Giovanni (called "Gio") Ponti was born in Milan on 18 November 1891. After a classical schooling, he enrolled in 1913 at the Faculty of Architecture, Milan Polytechnic, but did not graduate until the end of World War One, in 1921. From 1923 until 1938 he worked with the Richard-Ginori ceramics factory, while in 1927 he opened his first practice with architect Emilio Lancia (1927-1933). His "classical formation", as he described it, and his passion for pictorial art (he would have liked to be a painter) were the origin of the early Ponti idiom. Central to his style was a new approach to the theme of the home. These were the years of the Villa Bouilhet at Garches, Paris, in which he fused together architecture, interior design and decoration.