Category: Weekly Posts_2018

Artemide

Things I noticed at the Artemide:

  1. A flat lamp with a precise shadow casted over the shade. The shade also helped block direct light at viewers.
  2. Diffusion of light. I liked the light panels that they showed us. The lighting was soft and something I wish I considered in one of my previous design projects (Objects and Spaces).                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
  3. Lighting in the Microsoft building in Milan. Thin rods of light run parallel to the building’s overall shape, which helped highlight the structure. I walked past it the other day but I think the lights were off.
  4. “Alphabet of Light”. It’s like a cleaner version of fluorescent lighting. The contrast of the sleekness of the alphabet underneath the arcade of the University of Milan was stunning. I also like the idea of using light to create shapes in the other parts of the collection.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
  5. Creating outdoor lighting that is non-invasive, doesn’t stand out or cause light pollution in the surrounding area.
  6. The tests that the lights have to go through in order to be safe enough for packaging and selling to customers. Overall, I think I learned that lighting design requires a lot of thought into the product itself and how it will be used. For example, thermal testing for plastics to see if the product can withstand heat from the light, or creating a precise design to reduce light pollution were both aspects I took away from Artemide that highlight how in-depth light design goes.

This past week was a blur.

Each day was something different. A day of plastic furniture. A day of light. A day of type. A day of fine art. A day of architecture. A day of architecture pavilions. A day on an island with no cars. So much happened in such a short time that it’s hard to make sense of it all.

Like last week, I experienced a Tadao Ando building.

Artemide is one of the most interesting producers we have visited this far. I came to Milan wanting to observe public lighting, but found the street lamps homogenous and rather boring. Artemide was the antithesis of ubiquitous and pedestrian.

I snapped a picture of this Artemide task lamp my first week in Milan because it’s great.

While the form of the fixtures, lamps, and lighting solutions are beautiful, I was interested to learn about the processes between design, engineering, and manufacturing that our host explained to us. I consider myself a rather logical person, and the total consideration of technical aspects of lighting combined with the sensibility of architecture gave me a complete appreciation for each designed lighting object.

Lamps on lamps on lamps on lamps on lamps.

I was glad to be introduced to the architecture of Carlo Scarpa over this weekend as well. His designs are unexpected, esoteric, and from an ambiguous ancient past or far future. Something about his architecture, and I can’t quite put my finger on it, reminds me of Eero Saarinen’s buildings that I’ve visited. If I had to put it into words, the architecture seems otherworldly and full of secrets that only the architect knows.

Scarpa’s Olivetti showroom. Scarpa was the master of weird stairs.
This stairset from a Saarinen church in my hometown reminds me of Scarpa’s details.

Venice

This past weekend the class took an excursion to the Veneto region of Italy, located in the Northeast of the country and along the Adriatic Sea. Our first stop was at TipoTeca and it was fascinating to learn about how people use font and typography in design, especially how they curate different types of fonts. After that we went to an interesting cemetery that used lots of concrete and used various waterways. It was interesting how the concrete was done in such a way to appear so weightless despite being such a heavy, blocky material. The cemetery also used Asian motifs. There were very similar themes in his work on the art museum we visited in Venice where geometric concrete shapes stepped down against the canal and also used Asian motifs. The museum even filled the room with Asian artwork. The garden was similar in that there was water running through it. For our last day in Venice we visited the Biennale exhibition in a large public to the south of San Marco Square. It was interesting to see how so many different countries chose to represent themselves, and I particularly liked Denmark’s pavilion and its focus on a connected city and bridging modern design onto historic sites.

Last Week in Milan :-//

The program is almost over and I really can’t believe it! It all seems so surreal to me to even be on this trip. This week was full of designs that made me think of home. I’ve loved Italy, but I think – dare I say it –  I might be ready to go back.

This past week we visited Kartell and Artemide. I loved the playful/ beautiful nature they brought to their designs. At Artemide, I particularly loved their colorful cross light that had names of different authors. My brother actually did his study abroad trip researching Jorge Luis Borges and living in his hometown in Argentina. I was subtly reminded of the guy who pushed me to apply to the program. He’s also the guy who gave me a copy of Calvino’s Cosmicomics as a birthday present when I was 12 – so moth to a flame with me and this light, right?

We also went to Venice this week. I really enjoyed visiting the Biennale and going to all the different countries. Germany’s “UnBuilding Walls” was among my favorites and it hit really close to home- quite literally as my family now lives 30 minutes away from the Progresso, Mexico border. In fact, this whole week in politics has been rough on myself and my family- hearing  the horror stories of children and families being pulled apart.  How can I, a daughter of immigrants who took the same route less than 50 years ago, truly enjoy myself in another country when my own blood is suffering?

UnBuilding Walls

If you aren’t completely broke from this trip, consider donating to: RAICES, TX Civil Rights Project, Together Rising, or the ACLU.

-From the Mexico pavilion

I know, I KNOW- what a depressing blog post, but this is the personal level that design speaks to me on !!! & honestly- isn’t it so much better that way? Shouldn’t design make you feel something?

#dont@meImnotadesignmajor

Paris

This weekend I went to Paris with some friends. I wasn’t expecting a big difference in architecture from Milan, but I was surprised by the design in both the architecture and objects. The buildings didn’t have any paint and were all a plain white, which I thought was interesting because it made the buildings feel a lot older than how the buildings are in Italy.

        

When we went to the Museum of Decorative Arts (MAD) across from the Louvre, I also realized how distinct French design is (or at least was). The name “decorative” was pretty literal, everything from the 18th and 19th century was heavily ornamented with floral-like forms, similar to the liberty style buildings in Milan.

The gardens in front of the Louvre, as well as the Louvre itself were beautiful. I wasn’t expecting to be amazed by any of the touristy things in Paris, namely the Eiffel Tower, but it was probably one of my favorite parts. It was a lot taller than I was expecting, and there were many details in the metalwork that reflected the French design we saw in the MAD exhibit earlier that day.  

Week 5: Venice

Venice

Beyond all expectations!

I was so overwhelmed in the best way in Venice. I could walk around aimlessly for hours and hours and never see the same thing twice!

We met at Cadorna train station at 5:30am Thursday morning. From there we all loaded onto a bus and set off on a 4 hour bus ride to Treviso. However, we didnt get to actually check into our hotel until 7:00 that night…

First stop: Fabrica Studio
We got a tour of a really interesting design studio that welcomes young designers with dreams and goals that need a space to make them happen. You have to be younger than 25 to apply for Fabrica and if you make it, you get a full year of studio space, materials, access to their massive library, and many workshops and lectures throughout the year. The Fabrica building is a large seventeenth century villa that has been renovated and added onto in an intriguing Japanese architectural style. I was totally captured by their library collection. 
Second stop: Tipoteca
We got to see the evolution from letter presses to typewriters and then to computers. They even let us make a poster on the letter press and it reminded Courtney and I of our freshman year orientation at UT Design.
Third stop: Cimitero Brion
The last stop of the day was a giant tomb with brilliant, geometric architecture. The tomb was surrounded by water and when it rains the levels eb and flow throughout the whole area. It was actually one of my favorite things we saw that day!

Venezia, una città magica

In my head, Venice is a magical city that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world, so visiting it was a dream come true. At first we arrived to Treviso and it was such a cute little town. Everyone in this town was so nice! We went for drinks, met some locals, watched soccer games and cheered all night. They also had the best gelato store, it was so fresh. When I first arrived to Venice, I went outside of the train station and looked around for a few seconds… it was exactly what I expected and more. The buildings were right at the shore, people were commuting in boats, and the metro system was based on taxi buses.

Venice

As a class, we went to a museum with many floors and multiple attracting pieces. Then, we headed to lunch and we got to explore the city. We walked between some fancy shops, and we walked between the market where everyone was trying to sell Murano glass. I got all my friend’s souvenirs from Venice and that gave me a piece of mind. After walking through its tiniest pathways and taking the boat to get from a destination to another, we met with the class to visit a store where they made the glass. That store was on a different island so we had to take the boat bus!

On the boat, I was splashed with sea water and my hair changed completely, it loves sea water. It looked a lot better so I wasn’t too upset about it.

My Hair Going Wild

At the store, we weren’t able to see them make the glass, but the ladies were very sweet and gave us a souvenir at the end. However, my favorite part of this weekend was at the Tipoteca Italian Fondazione; we got to assemble our names and make posters. I really enjoyed the work especially since it was like a puzzle and the men that were helping us were the sweetest people on earth.

Our Poster

I wish we spent more time there but other than that, this weekend is to forever be remembered.

Il Museo