Alberto Ponis. Costruire nella natura

Alberto Ponis: Building in Nature analyzes 22 architectural works, highlighting the importance of drawing and photography as the first steps in the design process, such as in the Genius Loci series, where he photographs Sardinian vernacular architecture. The primary objective is to analyze the work of Alberto Ponis as a whole, focusing on both single-family homes and collective houses built in Palau and Costa Paradiso, exploring the relationship with the natural site, composed of granite rocks, arbutus trees, and holm oaks-elements that become part of the architecture, shaping its form.

Through meticulous work within the Ponis Archive, lesser-known materials have emerged, such as slides from his trips to America to visit the Sea Ranch and the works of Louis Kahn, as well as his visits to Ronchamp and La Tourette, and the architecture of Arne Jacobsen and Alvar Aalto. But most importantly, there are letters with clients, photographs Ponis took of his own houses, sketchbooks from site inspections, notes from Thought & Forms-his design vocabulary, which he continuously refined over time-up to his "pictorial obsessions" with the harbors of Nervi and Bonifacio.

This book aims to serve as a tool for deeply investigating Ponis' research, providing the reader with various media to understand its complexity. At the same time, it offers a design vocabulary for those who seek to create ethical architecture within nature.