Gae Aulenti was an incredible woman born with fire in her soul to break the stereotypes & move people away with her resourcefulness & creative spirit. Born on December 4, 1927, in Milan, Italy; she was an Architect, Interior Designer, installation artist and was renowned for distinct museum projects all through. She consistently was rediscovering herself in her designs.
She quoted, “There are plenty of other talented female architects, but most of them seem to link up with men…I have always worked for myself, and it’s been quiet and education. Women in architecture must not think of themselves as a minority, because the minute you do, you become paralyzed. It is important to never create the problem.”
Her suspicion was consistent to move ahead of the Fascist mentality & sagacious Architecture, which were the crucial cause of degradation of women in professions like architecture and design.
Ideology
Gae Aulenti was a rebel from childhood, as in the beginning years she was expected to satisfy societal standards of being a household woman, but she denied it and enumerated herself in Milan Polytechnic College and calibrated. Gae Aulenti was a knowledgeable woman with critical thinking, her endowments in the field of Italian Architecture and design. She laboured as firewood in the orbit of Italian Architecture and encouraged the genesis of vicissitude. Her attitude of critical investigation regarding her designing approach drives her further in life.
Philosophy
Gae Aulenti believed, “The conscious principle in this design has been to achieve forms that could create experiences, and that could at the same time welcome everyone’s experiences with the serenity of an effortless development.” Her idea was to design unparallel spaces but notorious with a gentle nudge of tranquillity. The symbolic designs exemplify her very self, contemplating her resilience in evolving incompetent designs projects fluently.
More than that, she quoted “I am convinced that architecture is tied to the polis, it is an art of the city, of the foundation, and as such, it is necessarily related and conditioned by the context in which it is born. Place, time, and culture create that architecture, instead of another.” She vigorously believed in her passion for architectonics, designing, architectural style, and so forth. The designs invariably delineated the heritage of the metropolis along with safeguarding the elegant experience.
Gae Aulenti is notable for metamorphosing historical populace buildings into eminent museum spaces. She was determined to articulate her rebellion about pseudo-feminism; her style was of latitude, a re-invention of Art Nouveau style. Her conception was to design the form of the building with fluidness breaking the bars of the Bauhaus succession. Her buildings sketched the impression of endurance and resplendence. She accomplished about 700 projects with her enthusiasm and passion for Architecture and design.
Gae Aulenti transfigured and renewed the train station “Beaux-Arts Gare d’Orsay, Paris” and built an exhibition space with an alleyway beneath impressive intangible barriers. She was a woman who brought an alteration in the style buildings are perceived, for instance, initiation of proselytizing industrial buildings to a magnificent museum space. It was a speculative project that invited a flock of tourists and became the center of engrossment.
Furthermore, Palazzo Grassi situated in Venice, Italy behoved to be one of her renowned projects in the sphere of architecture and design. The project was refurbished in Barcelona, her absolute dedication and imagination brought astonishing aesthetics to space. She additionally used graphic frames with concomitant braces and other furnishings from her direct designs, which besides she used in other projects like “Gioachino Rossini’s opera”. Likewise, her approach in furniture & costume designing brought a change in the analogous designs followed by the time.
Gae Aulenti strived to counterbalance the unjust negligence in her design “The Vitra Museum” which is also visualized as a creative universe. The project encircles a multifarious approach as it incorporates her primary piece of furniture. The utilization of idiosyncratic forms along with attractive garden furniture series for instance Locus Solus, Stringa, and so forth. Her fascination in furniture design enhanced, like so she designed a foldable chair, benefited in storage labelled “Aprilia”.
Moreover, she designed it into a solid side folding one with a comparable footrest. She preferred varied materials such as glass, metal, marble, etc. One of her best furniture designs was “Jumbo”, a table for a ridge embodied in marble.
Gae Aulenti’s prestige rose whilst she was recognized as an Interior Designer for infamous projects such as Buenos Aires, Olivetti’s Showrooms in Paris. She further used materials such as plastic and stainless steel for the products on demonstration. She portrayed her creativity in lamps like Pipistrello, Ruspa, Oracolo, etc. were unique and phenomenal in parallel.
The conclusion can be abstracted with her rightly said quote “When you’re criticized for something, it’s best to wait two or three years and see.” Therefore, for young Architects “Forbearance” is the mantra for their diverse impediments in the field of architecture and design.
