Month: June 2018

week 3

The highlight of this week for me was definitely visiting Achille Castiglioni’s studio. His approach to design has a wittiness and economy that I want to implement in my own work. I also enjoyed the Armani Silos museum, the way the lighting enhanced the clothing and the way sound interacted with the spaces to form a seamless sensory experience. 

Over the weekend, I went to Rome and visited the RedValentino Flagship store, the MAXXI museum designed byZaha Hadid, the Vatican museums, and St. Peter’s Basilica. The MAXXI museum was not the most inviting space, which I find to be a common motif in Zaha Hadid’s work. Because the museum is like a piece of sculpture and has such a distinct personality on its own, it was interesting to see how its exhibitions and art take on the challenge of complementing/ the space shaped by the building’s architecture.

Also the RedValentino Flagship store designed by India Mahdavi was cool to visit, I loved her use of color and confident use of pure forms:

I went on a tour to visit the Vatican museums and St. Peter’s Basilica in order to skip the lines.I kind of hate tours because of their strict nature, and so we basically strolled through the museums with rare and brief moments of admiration in probably under 20 minutes.

week 2

Jesse and I took an airplane to Prague for the weekend. It’s crazy that just under an hour of flying I can enter a country where people speak a different language (from a different language family), with a very different atmosphere because of its Slavic cultural history.

The first thing that struck me was the escalator in the metro station – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJNvNy4bj0g . The posters on the walls were running parallel with the slope of the escalator, instead of their usual orientations in escalators, parallel to the axis of a standing person. It was disorienting, and in hindsight I think this first memory of Prague is a perfect representation of the city’s character.

As we continued exploring the city, we kept running into peculiar objects:

a sculptural water drinking fountain

and another fountain featuring threeelegant and relaxed dinosaurs spitting water with great force, in the middle of a small plaza with surrounding restaurants:

and instead of finding beautiful courtyards when peakinginto a doorway on the street like in Milan, I instead saw people drinking beers at bars (more like dimly litbasements with like one yellow wall lighting fixture on a deep mahogany colored wall).

The variety of different styles of architecture there also felt like an accurate description of how Prague is right now: there is an odd balance/coexistence  in Prague of tourists from around the world and Czech natives (who speak a fairly small language and share a very particular culture). Likewise, there was an eclectic mixture of building styles, with new/international jutting up next to historical ones, next to Wes Anderson-like buildings, next to Cubist-inspired ones:

Maybe I’ve just had a previous idea of Prague and it made me look at everything with a lens (that everything is disconcerting and odd). But I really think that’s what Prague is about, from everything I described to the language itself (objectively, the way the letters form together in words clash).

paris avec mes amies

This past weekend I spent in Paris, France with a couple of the girls.
paris pups.

I’ve always wanted to go just to test out my skills from French classes over the years. Apparently the Parisans speak more English than they do French… I’m not sure if that was a good or bad thing for me. I’m not that good at it anyway so it’s whatever.

The three days we spent there were glorious(ly expensive). I’ve never spent 20 USD on a meal just for myself but that happened in France. Here’s what I got:

– 3 blueberry pancakes
– 1 ham and cheese croissant
– 0 drinks!!!!*

Continue reading paris avec mes amies

48 hours in Paris

This past weekend Kalissa, Moira, Celeste, Courtney and I went to Paris. We arrived on Saturday afternoon and took it easy the first night. We explored the area around our hotel which was near the Moulin Rouge and ate French food for dinner.

On Sunday, we woke up early and headed straight to the Louvre. I didn’t realize that the Louvre was as big as it was- you would need a full day there to get through it all.  Due to time, we weren’t able to see everything but we did get to see the Mona Lisa. My favorite exhibit was the Islamic Art exhibit. I was fascinated by the level of detail and patterns showcased. Also, the ceilings in the museum were incredible, nothing but precise craftsmanship and sheer beauty.

Next, we headed to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. We saw a lot of Art Nouveau pieces as well as pieces we had learned in History of Design like Charlotte Perriand’s Chaise Lounge. It was exciting to see objects we learn about in real life, which puts things into perspective like the size of the object.

Within the museum, they had a special exhibit dedicated to Hérmes. The exhibit showcased the various innovative designs created by the brand.

We then headed to the Pompidou. The line was long so we weren’t able to go inside but we got to see the structure itself.

Our last museum stop of the day was at the Louis Vuitton Foundation. The building is not only a regular art museum that houses exhibits but it also has a section to showcase the process and construction of the building itself. I’m a pretty big Frank Gehry fan so to see his work in person was pretty amazing, to say the least. We took the elevator to the top and was greeted with this beautiful outdoor space that gave a view of the city. Visiting this building was the highlight of my day.

 

After we headed to the Arc de Triomphe, a must see in Paris. The monument is in the center of the road, so we had to go underground and then walk up.

To end the night we visited the Eiffel Tower. We got to go under it as well as see it sparkle. It was a great way to end our very long day.

The next day we explored Paris a little more before we went to the airport and came back to Milan. Paris is a wonderful city and I will definitely go back one day!

The Armani Factory

On Wednesday we had a trip to Armani/Silos to look at their clothes. At first, the museum had a series of paintings that told a story about a Jewish guy in Venice with his puppet. After reading the story, there was many mini stories, represented by pictures. They were kind of silly and I didn’t understand many of some of them; still they were nice to look at. On the first floor, there were many accessories laid down. Some of them were nice, but very few would I actually wear. I went quickly through them and headed to the other side where they had the outfits. At first, many of the outfits were suits for men and women, but not many of them were attractive. Some of the items were nice but most of them didn’t even go together. I moved to the second floor and Claire joined me while we went through the last two floors together. We went through every single piece of clothes and judged it: we either buy it, remodel it or don’t buy it at all. Many of the items wouldn’t have been purchased by us, many others were modified and redesigned and very few would have been purchased. For example, we’d either decide to change the material, the patters or the colors as if we were actual designers (we would make nicer clothes if we were.) After that, I watched some of the commercials that they were playing and left. After the museum, I went home, then to Éclair de Genie to have the best éclairs I ever tried. They were colorful and very tasteful. Finally, I got together with my group and we worked on the project together!

Armani Men Clothes
Armani Dress
Eclair
Project

Weekend in Milan

This weekend I stayed in town and got to explore Milan a little bit more. The first place I went was the Sforza Castle, called the Castello Sforzesco in its native Italian. It is right next to Cairoli Station and sits at the end of Via Dante, a very pleasant pedestrian street that connects the Duomo to the Sforza Castle. Cars re not allowed on it, leaving pedestrians to roam freely and the sidewalks are lined with restaurants, shops, and cafes. Most of the restaurants have large eating areas situated outside on the sidewalks, giving the street plenty of life and constant energy.

The castle itself was really cool to explore and had numerous galleries. There were old columns, tapestries, and paintings detailing the history of the castle and its role in Milanese history. The armory was especially fascinating as it showcased 18th and 19th century weapons ranging from swords and glaives to early rifles.

On the upper level there was a large gallery with 20th century furniture, many of which were made by people we had learned about or at least briefly referenced. The Memphis Group had a lot of work there in particular.

Week 4: Artemide!

Today we went to Artemide Factory and learned about their production process and the values that shape it. We took a van/ bus to Pregnana Milanese and I slept all the way there. Then, after arriving we were greeted with little candies and waters that we, of course, devoured. Artemide was “born in Italy in 1959”. It consists of worldwide designers, distribution, and awareness. All products are made in Europe and thoroughly tested before shipment. They have interest in new technologies which involves a lot of engineering and brainstorming. However, they also think about traditional arts and worldwide awareness. THis is where their slogan “the human light” comes from. I thought it was fascinating to see the way the workers interacted with each other and with the machinery. I have never seen such giant laser cutters in my life! I also loved getting to put a strip of their packing tape in my sketchbook! The packing tape has great typography and bold colors. I love the way the serifs and san serifs balance and the weight of the typefaces. I also love that the tape is colored brown so that when it is overlapped, you still see the integrity of the design rather than having it chaotically overlap.

lovin the orange vests and name tags :)

A day in Paris

After an intense week, Kalissa, Neesha, Moira, Courtney and I decided to spend a more exhausting weekend in Paris. Even there were a lot of things that we couldn’t have done due to the short time of our stay, the trip was definitely worth it.
The highlight of the trip for me was the visit to the Foundation Louis Vuitton, designed by Frank Gehry. The most famous work from him has to be the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. The opening of this Museum had brought a huge economic and cultural revitalization to the city Bilbao, and this phenomenon is known as the Bilbao effect. Gehry’s success in his works made me want to see the Foundation Louis Vuitton in person so bad when I was in Paris. And we finally made it.

The Foundation Louis Vuitton 

The Foundation Loius Vuitton was opened in the year 2014 and located next to the Jardin d’Acclimatation in Paris. The placement of the building was in the middle of one of the biggest natural attraction of the city. The luxurious look of the Foundation gives an interesting industrialized touch to the Bois de Boulogne Park. But the reflection of the natural landscape from the building also works well in neutralized this industrial interaction with nature.

We could see the Jardin d’Acclimatation from the terrace of the building 

The exhibition of the Foundation Louis Vitton consists of two parts: half of the permanent exhibition about the architecture of the Foundation itself and the other half was some temporary exhibitions with some museum collections of modern art exhibitions.

the prototype of the Foundation Louis Vuitton

The combination of the building and art collections is also a highlight for the Foundation. For example, Olafur Eliasson’s work Inside the Horizon created a particular interactive space with illuminated yellow columns for the public in a walkway.

Inside the Horizon

 

Picture of the week