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05MAR 2012

BOFFO Building Fashion / Nicola Formichetti + Gage/Clemeneceau Architects.

Posted in Design - Design by * FORMAKERS

During July, August and September 2011, Gage / Clemenceau Architects is collaborating on the design and production of a temporary installation with Nicola Formichetti, Fashion Director for Lady Gaga, Creative Director for Mugler as well as fashion stylist to Uniqlo, MAC and V Magazine. This collaboration is intended to produce an installation that experimentally fuses ideas from both fashion and architecture into a new type of physical environment, accessible to the general public, for a two week period coinciding with Fashion Week in New York City, in September 2011.

The stakes for this particular installation are high– as it will be housing not only the latest in Formichetti’s work, but will also include several original ensambles he has designed for Lady Gaga who has worn them in her performances and various red-carpet events. Typically, fashion environments are defined by an rather restrained minimalism that focuses the attention only on the clothing– for the obvious reasons of only selling clothes. In our collaboration with Nicola Formachetti, we are rewriting this equation and attempting to produce a new genre of experimental space that not only showcases, but magnifies the impact of his fashion designs into a new form of immersive environment that fuses the very genetics of architecture and fashion.

Such fusions of artistic disciplines have historic roots in the 19th century German termGesamtkunstwerk, which describes mixings of the more traditional “arts” of music, sculpture, painting etc. For our proposal we are updating this ambition with new materials, new technologies, and new visual effects as are only now becoming available, and combining them with what is perhaps the most popular and increasingly important of the contemporary arts today– fashion. With shows such as the recent Alexander McQueen exhibition “Savage Beauty” at the venerable Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the associations between high art and fashion have never been stronger.

This installation project pairs this development with new ideas about architecture, towards innovative and progressive new ends. The installation is comprised of hundreds of robotically cut, mirrored facets, mounted to lightweight composite structural backing. These individual reflective facets are hung from the ceilings and walls, and attached to the flooring.

Each facet is attached to its neighbors using a system of precisely bent aluminum clips. Large sheets of mirrored, abrasion-resistant, plastic sheets cover the floor and help to produce an endlessly reflective environment that refracts the clothing so that it can be viewed from a variety of unexpected perspectives. In this installation fashion is no longer an object that sits within a minimal architectural box.

Instead, clothing becomes an active participant in a new type of environment that combines the spatial and optical aspects of architectural design with the temporary, ephemeral and fluidly beautiful forms found only in the worlds of high fashion. This installation project is being organized through a non-profit organization, Boffo, that has a mission to inform the public about design and architecture through innovative exhibitions, installations and events. Gage/Clemenceau Architects used Autodesk Design Suite software to conceptualize, design and create a one-of-a kind immersive retail and display environment for Lady Gaga's Fashion Director Nicola Formichetti.

The environment will house the new work of Formichetti, as well as some of his previous work including several projects for Lady Gaga. The project, which is showing during NY Fashion Week, is the result of the BOFFO Building Fashion, a nonprofit initiative supporting artists and designers to produce public arts projects. The installation is an experimental fusion of ideas from both fashion and architecture into a new type of physical environment. Comprised of hundreds of robotically cut, mirrored facets that seemingly explode from ceilings, walls and flooring, the endlessly reflective environment captures and refracts Formichetti's work.

This allows his fashion designs to be viewed from many unexpected perspectives and become an active participant in the environment. Gage/Clemenceau Architects used the Autodesk Design Suite, along with Autodesk Maya software, to conceptualize, design and visualize the installation. Gage gave design sketches to two small teams: one working in Mudbox digital sculpting and painting software and one working in Maya 3D animation software.

This enabled them to explore radically different approaches to their original concept. The Maya team used the software's polygonal modeling tools to produce a design with very precise facets that looked futuristic and sharp. The Mudbox team used the product's digital sculpting capabilities to create a highly organic design in which the triangular shapes appear rounded and melted.

Gage noted that while Mudbox isn't used widely in architecture today, he finds it invaluable in enabling architects to get very close to their designs, shaping them like clay. The firm used the real-time 3D capabilities of Autodesk Showcase presentation software to quickly visualize the highly reflective surfaces that were at the foundation of the environment. Autodesk 3ds Max Design software was then used to create richly detailed near photo-realistic renderings for reviews with Formichetti.

The firm also used AutoCAD software to develop all the plans, sections and elevations. To meet the extremely tight deadlines of the competition submission, Gage/Clemenceau Architects sent its CAD files directly to a computer numerical control (CNC) milling machine - producing a physical form in four days versus the weeks it would have taken to cut it out by hand. "Working this way really opens up a whole new wealth of possibilities for architecture," Gage said.

"Software is the Rosetta Stone that lets designers, architects and artists from all arenas translate our expertise from one discipline to another. We moved very quickly from Mudbox to 3ds Max Design to AutoCAD - all because these tools are combined into a cohesive bundle. Autodesk lets us all speak the same geometric language, so collaboration and exploration is faster and easier.

City:
New York

Design team:
Nicola Formichetti + Gage/Clemeneceau Architects.

Status:
Completed

Website:
http://boffo-ny.org/

Year:
2011

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