The division between the role of the audience and actor is blurring: all have become players in the same secular ceremony of the fashion show. No longer relegated to passive observer, the spectator is now an active participant in the events unfolding in front of them.

The assemblage of recorded impressions and digital reactions inserts itself into the once autonomous narrative of the fashion show. The statement of the collective spreads. The mass of fragmented instant data is uploaded and critiqued by a multitude of voices. This consumption of images is like a public trial, a contemporary transposition of the Auto-da-fé (1).

OMA vs AMO's Latest Prada runway is inspired by 17th century Auto-Da-Fé trials.

For the 2016 Fall Winter Prada show, AMO takes inspiration from the traditional public stages and places of civic ceremonies (2). Placed around the periphery of the room, a system of balconies and tribunes defines the central space. Similar, yet different they create an imbalanced symmetry (3). A raised viewing platform is inserted into the middle of the room, dominating the catwalk.

A journey of sights and sounds amidst the inspirations of the Prada F/W 2016 Men's and Women's show.

This assemblage of structures breaks through the building, expanding into the surrounding streets and urban domain. A new entrance, marked by a ceremonial gateway, creates an oneiric (4) passage from street to show. Guests gather on the balconies, tribunes and central platform in crowds according to a series of spatial hierarchies. No longer bystanders, they become active participants in the ritual unfolding around them.

The OSB wood cladding counters the simplicity of the structures. An irregular pattern of red and dark patches covers the surface, while dramatic lighting enhances its uneven texture. The dark and enigmatic chiaroscuro atmosphere is enhanced by a theatrical use of lights.

NOTES.-

1) The Auto-da-fé is a:

a) public penance of condemned heretics
b) title of the English edition of the novel by Elias Canetti, Nobel for Literature in 1981 and author of Crowds and Power (1960).

2) Indirect reference to the Auto-da-fé ceremony.
3) Reference to the work of Maurits Cornelis Escher.
4) Reference to Calderon de la Barca – La Vida es un Sueño (Life is a Dream, 1635) describing the relationship between dreams and reality.

 

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Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) is an international practice operating within the traditional boundaries of architecture and urbanism. AMO, a research and design studio, applies architectural thinking to domains beyond. OMA is led by eight partners – Rem Koolhaas, Reinier de Graaf, Ellen van Loon, Shohei Shigematsu, Iyad Alsaka, Chris van Duijn, Jason Long, and Managing Partner-Architect David Gianotten – and maintains offices in Rotterdam, New York, Hong Kong, Doha, and Australia. OMA-designed buildings currently under construction are the renovation of Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDeWe) in Berlin, The Factory in Manchester, Hangzhou Prism, the CMG Times Center in Shenzhen and the Simone Veil Bridge in Bordeaux.

OMA’s completed projects include Taipei Performing Arts Centre (2022), Audrey Irmas Pavilion in Los Angeles (2020), Norra Tornen in Stockholm (2020), Axel Springer Campus in Berlin (2020), MEETT Toulouse Exhibition and Convention Centre (2020), Galleria in Gwanggyo (2020), WA Museum Boola Bardip (2020), nhow RAI Hotel in Amsterdam (2020), a new building for Brighton College (2020), and Potato Head Studios in Bali (2020). Earlier buildings include Fondazione Prada in Milan (2018), Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow (2015), De Rotterdam (2013), CCTV Headquarters in Beijing (2012), Casa da Música in Porto (2005), and the Seattle Central Library (2004).

AMO often works in parallel with OMA's clients to fertilize architecture with intelligence from this array of disciplines. This is the case with Prada: AMO's research into identity, in-store technology, and new possibilities of content-production in fashion helped generate OMA's architectural designs for new Prada epicenter stores in New York and Los Angeles. In 2004, AMO was commissioned by the European Union to study its visual communication, and designed a colored "barcode" flag, combining the flags of all member states, which was used during the Austrian presidency of the EU. AMO has worked with Universal Studios, Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, Heineken, Ikea, Condé Nast, Harvard University and the Hermitage. It has produced Countryside: The Future, a research exhibited at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York; exhibitions at the Venice Architecture Biennale, including Public Works (2012), Cronocaos (2010), and The Gulf (2006); and for Fondazione Prada, including When Attitudes Become Form (2012) and Serial and Portable Classics (2015). AMO, with Harvard University, was responsible for the research and curation of the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale and its publication Elements. Other notable projects are Roadmap 2050, a plan for a Europe-wide renewable energy grid; Project Japan, a 720-page book on the Metabolism architecture movement (Taschen, 2010); and the educational program of Strelka Institute in Moscow.

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Published on: January 20, 2016
Cite: "2016 FW Prada Men's and Women's Show by OMA-AMO" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/2016-fw-prada-mens-and-womens-show-oma-amo> ISSN 1139-6415
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