Alberto Ponis is an Italian architect born in 1933. Originally working in London with Erno Goldfinger and Denys Lasdun, Ponis was influenced by the movements of Modernism and Brutalism present in British architecture at the time, and the natural and urban landscapes of London.

In 1964 he started his practice on Sardinia. The Palau area offered an alternative to the wealthy, touristy Costa Smeralda, and the houses he designed seemed to meld with the windswept, remote coastline, themselves becoming a part of the landscape.

This drawing shows a site plan for one of these homes, Casa Scalesciani made in 1977.

“A preliminary sketch I made in 1974 envisioned a single file of small square rooms, as if holding hands to prevent them tumbling into the sea”.

The original was made with pen and ink on tracing paper, an expressive drawing that gives the sense of having been made by someone with a true connection with this landscape.