Styleture

Benedetta Tagiabue

One architect who has created amazing works with and without her famous husband is Benedetta Tagliabue. Being married to the famous architect Enric Miralles, who she met while living in New York, and working at the Miralles studio, the Miralles-Tagliabue-EMBT, Benedetta worked side by side with Enric until his untimely death in 2000. Since his passing, she finished the works of Miralles’, most notably the New Scottish Parliament building (which may be considered the most controversial building of this century).  Since then she has also worked on many of her own projects, including not only architecture, but also landscape, public space, building restoration, temporary installations, and design.

Most recently, Benedetta has designed the scenography for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in New York,  the scenography for an exhibition by the Spanish film director Isabel Coixet, and is now working on the Spanish Pavilion for the Shanghai Expo of 2010.

Benedetta helped create a strong legacy for the EMBT, and as each new project is created, it is done so in a  totally distinct manner from the previous one. Benedetta’s designs do not rely on any particular building type or specific design besides the involvement of some use of public spaces and landscaping ideas. She believes that buildings and landscapes are much in the same thing and that you cannot treat one without considering the other as there are always strong contextual issues.

Read the rest of this entry »

Zaha Hadid

The Praemium Imperial is a global arts prize awarded annually by the Japan Art Association. It has become the highest international distinction for achievements in the arts. Each year, six nomination committees, each chaired by an International Adviser, propose candidates in five fields: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Music and Theater/Film.

This year, Zaha Hadid was awarded the high honor of Praemium Imperial for Architecture. Zaha Hadid was born in Iraq and was set on having a career in architecture at the ripe age of 11. Zaha studied architecture in London, and established her own practice in London at the age of 30. Today her firm, Zaha Hadid Architects, now employs over 250 people and is located in London. Some describe her works as fluid, dynamic exteriors, interweaving geometric curves, with straight lines and sharp angles.

In recent years her visions have brought her increased recognition. Here are just a few of her notable projects:

Read the rest of this entry »

Marco Ferreri is an amazing and innovative Italian designer who was born in Imperia Italy, graduated from the Politecnico of Milan in 1981. Ferreri, like many Italian designers, studied architecture originally, but now designs everything from urban planning projects to furniture. In his career he has been noted for his furniture designs such as the Is Stool which is part of a collection of MoMA.

One of his more recent works is an awe-inspiring light installation, The Puraluce, which was designed for the high end lighting manufacturer Studio Italia Designs and is one of our favorites. The molded-plastic Puraluce light debuted inside Milan’s Basilica of San Lorenzo Maggiore, in the chapel of Saint Aquilino. The larger-than-life modern light installation was composed of a steel frame and twelve beams, from which fine strips of white nylon cascade to feature a total of 576 gleaming bulbs.  The perfect synthesis for a work of art, the installation evoked the sterile power of the luminous element, the totality of absolute glare, and the abstraction of its impossible solidity.

Read the rest of this entry »