The protoyping archive we visited June 12th.
http://www.archiviosacchi.it/
Category: Weekly Posts_2018
Holla at La Scalla
The highlights of my third week here were most definitely going to see the ballet at La Scalla and seeing the production process behind it at the set and costume warehouse.
I worked on sets for shows in high school and have always loved the technical aspect of theatre, so having the opportunity to see how the professionals do it and see it done at one of the most historical opera houses in the world was an experience I will never forget. I really appreciated how they made almost everything by hand even in the high-tech age we live in now. I think it shows how highly they value tradition and take so much pride in their art forms here especially.
Walking into La Scalla felt almost like a dream. I’ve been in many theaters and seen many different performances, but nothing compared to this. Being escorted to a box and sitting down in such a beautiful and luxurious arena was hard to believe and honestly made me feel kind of important for that hour and a half. What made it even better was that a lot of the music selections the performers danced to were some of my favorite pieces of classical music.
As my sister is an opera singer, and has never been to La Scalla, it was really cool that I was able to go and see it for her. I hope I can come back some day and see an opera, maybe even one with her in it!
That’s Where We Wanna Go…Way Down In Lake Como
One of my favorite experiences this week was getting to go to Como and see not only the archives and famous pieces of architecture but also the beautiful scenery that the city has to showcase.
I enjoyed our first stop at the archive because we were able to see original versions of chairs we studied. It was also interesting to hear some additional historical context about the designers and how they went about completing their process.
Another aspect of the trip I was intrigued by was the Monument to the Fallen. The design seemed extremely futuristic, especially when thinking about how it was only constructed in the 1930’s. I found the feature where visitors could climb to the top to be especially interesting as it allows you to find a spot overlooking the water and the hills and gives you an environment to reflect on those lost.
After learning about it in lecture, it was particularly cool to see the Casa del Fascio and experience it in person. As the architect mentioned, while it was smaller in comparison to surrounding buildings, its design did make it appear larger than it was through very strategic techniques, such as the reflective aspect of the marble.
Week three: visitors and adventures!
CHRISTINA (my old roommate) COMES IN TOWN!
I have never been so excited to see a friend in my life!
Saturday morning we woke up early to catch a train to the lake district at 7:20. When we got to Varenna we hopped on a fairy boat over to Bellagio peninsula and found a little coffee shop. We got some coffee and hit the town. We then hiked over the Bellagio hill and spent the rest of the morning sitting with our feet in the water, watching the boats. For lunch we asked a local for pasta recommendations and we had some risotto, pasta with pesto, and blueberry pasta… its pasta made out of blueberries! After lunch we decided we should try to head back over to Varenna to have some time to walk around there before our train home. When we were on the fairy ride back my friend Martha spotted a small river tucked back in the hills of the town and recognized it from one of her travel books. She told us that she was pretty sure it was the “Milky River” which is the shortest river in the world and has extreme rapids. Naturally, we decided we needed to find this river…
At the source of the river there was a naturally fed drinking fountain and it was the cleanest, coldest water Ive had in Europe yet! While we were enjoying our time at the top I got a facetime call from a friend back home and I answered with a view of the river and the lakes behind it and was like “hey look where I am” and it was pretty sad when I realized he was calling me to show me his view of Canyon Lake and I totally one upped him on accident.
Needless to say, Italy has endless beauty and spontaneity is key. I have been so inspired this weekend!
A weekend trip to Budapest!
Another week in Milan and I’m already so used to everything. No GPS is needed to get back home from key areas of the city, and (for the most part) I can order coffee and a croissant. This week was a long one. A cemetary, science museum, design studios, and a trip to Como. I’m truly learning so much about design and starting to connect a lot of things I knew with different aspects.
At the end of the week, I went to Budapest with Kate, Jojo, and Courtney. Kate had a family friend that lives over there and he was SO SWEET. He picked us up from the airport and had someone help us buy a metro pass so we knew how to navigate the city. Budapest is actually split into two different parts: Buda and Pest (which I did not know). The whole city was a lot more quiet than Milan, and I could definitely still feel the remnants of communism.
The first day we did a pub crawl with some other backpackers. These bars were just so cool. They were all in sort of old ruins of buildings. The next day we went to the thermal baths and just relaxed all day. We also did a night cruise on the Danube river where we were able to see magnificent bridges. On our last day, we walked around and went to the castle hill to admire the city even more. All in all, it was a beautiful trip with great friends.
A Day in Bellinzona
After a long fun week, I took the bus to Bellinzona to meet my Swiss friend that I haven’t seen in more than 4 years. I was late to the bus and almost missed it, but I got there when the driver was planning to leave. On the way, the view was amazing; the mountains arched down to meet the water, reflecting their image. The green trees covered the side of the road, the sun was just peeking… It was magical. When I almost made it to Lugano, the first stop, the driver had to take the town road instead of the highway to avoid the police (questionable but worth it). Lugano was breathtaking! Going through the town streets, the lake reached so far and so long it was hard to miss. The sun was a bit higher and I could start seeing the light hit the water and make it look like diamonds are floating on the surface.
About 45 minutes later, the driver announced that we got to Bellinzona and I left the bus, however I was actually 30 minutes far from the city, by foot. I asked around and took a bus to get to the city where I met my friend. Since we were both strangers, we first started by walking around the city. It was very busy, and many locals had food stands on the streets as if it was Saturday food market. Also, it was the Italian canton, so most locals spoke more Italian than Swiss-German. We walked through the stands and sat at park for a little, then we decided to eat. She really wanted me to try Swiss beer, so we kept looking till we found a restaurant that served good beer and we ate there.
After, we decided to visit the Castle of Bellinzona, it was huge! We walked all around it, and we went underground. After the long walk, we had a glass of Coca-Cola in the castle’s courtyard like true princesses, only we weren’t! After the castle, my friend took me to buy Swiss chocolate and then I took the train back to my bus station. The day was very fun and I wish I stayed longer, but the best part was seeing my friend again :)
is armani alright?
On Wednesday this week we all visited the Armani Silos in Milan.
I thought that this exhibit was really unique, a little bit strange and fun.
We started out by looking through the art exhibition that had on the ground floor. A lot of it focused on photography done by Paolo Ventura involving a series of portraits that depicted an odd story. I can’t say that I completely understood them all but they were on a broad range of being deep and dark to silly and confusing. Characters included clowns, twin soldiers, children, dolls, and uninterestered women. We are going through dreams, personal conflicts, social interactions and life with the photo series… and we can even see this in Armani’s clothing collection.
Now… let’s talk about the Armani collection. I thought that it was pretty cool to see the transitions throughout the garments over the years and seasons BUT I didn’t really like some of their exhibition floors — specifically the “Ethnicities” exhibit.
First of all, why even name an exhibit “ethnicity” when there are over 175,000 words in the dictionary. This wasn’t about people’s ethnicities, it was about cultural appropriation used in his work. He says he was inspired by these different cultures —
“I avoid merely copying traditional forms, styles, and decorations, preferring instead to explore a reinterpretation that is both decisive and nuanced. This is my personal idea of exoticism: imagining and reinterpreting an ‘elsewhere,’ capturing its purity, it’s capacity to move the soul.”
Most of his work literally looked like traditional clothing remade with expensive fabric. I interpreted his quote to mean that he intended to pull little threads of inspiration from these different countries to add an eclectic twist on modern clothing. He definitely did NOT do that in all of his pieces.
This isn’t the first time he attempted to culturally appropriate in his designs… Just last year he received about the doobie hairstyles of his models were wearing at a show.
I would just like to say that although it’s a pretty weird exhibit and I have some opinions about his work, everything was interesting to look at and learn about. It was interesting to see the transitions between seasons and years with fabrics, styles, colors, etc.
I watched a girl kill a lavender plant at Milano Arch Week
Sunday was the final day of the Milano Arch Week, so I and some others went to a lecture by Toyo Ito. He’s famous. I didn’t know that, but some of his work looks like stuff you can get in a Sims 4 expansion pack, so you can say I’m familiar with his work. The garden area of the Triennale was packed (this is when we realized that he’s a famous architect), so a girl sat down on one of the plants. Not very nice…
I enjoyed his lecture about combatting homogenization in Tokyo’s architecture. Newer architecture in Japan is very rational and strict (I’m not sure if this is what Ito meant by “homogeneous” though), in contrast to Milan’s architecture, which I feel is more unique to the designer and period. His main goal in his projects is to create a space that functions well for the area and the people using it. This is done by both drawing from and integrating nature. For example, the Gifu Library Ito built acts like a living structure, and adjusts its temperature by using water from the land around it (or something like that, I don’t get physics).
of the Tama University Library from an Australian website.
I thought it was interesting to think about Ito’s goal in comparison to the Milan designer, Portaluppi. Like Portaluppi, Ito’s work is a reaction to rapid urbanization, although his focuses more on the functionality of a specific space, whereas Portaluppi wanted to capture a message through structure and aesthetic.
Week 2 in Milan
Week 2 went by so fast, it feels like I’ve been here for months! This week was full of adventure and getting my sleep schedule on track.
The highlight of my week was visiting Alessi/Omegna and Florence.
I had known about Alessi for a while so I was super excited about going to the museum. It was so interesting hearing about their point scale system for determining whether an object would be original or successful enough. For example, if an element got a total score of 12, it was then deemed not interesting enough. It was also fascinating to see the multiple prototypes and final products. If only I visited Alessi before taking Introduction to Design…
My favorite item I saw there was this beautiful cutlery set. Future home purchase? Maybe so.
The view at Omegna was breathtaking! I definitely will head back there one day.
On Saturday, Kalissa, Celeste, Moira and I decided to take a train to Florence for the day. We got up 4 am and called Heetch (a car service like Uber) to get to the station. Once we got to Florence we quickly noticed that more people were speaking English than Italian, which is dramatically different than here in Milan. The best of the day was visiting the Gucci Garden. Gucci Garden is a museum/store dedicated to all things Gucci. The exhibition talked about the history of the brand as well as showcasing several pieces that reflected it over the years.
It was also in Florence that I had the best fruit tart I’ve ever had in my life. It was worth every bite.
And that was my week.
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.