Politecnico of Milan Bovisa, Milan
I spent 6 months as an exchange student at the politecnico of Milan. It was 6 months of discovery and travelling. In fact, we explored all of the North of Italy, as you can see on my road trip sketchbook.
There, I followed two main courses:
One of them was with Andrea Branzi: we had to think about the urban planning of a territory. We worked in groups of four: one other French person, a Brazilian, a Hungarian and I.
Our research was based on a model made up of a square base of 100x100cm and four mirrors in the corners, each 50cm high.
This experimental approach of a territory was completely new, and far from what I was used to. It was really exciting, both trying something unusual, and mixing our pluricultural skills.
As a result, we created a new Mexican campus, with mobile homes, tennis courts, a huge speaker, and a high way that recalls the film Paris Texas, from Wim Wenders. Here is the video, which presents our work.
“Le tissu dans tous ses états”
Travels to discover the culture of the world
The other main course concerned an exhibition. We worked in teams of two on a fabric exhibition.
We had no constraints except the location, an old factory situated in Milan Bovisa.
We worked on the relationship between fabrics, design and interiors.
We wanted to show the cultural and symbolic dimensions of materials. We played with them by creating an interesting mixture of famous design pieces, and symbolic fabrics (the rainbow, African fabrics…) In doing so, we talked about culture and the know-how, to a range of different people: children, adults, students, Italians, foreigners.
The exhibition was organised as an educational experience, where the visitor was to learn about the creation of fabrics. Secondly, the visitor discovered a show of “le tissu dans tous ses états”, displayed like an art exhibition. Children could create their own objects from fabrics, while students could watch movies at night in the courtyard.
