed to give a unified style to the most representative spaces, connecting them with a sequence of colors, compositions, or deliberate contrasts. Each room was designed to have a distinct character through a specific invention.” These projects came just as the great age of transatlantic liners was ending, ships would sail for only two decades before being overtaken by air travel. Aware of the shift, Ponti transformed these commissions into research on the modern home interior, laying the foundations for Italy’s domestic design culture. His exploration of materials, where ceramic coexists harmoniously with glass and aluminum, his lighting innovations, study of low ceilings, and design of the ship’s cabin as the counterpart of the bourgeois bedroom, all became chapters in this creative evolution. Furniture design also changed radically: new types of furnishings and, more importantly, a modern approach to mass production, enabled by the scale of the commissions, marking the maturity of the Italian furniture industry. Italian design was born. Gio Ponti was its father, and naval furnishing its first child.
