Prada Transformer's Final Evolution
The Prada Transformer installation in Seoul recently embarked on its fourth and final
The Prada Transformer installation in Seoul recently embarked on its fourth and final transformation. The original design was conceived by Rem Koolhaas and offers a platform for local students to showcase their own bouts of creativity which revolve around the theme of transformation over art, design and society. For press-release seen below goes into in-depth into the task at hand.
Prada’s tetrahedron structure, the Transformer, was rotated and reconfigured for the fourth and last time for “The Student Takeover” project, a day of events to be held today in Seoul.
The PVC-covered Transformer designed by Rem Koolhaas, which sits on the grounds of the city’s 16th-century Gyeonghui Palace, will allow South Korean students to exhibit new design ideas and artwork hinging on the theme of transformation. Students will discuss the future of art, design and society.
For two weeks, the Transformer became a workshop for 130 Korean students from 10 prestigious Korean universities and 13 disciplines, including architecture, fashion, film, fine art and graphics working under the direction of OMA architect and Transformer design architect Alexander Reichert. They developed an exhibition of innovative art and design, “whose aim is to investigate and bring global attention to the best of Seoul’s creative young talent,” said Prada.
Among the events is a panel discussion on the future of the creative industry, cutting-edge dance and musical performances, creative presentations by “Pecha Kucha With Students,” and a party.
Students re-elaborated the structure of the Transformer graphically, redesigning flyers, pins and T-shirts that will be distributed free throughout the day. Also, its architecture “will be painted on, wallpapered, covered in graffiti and torn apart to create a new spatiality that engages with the students’ content,” said Prada.
Curated by the Fondazione Prada, the Transformer previously served as a venue for “Turn Into Me,” a selection of works by Swedish artist Nathalie Djurberg. Prior to that, the structure contained a cinematic event and displayed the “Waist Down: Skirts by Miuccia Prada” exhibition, which opened the current series of interdisciplinary projects in April.
The Transformer can be rotated on each side depending on the event, with four facades and floor plate configurations, so that floors become walls and walls become the ceiling. Each of the four programs functions on unique steel-framed shapes: a hexagon, a cross, a rectangle and a circle.
Source: WWD
