Sebastiano Brandolini

Inhabited Pathway - The Built Work of Alberto Ponis in Sardinia

Alberto Ponis, born 1933 in Genoa, was educated at Florence University, where he qualified as an architect in 1960. He worked in London with Erno Goldfinger and Denys Lasdun in 1960-64, under the strong - and lasting - influence of the movements of modernism and new brutalism then dominant in British architecture. He established his studio in 1964 in Palau on the island of Sardinia. Ponis has studied the natural conditions and social history of Sardinia and has also done extensive research on the "stazzo", Sardinia's typical rural building type. On this thorough knowledge of conditions, traditions and requirements, an oeuvre of more than 300 residential buildings is founded. Each house is deeply rooted in its environment and connected with the land and other dwellings by the "sentiero", the path leading to and from it. They show a natural modesty and simplicity and express the architect's great formal skills and sensitivity. Alberto Ponis - Sardinia is the first comprehensive monograph on this highly interesting and original architect.Lavishly illustrated, it documents his life and work and presents in detail eight selected buildings between 1965-98 that make traceable the evolution of Ponis's work and philosophy.