Art Deco City Milan Italy

Milano Buildings Sightseeing Deco Architecture Tour

Sep 29, 2008 Susan Morris

Travellers to Milan or Milano Italy can feast on the 'Art Deco' architectural delights including Cà Brutta by Giovanni Muzio and Palazzo Montecatini by Gio Ponti.

Visitors to Italy’s fashionable city Milan can not miss designer shopping and absorbing the style of Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, near La Scala Opera House and the area around Via Montenapaleone including Via Andrea, Via Gesù, Via Borgospesso, Via della Spiga and Corso Venezia.

Historical buildings – including the magnificent cathedral Il Duomo – are in abundant supply in Milan. A visit to Milan can include a visual feast of ‘Art Deco’ buildings from the 1920s and 1930s.

Cà Brutta by Giovanni Muzio and Palazzo Montecatini by Gio Ponti

The Novecento group of Italian architects, including key figures Giovanni Muzio, Gio Ponti, Giuseppe de Finetti, Tommaso Buzio and Piero Portaluppi, were prolific in completing urban commissions for apartments and office buildings.

Milan offers, at the pivot of Via Fillipo Turati and Via Moscova, the sights on an ‘Art Deco’ architectural tour of the work of two influential architects in Italy in the 1920s and 1930s, Giovanni Muzio and Gio Ponti.

Giovanni Muzio completed the Cà Brutta, Milan in 1923-1924. Revered by the Milanese people, Cà Brutta or ‘ugly house’ made Muzio’s name as an Italian architect. The work, which can be viewed today, was a largely superficial façade that sought to incorporate windows that predated Muzio’s artistic vision for the apartment block while showcasing the Novecento group.

Facing the ’ugly house’ Cà Brutta, is the Palazzo Montecatini, an elegant former headquarters office building ,completed in 1936 by the Milanese architect Gio Ponti. With a distinct entrance and vestigal acroteria in the central composition of the exterior architecture, the building offers a comparative picture of the diverse work of the Novecento group architects in Milan in the 1920s and 1930s.

Art Deco in Italy

In Art Deco 1910-1939 edited by Charlotte Benton, Tim Benton and Ghislaine Wood, (V&A Publications, 2003) Tim Benton argues in his chapter on ‘Italian Architecture and Design’ that Futurism with Cubism and classical past design with neo-classicalism were both influential in Art Deco in Italy.

The Italian city Milan, or Milano, offers a rich selection of ‘Art Deco’ architecture to view on an extended tour. This should include viewing around the area of the Stazione Centrale:

Casa Feltrinelli (1934-35) at Via Manin by Lodovico Belgiojoso which is near Cà Brutta by Giovanni Muzio and Palazzo Montecatini by Gio Ponti.
Giovanni Muzio’s design for the condominium on the Piazza Repubblica corner with Viale Monte Santo from 1935-1937.
Exterior Building and hotel foyer of The Sheraton Diana Majestic in Milan

The Sheraton Diana Majestic (Viale Piare 42, Milan 20129, Italy, Tel 39-02-20581) offers luxury hotel accommodation and is popular with visitors to Milan Italy for celebrations and conferences. Many other hotels in Milan offering high quality accomodation have retained Art Deco decoration by Italian designers in the 1920s and 1930s.

The copyright of the article Art Deco City Milan Italy in Historical Travel is owned by Susan Morris. Permission to republish Art Deco City Milan Italy in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

City of Milan or Milano, Italy	Il Duomo, The Cathedral of Milan Italy	Galleria Vittorio Emanuele Milan Italy
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele Milan Italy	Entrance to Milan Apartment