June 2018 – Page 8 – Design in Context: Milan

A day at Milano Arch Week

It’s hard to believe that a week ago I landed in Milan. This week has felt like a daze and a dream – maybe because of the lack of sleep and jet lag, but it still hasn’t sunk in that I’m here.

The highlight this week for me was attending Milano Arch Week.

Early Sunday we started our day by taking the metro to the Triennale where we attended a presentation by Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli, Rotor, and Paolo Nicolin. They spoke about their various interventions in the city of Palermo, Italy. They wanted to create interventions that had a monumental view, increased accessibility and impact towards the citizens of Palermo. I found this presentation super interesting since not too long ago I created one for my Objects and Spaces class. It was cool to see their research and process of how they chose specific areas that were hidden or unused and created small changes within the environment to allow people to discover these plots of land, whether it be on a mountain or street.

After the presentation, we decided to check out an exhibition at the Triennale. The name of the exhibition was Cyclopica which showcased the human side of infrastructure and the impact of it. My favorite part of the exhibition was an area within it that used audio to illustrate the idea of people working and the act of building it. Throughout the area, you would hear sounds of drilling or the trucks moving and see images of it which helped to immerse you in the experience and truly learn.

We ended the day by attending a lecture by Toyo Ito, a Japanese architect. At the last minute, the location of the lecture changed causing a lot of people, including myself to start running to the new location to get good seats. Thankfully we ended up getting seats close to the stage. He talked about the relation between his work and nature and how each building represented that relationship. I had seen his work prior to the lecture, so getting to see him in person was pretty special since it isn’t every day that you get to hear from a decorated architect like himself.

Attending Milano Arch Week was such a treat and even though I only went for a day, it taught me so much about documenting process, research and the relationship between architecture and nature.

Made it to Milan

Over the course of this first week, Milan has proven to be better than I ever imagined. From the fascinating works we’ve studied, to even the streets we walk every day, nothing seems to even have the capability of “getting old.”

My experience of getting into Milan began with a little bit of a bumpy start. Although Kate and I were able to figure out how to navigate the train from the airport, from that point forward, we were on our own. As we frantically searched the Metro for clues, we may as well have been trying to read signs made from a completely different alphabet. We found our way to the kiosk to buy tickets, but we only had one problem: we didn’t know where we were trying to go. Regardless, we hopped in line and tried our best. As the line piled up behind us, a kind woman who did not speak a word of English tried to help us out. She ended up buying the tickets for us and we paid her back.

We took our tickets and hopped on the train we thought we were told to get on, but when we got out, we had no idea which street to take to get to our hotel. After walking around in the pouring rain for hours, with the help of Google maps, we finally got to our hotel.

The next day I was overwhelmingly relieved when we got to IES and were finally with people who knew what they were doing.

I was nervous about being in a completely new place, but going to the top of the Duomo and being able to see such amazing past and contemporary design makes me excited to continue experiencing it all.

Week Two: Alessi!

Today we was another early morning. We met Gulia at Cadorna station at 7:30am and caught a ‘bus’ (just a big van with weird seats) out to Omegna, Italy. Omegna is a smaller town about an hour and a half outside of Milan in which there is a BEAUTIFUL lake and STUNNING design factory. We had a private tour of the Alessi Design Factory during which they told us about their “formula for success” and gave us a long overview of the companies history. They also let us go up to their archives and look around at all the prototypes and iterations of very famous products and renowned designers. It was AMAZING! We got to see right before our eyes the way these designers worked through problems and came up with solutions and how they approach their work. We focused on the design of Alessi’s french press coffee maker and they even had a vending machine that dispensed little espressos! After the archives we got to go to the showroom and look around and I even bought some things!

Formula for success: SMI + CL + F + P = SSS

Sensory Memory Imaginary: It must be pleasant to senses and have a grip on memory, imagination, and unconsciousness. It must create emotion and answer the need of creativity. All in all it must be very personal.

Communication Language: It gives status or style and is trendy. Must be very relational and answer a social need.

Function: It does good and simplifies work. Practical, functional, easy to use and easy to clean!

Price: Must compare well to other design prices but still give a price for the high value of the design.

“Alessi is a translator from a concept to an object”

Coffee maker that I really wanted to buy but could never afford…

When in Rome

I spend this past weekend in Rome, aptly nicknamed the Eternal City. The visible history of the city was both astonishing and mesmerizing as every turn seemed to lead to another monument or ruin and lead me down another cramped street full of crooked buildings with street performers and restaurants. Like Milan, the streets of Rome seemed to wind and sprawl endlessly with only a few (Via del Corso, Via Nazionale, Via Condotti) staying straight for any substantial length. It really gave the impression of an endless city with an abundance of offerings and places to go.

Across the Tiber River is a neighborhood called Trastevere (literally translating to Across the Tiber). There are fewer historical monuments here, but it is the center of most nightlife in Rome. It winds up along the hills and hosts various bars, cafes, shops, and plazas.

Among the highlights of the trip were seeing the Trevi Fountain (the inspiration of the fountain at Caesar’s Palace), the Pantheon, the Colosseum, the National Monument to Vittorio Emanuele, and the Vatican.

milan week one

After one week in Milan, I feel as though my stomach has shrunk by at least a third – it’s still getting used to the different pattern of eating, often feeling starved the whole day then scarfing down an entire pizza at 9pm : I guess stomachs feel culture shock too. The hours of operation are so different here that for the first time I became sensitive to the quality and characteristics of simple white noise of the city.

The highlight of the week for me was the Fondazione Prada. The whole place was like a total work of art, with the buildings and the spaces in between relating and having a conversation with each other. It was fun to pick out the materials and textures of old/new (rusting walls, corrugated walls, gold painted surfaces, velvet chairs, modern chairs) and natural/manmade (metal, wood, mirror) of materials and textures made for a unified space that manages also to be diverse and distinct in its character.

Karina, Baylea, and I booked last minute train tickets to the coast of Italy to Cinque Terre, but it felt like I had left the country and gone to something like a tropical destination spot. I half expected not to find any of the typical coffee, pizza, and gelato shops that populate the streets of Milan but juice bars and Hawaiian cuisine restaurants instead (I was wrong though). We paddle boarded/canoed and were pretty stressed the whole time (it helped that it felt as though I was in a dream). We rented our boats/boards from a small shop near the dock which was run by a beautiful couple – I feel as though I have encountered more genuine people here in Italy, at least in places of business. It’s either indifference or sincere friendliness with no in between, so when it’s the latter I know its not a front many workers in America feel like they have to put on for customers.

Rossana Orlandi Gallery

Milan’s weather was colder than I thought for the first week. My first impression about Italy is that I was surprised how Argentina has so many similarities with Italy. Since Italian immigrants were one of the largest and central ethnic group for modern Argentinians; the food, the culture and the language here are very related to where I lived for most of my life, Buenos Aires. There is a lot of cultural heritage to discover in Italy. The first week was overwhelming for me: climbing to the rooftop of the Duomo, visiting Fondazione Portaluppi, Fondazione Prada, several concept stores, Arch week, etc.

One of the first things that we’ve done in Milan was the visit to Gallery Rossana Orlandi. I didn’t know her until the day when we visited the gallery. So apparently, Rossana Orlandi is a private collector who has an innovative gallery to show her passion and ideas about design and lifestyle. The gallery had broken the traditional way to present design art pieces. Instead, they were displayed all together with different types of products.

The entrance of the Rossana Orlandi Gallery

Brochures at the entrance of the Rossana Orlandi Gallery

When we got to the Rossana Orlandi Gallery, there were several brochures left from the Milan Design Week that we’ve missed. The courtyard was also messy since the Milan Design Week also just ended two weeks ago. But step into the showrooms was a different experience.

Rossana Orlandi focused her collections on young designer’s works. The use of different materials varies from the classic ones such as wood to today’s industrialized materials like glasses, metal or plastic. Material’s textures were one of the things that I was fascinated with:

So the first week in Milan was both excited and exhausted, but all worth it.

Picture of the week

gushing for gucci

The highlight of my weekend was a daytrip to Florence where I toured the Gucci Garden.

The Gucci Garden had a boutique, gift shop, restaurant, cinema, and exhibitions. When we first stepped into the boutique, I had thought it was the museum exhibit because didn’t really know if we could touch anything or take pictures of the clothing… everything was so fancy and expensive. Plus, the employees watched your every move, as if you were under a microscope.

Getting to the exhibit part, it was actually really cool. There was an intersection of social, cultural and political issues at the time represented into almost each article. The colors, styles, materials, motifs, patterns, and even sizes/lengths of pieces all represented something.

For example, one of the rooms in the exhibit focused on the types of fabrics used… specifically those using animal fur or skin. Zebras, giraffes, foxes — oh my. These are only a few of the animals used for their designer clothing. It is evident that they liked to use “exotic” and limited materials in their designs which elevated their prices and status as a luxury brand.

However, today, using these animals for their products is seen as inhumane in most western societies which has resulted in complaints and protests against the brand. As a result, Gucci recently announced in late 2017 they were going fur-free starting with their Spring/Summer 2018 collections. They will no longer have mink, coyote, raccoon dog, fox, rabbit, and karakul in their clothing designs.

It is interesting to see that although their company’s past had been famous for their unique material choices that they were willing to change portions of their brand to accommodate modern times and issues. They are now utilizing technology to find alternatives for furs and reducing their impact on taking animal’s lives.

Their conscious changes for the future may impact other companies or designers to follow their lead and I hope it does. Gucci is doing a good job of accommodating to change while still remaining a strong and successful brand and I admire that.

“Gucci is so visible, so well-known — we need to use that in a positive way.” – Marco Bizzarri, Gucci CEO

If you have a passion for fashion, check out what Gucci has to offer! It is free for students and only a train ride away from Milano.

A Dérive Through Omegna

I brought my own lunch to Alessi, so when our bus stopped in Omegna for lunch, I took the opportunity to explore this small lake town.

First, I did the obvious thing; I walked along the waterfront until the buildings turned to residential homes. The vibes were similar to Como, and after sitting on the water for a few minutes, I turned around to see what was further in the city.

The streets were narrow and lined with shops from the north end of the lake. I peeked into the gelato shops as I walked past hoping to find blatant signage that read “vegan”, but I didn’t have any luck. I came to an old church with open doors, peeked inside, then ducked around the side where I could see a pedestrian way. It wrapped around to the back of the church and turned into a suspended walkway over a calm river of clear water.

The River – I tried to find the name but it’s not even on google maps.

When the suspended walkway ended on land, I followed the fork toward an iron gate and discovered a park called Parco Della Fantasia. Some kids were playing on a small zipline, there were brutalist planters over 10 feet tall, and an large eclectic building. The building held Omegna’s Museum of Art and Industry. On one side of the building, I was able to pay 2 Euros and then walk to the other to enter the museum.

The museum was empty (I was literally the only person — there wasn’t even anyone to check my ticket) and I walked through the permanent collection of designed object which were manufactured in the area. One room was full of coffee makers, toasters, and other industrial goods with googly eyes tacked on. The second floor was dedicated to manufacturing processes and I was able to see how moka pots are forged and how table-ware is formed.

Gelato 24/7

After a long flight and a furious arrival, my first week was actually pretty good. Even though I am not a design major, professor Catterall made It very easy for non-design students to understand the art and the design and appreciate it as well. My favorite visit of that first week was the Rossana Orlandi museum; it was very interesting. I liked most the art that was present, and even though they did not make sense when put together in the same space, the guide was still able to give us a unique story and enlighten us about most pieces. Also, what I love about Italy is how close it is to my home country Lebanon. The driving, the people, the buildings, the restaurants… Even the flowers! It almost feels like I have known Milan forever.

Before I left, a family friend that has been to Italy told me “Pizza and gelato every day” and let me tell you something, he is so right! The Italian cuisine is delicious and if I don’t have a gelato daily, my day doesn’t go well.

My best friend from France visited me this weekend as well after not seeing her for months… It was great. We were counting the days and it felt unreal to see her again, but I am glad I did, even for a short time. We visited the Duomo together, watched a heated soccer match in a bar, ate lots of gelato and went happy hour together. This weekend was definitely a success!

I cannot wait to experience Milan and the rest of Italy over the time left and learn as much as I can about design, an elective that I’m starting to love and appreciate!