Segnalibro

Gae Aulenti was born in 1927 in Palazzolo dello Stella in the province of Udine. Graduated in 1953 at the Milan Polytechnic, from 1956 she worked in Milan as a professional, including architectural design, interior design and industrial design, theatrical scenography. From 1955 to 1965 he was in the editorial staff of Casabella-Continuità directed by Ernesto Nathan Rogers, a central place for the architectural debate of those years, where he laid the foundations for his professional identity. From the first years his projects expressed the desire to link together the Respect the aspects of the architectural discipline. Numerous industrial design products created to complete architectural projects. Among the best known are the Pipistrello and King Sun lamps for the Olivetti showrooms in Paris and Buenos Aires (1966-67) and, with Piero Castiglioni, the Bugia lamp for the Musée d’Orsay (Paris, 1986) and the Cestello lamp for Palazzo Grassi (Venice, 1986). His objects, made with companies like Knoll, Fontana Arte, Kartell and Artemide, are never purely decorative, but are the completion of the architectural space in which they are integrated. In the eighties he created the Musée d’Orsay (1980-86), transforming the Gare d’Orsay in Paris into one of the most important art museums in the world. This will be followed by the new staging of the Musée National d’Art Moderne at the Pompidou Center (1982-85) and the renovation of Palazzo Grassi in Venice (1985-86), for which he curates numerous temporary exhibitions, from “Futurism & Futurism” (1986) up to “From Puvis de Chavannes to Matisse and Picasso. Towards Modern Art ”(2002). His architectural production also includes: Palazzo Italia at the Expo ’92 in Seville; the new Gallery for Temporary Exhibitions at the Milan Triennale (1994); the conversion into a museum of the former Papal Stables at the Quirinale in Rome; the redevelopment of Piazzale Cadorna in Milan (2000); the stations of the Museum and Dante of the underground and the redesign of the squares Cavour and Dante in Naples (1999-2002). Two important museums complete its production: the new Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, opened to the public in 2003, and the National Museum of Catalan Art in Barcelona, completed in December 2004. In 2012 they inaugurate the Perugia Airport, designed for the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy, and the restructuring of Palazzo Branciforte in Palermo, together with the redevelopment project of the Sant’Agostino Complex in Modena. Among the most important awards and recognitions: Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (Paris, 1987); Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (1990); Praemium Imperiale for Architecture by The Japan Art Association (Tokyo, 1991); Knight of the Grand Cross (Rome, 1995); honorary degree from the Rhode Island School of Design (Providence, USA, 2001); Gold Medal for Career (Milan, 2012).