PINTO DI BLU- PARCO DEI PRINCIPI - DESIGNED BY GIO PONTI
Architect & Designer Gio Ponti
Welcome to our ONLINE STORE and blog.
As a barware, lighting and home accessories design company, at Thomas Fuchs Creative we specialize in handmade goods. Every week we give you a behind the scenes look at the people, places and things that inspire us.
We all have to ask ourselves a deeper question, does art imitate life or does life imitate art. In this scenario we believe we were lead to the "Deep Blue Hotel" subconsciously knowing our upcoming award winning dinnerware collection "Midnight Navy" is what brought us into this deep blue experience.
Thomas Fuchs Midnight Navy Dinnerware
After two weeks of uber-luxurious stays at The Fairmont, The Maxx Royal Bodrum, and Soho House Istanbul (check out our Instagram reels), we decided to return to our designer roots. Before heading back to our summer home in Southern Italy, we sought inspiration for the summer to invigorate our hearts and minds. Often, too little is said about where true inspirations originate. While in Istanbul with our family, we hired an amazing guide, Safie, but Thomas and I realized we preferred wandering through the streets, discovering monuments and buildings on our own, and then researching them later. This approach, led by our vision rather than a guide, always proves to be more inspiring for us.
This brings us to the underrated architectural gems hidden along the coastline. After staying in Naples at the Royal Continental, I discovered its sister property, Parco Dei Principi. Unlike other hotels where only one floor retains the original design, this hotel preserves the entire room's integrity—from lighting panels and door handles to chairs and bed headboards. It offers a complete immersion into the world of Gio Ponti. I immediately contacted the hotel and was connected with International Sales Director Giuliana De Angelis. Giuliana turned out to be the perfect ambassador, providing an in-depth historical tour that made our stay magical. This was only our second stop of the summer—a fantastic way to start our holiday.
Considered as the godfather of Italian modern architecture and design, Gio Ponti is a great source of inspiration for many designers worldwide. Other than the great architectural works which carry his unmistakable signature, he created a vast amount of work in the furniture sector. Gio Ponti was an Italian promoter of industrial design and introduced the idea of interior furnishing ranges produced as being a "sophisticated," economic, "democratic" and modern.
Hotel Bar with Ceramic Pebble Stone Walls
In 60 years of creation and 50 of editorial activity, Gio Ponti designed more than 200 projects, from buildings to urban planning, theatre sets to exhibitions, seeing at least a third come to fruition, with more than 40 just in Milan. He created over 250 pieces of furniture, machines, lamps, ceramics, textiles, tiles, glassware and metal objects. He wrote more than 99,000 letters, executed more than 17,000 drawings and architectural and product studies and directed over 500 magazine editions, while the articles he penned are almost incalculable.
Born and educated in Milan, the young Ponti harboured ambitions to become an artist, but instead enrolled in architecture at the Milan Polytechnic in 1913, completing his studies in 1921 after serving in the war. This period is recorded in his portraits of his fellow soldiers, along with his sketches of bivouac life. An outstanding draughtsman, his first direct encounter with architecture resulted in sketchbooks filled with first-hand studies of Palladio’s architecture.
Ponti looked to the Venetian not only technically and aesthetically – Palladio also exerted influence on his formulation of a theory of architecture, which found its expression in Amate l’architettura (In Praise of Architecture) from 1957. Ponti’s daughter Lisa remembers that, ‘When we were young, father would ask my sister Giovanna and me, “Girls, who are your father’s masters?” And we would reply: “Serlio, Palladio and Vitruvius”.’
The land on which the hotel is located belonged to the Order of the Jesuits until the eighteenth century when the King of Naples, Ferdinand IV of Bourbon acquired the property and gave a part of it to his cousin Paul Leopold of Bourbon, Count of Syracuse. In 1792 the Count built Villa Poggio Siracusa whose sumptuous rooms hosted dames and barons eager to leisure in that joyful Eden. The tragic death of the beloved of the Count, started a period of decline that lasted until 1885 when the Cortchacow family bought the area.
The villa returned to its original glory by becoming the theatre of stories, passions and famous receptions. The new owners started the striking creation of a dacha in the English Gothic style to be used for a future visit of the illustrious cousin, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. The hotel is located right on the remains of the never completed dacha.
Roberto Fernandes, the Neapolitan engineer, bought the land in 1959 and commissioned the architect Gio Ponti to transform the place into a hotel. The historical legacy, the extraordinary location and natural colours inspired Ponti to create a structure rooted in the earth characterised by the verticality of the ancient dacha and the Sorrento coast.
The Parco dei Principi hotel was inaugurated on 11 April 1962 and since then has remained evidence of the absolute and joyful intuition of the engineer Fernandes.
Private Beach w/ Gio Ponti Chaise Lounges
The private beach, linked by tunnels dug into the rock. A path through tunnels in the rock leads from the hotel to the private beach. The two cliffs equipped with solarium offer the thrill of being in the sun, but in close contact with the crystal clear water. Inside the gardens, surrounded by rare botanical specimens, there is a salt water pool designed by Gio Ponti. Small relaxing islands emerge from the pool and the diving board seems to be suspended over the water.
The Gio Ponti restaurant gives an immediate telescope effect,which magnifies the view of the sea with its wide spaces and the absence of wall backdrops. In the main restaurant of the hotel it is possible to start each new day with a delicious breakfast or dinner to end it with a flourish. Bright rooms with view on the botanical gardens, in which the blue in all its shades envelops interior spaces and the green surrounds the view from the outside.
The best part of staying in this hotel is that speaking with other guests we realized that the majority of the guest where customers that come every summer from young and older couples to a gay couple with kids to us so the demographics are inclusive and run the full spectrum. HOWEVER, the biggest kept secret is the staff, service and the cuisine which is OUTSTANDING! If you are looking for a non scene quiet luxury holiday with great design service and history this is the "MUST STAY"
Have a great weekend!
Michou
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