44 Facts About Gae Aulenti

Gae Aulenti is widely acknowledged for transforming the Gare d'Orsay to the Musee d'Orsay.

Gae Aulenti was awarded the Chevalier de la Legion d' Honneur and the Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana.

Gae Aulenti was born in Palazzolo dello Stella in the Friuli region of northeast Italy to Aldo Gae Aulenti, an accountant and his wife, Virginia Gioia, a school teacher.

The Gae Aulenti family, with ancestral origins in Calabria, Apulia and Campania, included her paternal grandfather, who served as a magistrate, and her maternal grandfather, who was a physician.

When Gae Aulenti was a child, her family moved to Biella, in the Piedmont region in northern Italy.

Gae Aulenti attended a visual arts high-school in Florence; however, during World War II, she was compelled to return to Biella where she continued her studies privately.

Gae Aulenti would carry out small missions for the Allies while pretending to be on a leisurely outing to the countryside.

From 1955 to 1965, Gae Aulenti was a graphic designer at Casabella-continuita, a Milanese magazine focussed on avant-garde architecture and design.

Lamps designed by Gae Aulenti were notable for their style, innovation and function.

Gae Aulenti describes her work for Olivetti as the pivotal starting point of her international career.

In 1968, Gae Aulenti designed showrooms in Turin, Zurich and Brussels for the car manufacturer, Fiat.

Gae Aulenti collaborated with the French fashion house Louis Vuitton to design a watch accompanied by a matching pen and silk scarf.

Gae Aulenti designed a line of porcelain sanitary ware, which she called, the "Orsay" collection.

Gae Aulenti successfully advocated for changes to the ACT design, which the curators believed was overly tied to neo-classical aesthetics and excessively ornate.

Gae Aulenti has articulated the walls to either side of this nave space in heavy Egyptian tones, but with horizontal streamlines that push forward.

Gae Aulenti was engaged to redesign the portion of the Musee occupying the fourth floor of the center, to create modular spaces better suited for smaller exhibitions, and to reduce the amount of natural light impacting the artworks.

Gae Aulenti created galleries of varying sizes along a building-length, unobstructed corridor-gallery set beside the west windows.

Gae Aulenti installed shelves, alcoves and pedestals within the galleries and created small corridors linking the galleries for fragile items that required low light.

In 1983, when the Palazzo was owned by the Fiat group, Gae Aulenti was commissioned to refurbish the building as an art exhibition space.

Gae Aulenti examined contemporary Venetian buildings for elements associated with the Palazzo's original architect, Giorgio Massari.

In creating I Fenici with Sabatino Moscati, archeologist and curator of the exhibition, Gae Aulenti created a path for visitors with two distinct educational threads; first, a traditional display of archaeological objects categorized by typology and geography and second, an exploration of Phoenician culture.

Gae Aulenti designed the chancellery of the Italian Embassy and the Italian Cultural Institute in Tokyo.

At the Italian Cultural Institute, Gae Aulenti used an RAL 3011 coloured cladding, a red-brown hue which was controversial due to the perceived intensity of the colour.

In 1991, Gae Aulenti converted a 17th-century granary at the Torrecchia Vecchia estate in Lazio to a villa for Carlo Caracciolo.

Gae Aulenti designed the Italian Pavilion at the Seville Expo '92 and the redevelopment of the Piazzale Cadorna in Milan.

Gae Aulenti did not rely on scenery canvas and flats to provide perspective.

At La Scala in 1977, Gae Aulenti created the stage design for Wozzeck, the atonal opera by Alban Berg.

Gae Aulenti described the stage as being enclosed by a large "crushing" wall and prison gate, and the stage itself, a "conveyor belt", starting and stopping but inexorably carrying the characters towards the prison.

Gae Aulenti described a construction of moving boards which changed colour with different lights.

Gae Aulenti created the stage designs for Elektra by Richard Strauss in Milan and The Wild Duck by Henrik Ibsen in Genoa.

Gae Aulenti created a large sculpture of wire triangles which projected into the museum's atrium.

Benjamin Buchloh commented that designers, such as Gae Aulenti, are able to highlight their own "trademark" architectural aesthetic by incorporating it into their exhibition design.

Gae Aulenti was critical, suggesting that this is to the detriment of the artistic work or object being displayed.

Gae Aulenti had an association with the Milan Triennial over many years.

Gae Aulenti presented her own work, "Ideal apartment for an urban location" at the La casa e la scuola exhibition at the 12th Triennial in 1960.

Gae Aulenti was a member of the executive of the Triennial from 1977 to 1980.

From 1955 to 1965, Gae Aulenti was a member of the editorial staff of the design magazine, Casabella Continuita.

Gae Aulenti wrote two articles for Casabella: Soviet architecture and Marin County.

From 1954 to 1962, Gae Aulenti was a member of the editorial staff of Lotus international, the quarterly Milanese architecture magazine.

Gae Aulenti taught at the Milan School of Architecture.

Gae Aulenti was a member of Movimento Studi per I'Architettura, Milan and the Association for Industrial Design, Milan.

On 31 October 2012, Gae Aulenti died at her home in the Brera district of Milan as a result of chronic illness.

In December 2012, the Piazza Gae Aulenti was dedicated to Aulenti's memory.

Drawings, photographic material and design models under plexiglass by Gae Aulenti are held by Sistema Informativo Unificato per le Soprintendenze Archivistiche.