Between 2016 and 2019, Sice Previt was involved in the redevelopment of the ‘sister villas’ complex created by Gio Ponti near Castiglione della Presolana, in Dorga.
Designed in 1934 for the twin brothers Remo and Romolo De Bartolomeis, industrialists active in the Bergamo area, the two holiday homes are located within a complex with a garden and tennis court, and represent an important testimony to the work of the famous Milanese architect and designer, considered among the fathers of Italian rationalism and modernism.
In this case, Ponti’s creation applies the principles of his vision of modern architecture to the mountain environment, integrating some fundamental elements of the local building tradition: the sloping terracotta roofs, the use of stone on the external walls, the extensive use of wood, and the choice of simple, ‘full’ volumes. This was in contrast to the custom, widespread in the early 20th century, of building eclectic and ostentatious villas, totally unrelated to the environmental and cultural context. The features of mountain architecture are however reinterpreted by Ponti in the light of the modern spirit, which combines them with large windows and clean, essential lines.
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More decidedly rationalist and modern is the organisation of the interior spaces, which are linked to the typology of the ‘Mediterranean escape house’ on which Ponti reflected in those years, characterised by the patio-living-dining room sequence (here declined with a portico in place of the patio for a question of adaptation to the climatic context), which Ponti considered typical of the Italian home, aimed at an interpenetration between interior and exterior. An ideal that, in truth, is also characteristic of modernism at other latitudes – for example in the conception of Charlotte Perriand (Paris, 1903-1999).
Even the fixed furniture, while making extensive use of local wood (especially walnut and chestnut), is characterised by the linearity of volumes, airiness and rationalisation of space typical of modernism. The only decorative concession, yet integral to the project in the spirit of modernism, is the choice to characterise the two ‘twin’ villas by means of details inspired by two different types of carabottino: classical (orthogonal) in Romolo’s villa, and lozenge-shaped (rhomboidal) in Remo’s villa – as if to symbolise the unity of the housing complex and, at the same time, the difference between its two nuclei.
Instead, Ponti’s creativity vented itself more freely in his furniture, from ceramics to bed and bedside table covers, for which he personally designed the geometric or phytoform motifs to be reproduced on the fabric. Unfortunately, much of this furniture has been lost over time, but it is still striking in that it remains – as well as in the period photo – the care with which every detail is defined, according to Ponti’s typical ‘total design’ approach. An attention that also extends to the garden, and to the design of the tennis court structures.
Given the value of this architectural complex, the Superintendence for Architectural Heritage and Landscape of Lombardy placed a protection order on it in 2017. Within this framework, the villa built for Romolo De Bartolomeis underwent a series of restoration works aimed at restoring as much as possible the original arrangement of the rooms, which had undergone several modifications during the intervening eighty years.
Sice Previt took care of these operations, drawing on its experience in the restoration of historic buildings.
In particular, it took care of renovating the attic spaces, reopening the dormer windows originally planned by Ponti, restoring the roof tiles in imitation of the original, and re-covering the floors using the materials originally chosen (cementine for the kitchen and bathrooms and wood for the other rooms) and which, over time, had been replaced by tiles. The desire for as historically accurate a restoration as possible even led to the choice of the same company that produced the original cement tiles, La San Giorgio srl dei F.lli Pecis di Zandobbio, as supplier.
According to this logic of restoration, some ‘spurious’ elements introduced over the years were eliminated, such as the fireplace in the hall and the modern furniture introduced as the original ones were gradually ruined, which were instead recovered and restored with the help of specialised craftsmen. One example above all, the painstaking work of restoring the sprung sofa carried out by the EmmeEmme Divani company and documented by Danilo Borelli.
A group of historical photographs of the villa at the end of the work, taken in 1937 and published in Domus issue 119, in an article dedicated to the sister villas, was of fundamental help in all this work.
In addition, Sice Previt’s team of decorators carried out a survey of the original colour of the walls and coverings of each room in the cottage, using a rigorous method based on the progressive removal of the various layers of paint or varnish that had accumulated over the years. By cross-referencing the data thus obtained with the information deducible from the historical photographs, it was possible to proceed with a repainting in the original colours, as well as restoring at least part of the furnishings, of which unfortunately many elements such as ceramics, vases, and blankets had been lost.
Finally, in order to increase the functionality of the rooms, a crawl space was created under the ground floor floors, which had been exposed to a strong problem of humidity that had created problems for the roof.
Finally, Sice Previt also took care of restoring the sports infrastructure common to the two villas: a tennis court built in the surrounding park, again according to Ponti’s design. Thanks to this challenging restoration, the villa that once belonged to Romolo is now perfectly habitable and the project in the pipeline is to make it open to students and scholars of Giò Ponti, also opening it up to temporary residences aimed at research and education
