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. For the FW 2020 MiuMiu show, AMO confronts August Perret’s sober Palais d’Iena with a newfound sense of audacity, hijacking the surfaces of the architecture with new patterns, colors, and textures.
The first scene of intervention begins at the entrance, where the original white floor is covered by a bold decorative carpet, an antithesis in both form and material. As the carpet continues throughout the Palais, it invades the hypostyle and the “Pas Perdu”, wrapping along the entry and the Grand Stairs.
Other elements of the Palais, from the colonnade to the windows, are similarly confronted. Each of the existing columns is surrounded by metal frames equipped with LEDs, which sublimate each column into a geometry of bright pink light. At the bottom of every column, a velvet plinth becomes both a visual counterpart of the composition and a seating element.
In between the columns, reclaimed cinema seating forms a dynamic milieu, creating a whimsical atmosphere inside the solemn Palais. Mirrors along the wall extend this mania to the infinite on either side and provide the backdrop for the models walking the perimeter of the space.
This phantasm challenges the order and precision of modernism, as Miu Miu reclaims the Palais d’Iena for irreverence and play.
