Mirrors and pastel tones to create Prada Shows Resort 2018 by AMO

Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II was one of the world’s first shopping arcades.

Conceived by the architect Giuseppe Mengoni (1829-1877) as an intersection of two pedestrian streets – complete with elaborate inlaid mosaic floors beneath a soaring iron and glass dome – it opened in 1867 and became a showcase for the city’s burgeoning luxury goods sector; Mario Prada opened his first store in the arcade in 1913 to sell the family’s lavishly-tooled leather travelling cases.

Prada's Resort 2018 show by AMO. Osservatorio, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan. Photography by Willy Vanderperre, image courtesy of Prada.

Fondazione Prada's new exhibition space in Milan is the Osservatorio, an exhibition space dedicated to photography and visual languages, located above the central octagon in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan.

The Osservatorio, opened in December 2016, is spread across the fifth and sixth floors in the Galleria's eaves, and overlooks the building's glass and steel vaulted roof and cupola.This space was the show venue for Prada's first Resort collection designed by AMO.

Here AMO, with mirrors and pastel tones, made a very simple intervention: undulating screens with distorted images of the galleria itself and details of the collection in pastel colours on the one side; and views to the galleria itself, the iron dome by Mengoni on the other. The latter was left largely unobstructed aside from reflective and translucent columns in the same dusty pink as the satin covered benches.

Description of the project by Prada

SUSPENDED ENSEMBLE

For the Prada 2018 Resort fashion show, AMO reinterprets Osservatorio, Fondazione Prada’s new exhibition space dedicated to photography in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II.

The set is conceived as a confrontation between real and manufactured moments.

The linear arrangement of the seating orientates the guests towards the cupola placed beyond the large windows. Enhanced by both reflective and translucent columns, the guests have a transfigured view of the chiseled profile of Mengoni’s architecture. Models walk along the windows, glowing in the afternoon sun, suspended between the sky and the ornate iron dome that acts as the silent backdrop for the show.

On the other side of the room this scene is deconstructed and magnified. A continuous mirror running along the wall echoes the overall scene, augmenting the room’s proportions. Distorted fragments of Galleria and evanescent details of the collection cover the surfaces of a series of screens in reflective and pastel colors, blending the spectacle into the set, creating an ephemeral ensemble.

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More information

OMA. Office for Metropolitan Architecture

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 Simone Veil Bridge in Bordeaux (2024), LANTERN in Detroit (2024), Mangalem 21 in Tirana (2023), Aviva Studios – Factory International in Manchester (2023), Apollolaan 171 in Amsterdam (2023), Buffalo AKG Art Museum in Buffalo (2023), Toranomon Hills Station Tower in Tokyo (2023), 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.

LAB, Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). AMO/OMA

AMO is the think tank of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), co-founded by Rem Koolhaas in 1999. Applying architectural thinking to domains beyond building, AMO has worked with Prada, the European Union, Universal Studios, Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, Condé Nast, Harvard University, and the Hermitage. It has produced exhibitions, including Expansion and Neglect (2005) and When Attitudes Become Form: Bern 1969/Venice 2013 (2013) at the Venice Biennale; The Gulf (2006), Cronocaos (2010), Public Works (2012), and Elements of Architecture (2014) at the Venice Architecture Biennale; and Serial Classics and Portable Classics (both 2015) at Fondazione Prada, Milan and Venice, respectively.

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 coloured "barcode" flag – combining the flags of all member states – that 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 exhibitions at the Venice Architecture Biennale, including The Gulf (2006), Cronocaos (2010) and Public Works (2012) 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 principle publication Elements. Other notable projects are 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.

Published on: May 11, 2017

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metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA

"Mirrors and pastel tones to create Prada Shows Resort 2018 by AMO" METALOCUS. Accessed

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