DOMUS Guigno 1930
Numero dedicato al Palazzo per gli Uffici del Gruppo Gualino-Torino
Architetti G. Pagano-Pogatschnig and G. Levi-Montalcini
Gio Ponti [Editor]
Gio Ponti: DOMUS [L’Arte Nella Casa]. Milano: Editoriale Domus, Guigno 1930. Original edition. Text in Italian. Slim quarto. Photographically printed wrappers. Side stitched textblock. 75 [XXXIX] pp. Articles and advertisements. Multiple paper stocks and inserts. Wrappers lightly worn and soiled with light etching to edges. Spine heel roughened. Trivial spotting early and late, but a very good copy.
9 x 11.5-inch side stitched periodical with 114 pages of which 75 are devoted exclusively to every aspect of Turin’s Palazzo Gualino by Giuseppe Pagano and Gino Levi Montalcini, from the functionally articulated facade to the lighting, flooring, and furnishing that all contribute to a total work of art [Gesamtkunstwerk] published in the year of the projects’ completion. The project received immediate critical acclaim as one of Italy’s first fully realised examples of Rationalist architecture, with Domus devoting an entire issue to the commission in the summer of 1930.
In the 1920s architects started to consider furniture and furnishing in modern offices as an opportunity to combine their functional needs according to the image of a modern company — the concept of a total work of art [Gesamtkunstwerk] as an office building.
Italian architects Giuseppe Pagano (Parenzo, 1896 – 1945) and Gino Levi Montalcini (Milan, 1902 – 1974), designed, built and furnished Palazzo Gualino (Turin, 1928-1930), as a (since recognized) prime example of the new Rationalist architecture. For Riccardo Gualino’s Salpa company the architects viewed every single detail through the lens of company identity. The functional severity of the exterior design demonstrated a planned correspondence with the functionality of interior spaces. It was the first office building in Turin, and one of the first in Italy, to use continuous floor covering and to install an air-conditioning system.
Architects all over the world considered office furniture as an opportunity to combine functional needs and a concise and expressive grammar, with the requirements of efficiency, productivity and the image of a modern company. As in a total work of art, interior design was conceived as an indissoluble union of space and furniture. For Palazzo Gualino Pagano and Montalcini designed 67 cohesive but different pieces of furniture as prototypes for a new specialized production of office furniture in Fabbrica Italiana Pianoforti - F.I.P. (Italian Piano Factory), bought by Gualino in 1927. The unified furnishings plan made use of modernist materials such as chromium-plated metal, glass, Salpa leather and Buxus – a new cellulose-based product manufactured by the Giacomo Bosso factory where the furniture was also made.
The furniture was composed of pure volumes made shiny by the combination of different buxus veneers. Chairs, folding furniture for typewriters, tables and cabinets for offices had a cohesive design. Only the swivel chair for clerks, adjustable in height, was light in its formal conception, thanks to a use of tubular metal structure. The design of the office boy’s desk, which was placed in front of the elevators in the hallway, was totally new: it had a high shelf on the front to allow the visitor to write while, standing on the opposite side of the cabinet, the office boy was sitting waiting.
In Italy the taste for color re-entered office design with a new perceptive function. Inlays in linoleum underlined the perfect geometries and the smooth surfaces of modernity. New materials like buxus were extensively used in furniture design to replace more expensive materials. The choice of materials was related to comfort, maintenance and durability. Right angles and smooth surfaces created abstract patterns of reflection of pure volumes suggesting cubic paintings.
Lamps were positioned around the openings to signal the entrance and, in the evening, the whole building became a dark background with no volume where the windows changed into large lamps. Furthermore, it was the result of a total work of art where every detail was conceived to be a part of a whole.
Inside the building, the wall edges were covered with chrome profiles, which reduced wear and at the same time made the light vibrating. Every detail, from wall clocks to handles, was designed to improve work and receive clients.
Siemens telephones were placed everywhere and, for the boardroom and the meeting rooms, new telephones were designed and produced by S.A. Brevetti Perego of Milan. Special chandeliers made with cubes of Artax were designed for the boardroom, while the offices were illuminated with light diffusers by Kandem, Zeiss and Philips.
Gualino’s office was at the top of the building. Gigi Chessa stated “Isolated on the top floor, away from street noise, is the most refined and comfortable work environment […]. But who can describe the beauty of the large window made of glass and chromed steel, and the veranda covered with shiny black?” In this space, the use of glass was symbolic: glass as the metaphor of moral transparency of the director and used as a medium of the corporate image.
The idea of reducing noise coming from the street and spreading natural light evenly through glass was later used by Pagano in the offices of the “Il Popolo d’Italia” newspaper (1934-35, Milan), where the architect furnished the room belonging to director Vito Mussolini, the Duce’s nephew. A full conception of symbolic space was used for Gualino Palace. Furthermore, the project is surprisingly close to the international style for the functionality, transparency, lightness and simplicity achieved.
By 1931 Gualino’s mounting debts led to Mussolini’s accusation of causing "serious harm to the national economy." Gualino was arrested in Turin in January 1931 and sentenced to five years “confino,” a form of internal exile. At the end of the 30’s Palazzo Gualino was sold to the Agnelli family and became the FIAT representative office. In 1988 FIAT sold the building to the Turin Municipality and Gualino Palace was reconverted into municipal tax offices. Over the years a lot of its furniture disappeared.
Domus was founded by Gio Ponti in 1928. During the start of the global economic depression in 1929, Ponti agreed to let the 23-year-old publisher Gianni Mazzocchi take over Domus and established the Editorial Domus publishing house. The first issue of Domus, subtitled "Architecture and decor of the modern home in the city and in the country," was published on 15 January 1928. Its mission was to renew architecture, interiors and Italian decorative arts without overlooking topics of interest to women, like the art of homemaking, gardening and cooking. Gio Ponti delineated the magazine's goals in his editorials, insisting on the importance of aesthetics and style in the field of industrial production.
Mazzocchi and Editoriale Domus took over Casabella in 1934, entrusting its direction first to Franco Albini and Giancarlo Palanti to overhaul the editorial focus on traditional interior design. Then Giuseppe Pagano Pogatschnig teamed up with art critic Edoardo Persico and transformed Casabella into a mouthpiece for the latest art and design trends. With intuition that allowed him to see far beyond his times, Gianni Mazzocchi successfully conceived and established magazines and journals that have contributed to shape the history of Italian publishing.