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AMO design for the Prada 2024 FW Men's Show stages nature against an invasive interior environment

2024-01-21T08:00:00-05:00

AMO’s latest collaboration with the fashion industry went on display recently as part of the 2024 FW Prada Men's Show, held on January 14th at the Fondazione Prada for Milan Fashion Week.

For the presentation, AMO and partner in charge Rem Koolhaas created a scenographic imitation of an outmoded office environment set against an outer landscape that appears to audience members from beneath a transparent platform stage as though an “analogue projection among the many digital images that saturate one’s life today.”

This theatrical blending of nature and its opposite keys to the brand’s stated desire to produce clothes that reflect the spaces and seasons surrounding them. It, of course, also pays homage to design trends apparent in the latest examples of corporate architecture.

“In the space of the Deposito an improbable encounter takes place: chaos and order, reality and fiction, predictability and spontaneity – seemingly opposite elements – engage in a game of collaboration, a syne...

Theaster Gates teams up with Prada to launch incubator for emerging designers of color

2021-09-02T17:01:00-04:00

Theaster Gates is teaming up with Prada to launch a program that will support and invest in up-and-coming artists and designers of color.

Dorchester Industries, the design and manufacturing arm of Theaster Gates Studio, in partnership with Gates’ Rebuild Foundation and Prada Group, announced the launch of the Dorchester Industries Experimental Design Lab. Based on the South Side of Chicago, it is a three-year program that will serve as a platform for artists of color by creating opportunities to amplify their work, invest in their development, and expose them to organizations looking to work with diverse talent.

Designers in the areas of fashion, furniture, industrial and graphic design, and the arts will be trained, funded, and mentored through design awards and public programming. It will provide a platform for exhibitions, performances, and public dialogue, creating “a nucleus of design intelligence on the South Side,” as stated on Gates’ Instagram.

Related on Archinect: A Con...

For S/S 2019, Prada asked female architects to redesign their iconic nylon bag

2019-04-08T20:44:00-04:00

Prada is no stranger to working with highly acclaimed architects. The Milanese fashion house's longstanding partnership with the Rem Koolhaas-led architecture firm OMA, who have helped them with boutiques, branding studies, films, digital products, and other projects, has been one of the industry's strongest alliances.

So, when looking for designers to reinterpret their most iconic item, the black nylon handbag, it is no surprise they turned to some of the field's biggest and brightest. In their latest interpretation of the material, Prada asked leading female architects Cini Boeri, Elizabeth Diller and Kazuyo Sejima to create unique pieces in the brand's signature nylon fabric, first debuted by Miuccia Prada in 1984.

The collaboration is part of their Prada Invites project, which last year invited Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Konstantin Grcic, Herzog & de Meuron and Rem Koolhaas to respond to a similar prompt. While the four men sent a printed t-shirt, front pack, portfolio case a...

“Prada Invites” project collaborates with Elizabeth Diller, Kazuyo Sejima, and Cini Boeri

2018-09-21T14:00:00-04:00

As the second installment of the “Prada Invites” series, Kazuyo Sejima, Elizabeth Diller and Cini Boeri all worked with the Italian label to create designs from the classic Prada Nylon. “Prada Invites” is intended to look at the intersectionality of design, leading to conversations and collaborations between different design disciplines.

Ready to wear Rem's 'frontpack'? Koolhaas, Herzog & de Meuron reinterpret nylon for Prada

2018-01-22T16:31:00-05:00

In her latest interpretation of the material, Prada asked the architects Rem Koolhaas and Herzog & de Meuron — with whom she collaborates regularly — to design something in nylon for the show, and to select another talent from their field to do the same. They chose, respectively, the German designer Konstantin Grcic and the French designers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec. T spoke to each of them about their designs.

Prada just wrapped up its anticipated fall/winter 2018 show, which the fashion powerhouse held in a converted warehouse in Milan, designed by AMO.

"The building is organized in sectors that each correspond to a specific theme," a Prada statement describes the venue conversion. "Boxes, crates and all the other objects that colonize the warehouse are marked with a series of ambiguous symbols that express the multiplicity of the Prada identity. Classical themes like idealized accessories, gizmos, mascots and recurring motifs of the collections are transformed into emblems that hint at the content of the crates."

'Prada Warehouse' by AMO. Credit: AMO.

Noteworthy moments of the fall/winter collection were the collaborations with architects Rem Koolhaas and Herzog & de Meuron, contributing designs that interpreted this year's theme: nylon.

Frontpack by Rem Koolhaas. Image: Prada.

Frontpack by Rem Koolhaas. Image: P...

In his own homes, idiosyncrasy reigns

2016-04-03T20:36:00-04:00

In the land of Prada, a clinical precision prevails; here, even the bathroom — a trippy 16-foot-high cube with walls and ceiling covered in salvaged vintage mirrors endlessly reflecting the Mod brown 1960s plumbing fixtures — is an opportunity for whimsy

Nancy Hass traveled to Tuscany, to visit the home(s) of architect Roberto Baciocchi. Although he has spent the past decades responsible for the look of Prada stores worldwide, his personal residence features; furnishings that span centuries, textured surfaces and velvet.

Take a look at "Real Fantasies," AMO's latest collaboration with Prada

2016-02-05T13:43:00-05:00

For the 2016 Spring/Summer Prada Real Fantasies, AMO graphically reinterprets the Indefinite Hangar as a synthetic sunset fixed within a 3 dimensional blank space. The abstract hangar is populated with geometric objects and furniture. Characters move through a neutral scene between the undefined and distilled fragments of daily life. The horizon and scale constantly shifts, manipulating the frame and disrupting a linear sequence: an artificial landscape where fiction and collection collide.

OMA and its think tank counterpart, AMO, have deep ties to the fashion world, in particular with Prada. Alongside built work by the architectural powerhouse, notably the recently-completed Fondazione Prada, OMA/AMO has designed runways, look books, and videos for the Milanese luxury brand.

Since 2012, that collaboration has produced graphic short movies showcasing new collections under the project banner "Real Fantasies." For the 2016 Spring/Summer collection, AMO imagined a world of pure architectural extension, a CAD utopia unblemished by reality.

Described as a "3 dimensional blank space," the setting of the video seems locked in an endless sunset. Lithe models ride a train past a city of pure geometry, which morphs seamlessly into an unending picture window.

It's visual porn at it's best and well worth a look. Watch the video below, and for more connections between fashion and architecture, check out these links:

SPIEGEL interviews Koolhaas: "We shouldn't tear down buildings we can still use"

2015-05-19T15:00:00-04:00

Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas talks to SPIEGEL about the new Fondazione Prada museum he designed in Milan, the danger of turning cities into historical Disneylands and his desire to raze an entire neighborhood of Paris. [...] Koolhaas: Before the 1980s, the decisions were made by cities. Since then power has shifted toward private investors. Nothing good has come of this for Holland. [...] I regret that cities no longer have money to even pursue a vision of their ongoing development.

This Wes Anderson-designed bar is retro with a capital R

2015-05-08T13:53:00-04:00

Filmmaker Wes Anderson has a knack for creating fictional spaces with attention paid to the last excruciating detail. His latest space is real, though, and even better, you can get a drink there. [...] Three new buildings, which were part of a century-old distillery and transformed by renowned Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, will now house art rather than alcohol. But for the thirsty there’s also a new bar, called Bar Luce, that Anderson designed himself.

OMA's Prada Foundation Arts Complex in Milan

2015-04-26T19:17:00-04:00

Some of the spaces are as Mr. Koolhaas found them; others have been reconfigured but look as though they haven’t been touched. The three new buildings are made of glass, white concrete and an aluminum

Carol Vogel writes about the Prada Foundation’s new arts complex in Milan, designed by OMA.

Prada Marfa saved

2014-09-16T17:46:00-04:00

The conceptual storefront Prada Marfa, 2005, by Elmgreen & Dragset, has a new lease on life. The Texas Department of Transportation reached an agreement last week with the foundation Ballroom Marfa to preserve the sculpture after nearly one year of negotiations. The government threatened to shut down the work because it could be considered an illegal roadside advertisement under state law. [...] the foundation plans to lease the land underneath Prada Marfa and register it as an art museum.

Previously: Prada Marfa declared an illegal outdoor advertisement, faces possible removal

Prada Celebrates Architecture Exhibit in Paris

2013-11-27T13:22:00-05:00

Curated by architect and historian Joseph Abram, in collaboration with Rem Koolhaas’ OMA/AMO, the exhibition celebrates the work of Perret, in particular his extended use of reinforced concrete. The exhibition analyzes, through more than 400 original documents such as sketches, pictures, scale models and personal letters, eight buildings conceived by Perret. These include the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, along with the Hôtel de Ville and the Eglise Saint Joseph in Le Havre.

Prada Marfa declared an illegal outdoor advertisement, faces possible removal

2013-09-17T15:32:00-04:00

Nearly eight years after opening, Prada Marfa has been classified by the Texas Department of Transportation as an “illegal outdoor advertising sign” because it displays the Prada logo on land where that is prohibited. This could lead to forced removal of the installation, although the department has not yet decided what action it will take.

UPDATE: Prada Marfa saved

OMA Creates Prada’s Ideal House

2013-01-18T14:45:00-05:00

The staging was called the Ideal House, and it was a fully furnished modern home, but one with an audience, a runway wrapped around it, and “windows” projected on the walls with scenes of the outside world. It was the latest in many intricate and avant-garde pairings between Prada and OMA... The 12-piece furniture collection, designed by OMA for Knoll, will debut at the Salon Internazionale del Mobile in Milan in April.

Prada Transformer by OMA

2011-05-27T10:11:00-04:00

Archinect's Building of the Day series is brought to you by our friends at OpenBuildings.com, the web's most comprehensive directory of buildings.

OMA has begun to install its exhibition of projects with Prada at Ca’ Corner della Regina, a 17th century palazzo in Venice and the venue of a new outpost for the Fondazione Prada. The show, which opens on 1 June, includes the Prada Transformer project and a detailed scale model for the future Fondazione Prada in Milan.

The 20-metre high Prada Transformer is a portable, shape-shifting cultural pavilion, consisting of four basic geometric shapes – a circle, a cross, a hexagon, a rectangle – leaning together and wrapped in a flexible, elastic white skin, manufactured by the Dutch company Cocoon Holland. Each shape is a potential floor plan designed to be suitable for different cultural programming- fashion exhibitions, film festivals, art exhibitions, or a Prada fashion shows.

'Walls become floors and floors become walls ...