Alberto Ponis. Photo: Wikipedia

The Italian architect Alberto Ponis has died at the age of 91. Born in Genoa in 1933, he completed his architecture studies in Florence in 1960. Shortly afterwards he moved to London, where he worked with Ernö Goldfinger and later with Denys Lasdun, together with Ted Cullinan.

Alberto Ponis was invited to Sardinia in 1963, and it was then that he decided to make the Italian island his home and workplace. There he carried out a variety of works throughout his life. His early commissions explored the building type that became central in his practice, the one-family vacation home, camouflaged with granite formations. Ponis took an interest in vernacular Sardinian architecture, particularly in the stazzo that dots the landscape, a simple construction where shepherds spend the night and which influenced his residential projects.

Scalesciani House

Hartley House