Daily Design Fix: Naples University Metro by Karim Rashid

Karim Rashid's University metro stop in Naples has polarised opinion between those who love it's colour and fun and those who question the designer's use of his signature motifs and the station's graphic rather than architectural quality. 

Completed last year, the station plunges you into a luminous digital world quite removed from the Neapolitan city above. Rashid's metro stop offers a completely different experience from the grubby utilitarianism of most other Italian underground stations.

Renzo Piano's controversial new auditorium opens in L'Aquila

Renzo Piano’s new temporary auditorium opened in L'Aquila by Italy's President Giorgio Napolitano, reports Jeanne-Marie Cilento

The renowned Italian architect donated the design of the project to L'Aquila, the Abbruzzo region's capital city destroyed by earthquake in 2009.  President Napolitano said at the opening ceremony, the new auditorium is a symbol of the future regeneration of the city's old town. Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's plan for a "new town" has been completely scrapped. 

In the aftermath of the disaster,  the musical director and conductor Claudio Abbado asked Renzo Piano to create a space dedicated to music to allow the city’s cultural life to continue. This is the first public building to be constructed since the old town's destruction.

Piano collaborated with 20 undergraduate engineers from the local university to complete the building. Composed of three wooden cubes with varying proportions, the buidling is made from wood from the Val di Fiemme and houses 250 seats. 

Funded by the Province of Trento, the project began in 2009 but has had to overcome many controversies before it was completed. The community in L'Aquila is concerned the new temporary auditorium will remain permanent and replace the historic original at the city’s castle that still needs restoration - like the rest of the old town.

But Renzo Piano has always said his auditorium is “ephemeral architecture”  - made of wood and not of stone - and that it can be dismantled in the future if the city decides it is no longer needed.

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Photographs by Franco di Capua

Design Talk: Commissioning Design to Stimulate Creative Excellence

Rogier van der Heide's Dream Cloud, an installation showing the beauty of crystals. 

The Design Museum in London held a special talk about the tradition of commissioning design to stimulate creative excellence, technical innovation and the realization of artistic, non-commercial ideas, reports Jeanne-Marie Cilento

Speakers at the event included Nadja Swarovski and Suzanne Trocme from Swarovski and designers Maarten Baas, Paul Cocksedge and Hilda Hellstrom. 

Deyan Sudjic, director of the Design Museum, asked the speakers about their experience commissioning and creating works: "How do you commission design that is challenging and encourages designers to share their most radical ideas?"

The images below are examples of works specially commissioned from designers for the Swarovski Crystal Palace exhibition held in Milan during the Salone Internazionale del Mobile.

All works were commissioned by Nadja Swarovski from five different artists to interpret the famous crystal, including Gwenaël Nicolas, Vincent van Duysen, Rogier van der Heide and Yves Béhar. The pieces were one of a kind and each design was exhibited in its own room creating the ideal atmosphere for individual creative expression.

For further information on the Design Museum: http://designmuseum.org

Gwenaël Nicolas' ten metre long crystal rope which integrated LED lighting programmed to set off sparks from one end of the rope to the other creating an iridescent spectrum of lighting.

Gwenaël Nicolas also designed Sparks, a free floating transparent balloon with small crystal sculptures inside lit by LED.

Vincent Van Duysen's Frost, a glowing ‘beam’ encrusted with Swarovski crystals.

Yves Béhar's Amplif, a series of deceptively simple ‘paper lanterns’ shaped like crystals, with Swarovski crystals inside casting patterns on the surface of the paper.  

Metamorphosis: Exhibition of Moroso Design Collections

Italian design house Moroso is celebrating 60 years of avant-garde furniture design at an exciting new exhibition, reports Ruth Borgobello from Northern Italy

METAMORPHOSIS is the name of the whimsical exhibition recently opened at Casa Cavazzini, the newly renovated sixteenth century building located in the company’s hometown of Udine. The late Italian architect Gae Aulenti designed the gallery that houses the show and the new Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art.

The exhibition traces a kaleidoscopic journey through Moroso’s evolution and is curated by the company’s visionary art director Patrizia Moroso with Marco Viola and Andrea Bruciati. The history of recent design is looked at through the lense of past collections and exhibits projects, furniture, prototypes and photographs to reconstruct the Moroso story.

On display are the most significant series and collections created by the company. The exhibition is also a rare behind the scenes look into the creative workings of the design house. It showcases the iconic collaborations between Moroso and some of the world’s top international designers, including Patrizia Urquiola, Ron Arad, Ross Lovegrove, Marc Newson, Doshi Levien, Tobias Rehberger, Michael Lin, Francesco Simeti and Andrea Sala.

A wonderland of colour and imagination where emotions and ideas are playfully revealed, the exhibition unveils the creative spirit and craftsmanship that sets Moroso apart as a world leader in design. “A walk in time, a lateral exploration of what has been achieved and what could have been achieved: a history of ideas, prototypes, variants, variations, hybrids, influences, interpretations of art, errors,” explains Patrizia Moroso. 

Metamorphosis showcases many of the talented artists who participated in the Moroso Award for Contemporary Art offering a glimpse into the future directions of the company. The exhibition also evokes Moroso’s signature mix of whimsy and forward thinking and illustrates the journey the company has taken to become the dynamic and creative force it is today.

Metamorphosis: Moroso Collections of Design and Visual Arts is part of a series of year long events celebrating 60 years of Moroso. Casa Cavazzini in Udine is open daily from 10:30 to 5pm except Tuesdays.

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 photographs: Ruth Borgobello & model: Bridget Borgobello

Set Amid a Million Flowers, Raf Simon's First Collection for Dior

Belgian designer Raf Simon's first collection for Christian Dior was launched in Paris at a beautiful house near the Arc de Triomphe, reports Jeanne-Marie Cilento

THE salons where the designer held his show were layered in fresh flowers - like a living 3D wall-paper - each room with it's own type of bloom. Guests stepped through archways of roses, delphiniums and white orchids into more rooms covered in bushy green branches and brightly-colored flowers ~ the designer said the blooms were a "metaphor for the collection".

Raf Simon is well known for his minimalist architectural style and he looked back to Christian Dior's 1947 New Look to find inspiration for his first show. While he eschewed the original's decorative femininity, he took Dior's structured bustiers and full-skirts and created a stripped-back modern version in vibrant hues.

Influenced by contemporary art, Raf Simons chose paintings by American artist Sterling Ruby as motifs for some of his three-quarter length cocktail dresses. The soigné modern look of the models was enhanced by lightly-dusted fluorescent eyes, red lips and flowing, long hair. 

The make-up inspired by the Futurists, had eyelids in shimmering silver with a bright stroke of color along the lash line – in hot pink, lagoon blue, pearly white or prairie green - stretching toward the temple. The fluorescents echoed the bold colors of the clothes. Faces were pale and matte, only the cheekbones stood out with a rosy blush. The lips' vivid color in orangey reds and pinks had a touch of different color on the centre of the lip.

"My aim is a very Modern Dior", said Simons about the collection, "but I also look back to mid-century modernism. I find that period between 1947 and 1957 extremely attractive and there was a lot of modernity. Although there was the romantic appeal of Christian Dior looking back to his mother and the belle époque, there was also a constant evolution in shape, changing proportions and the ideas connected to the World War were revolutionary."

Dior was 15 months without an official designer before Simon was appointed artistic director three months ago after the ignominious exit from the fashion house of John Galliano. Simon was originally a highly-trained furniture and industrial designer in Belgium before he decided to enter the world of fashion. He first started his own menswear label as well as lecturing at university about fashion before becoming artistic director at Jil Sander and then being appointed to Dior.

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