Year 11 Number 5

More chic than ever ! Chanel Mobile Art by Zaha Hadid

October 2011

Artigo News

Chanel Mobile Art, Paris Year: 2011 Project: Zaha Hadid Product: UNI Colours: RAL 7016 (custom)

October 2011 Year 11 Number 5

After a long tour touching the cutting edge cities of New York, Tokyo and Hong Kong, Zaha Hadid's mobile art pavilion has found its permanent home outside the “Institute du Monde Arabe” in Paris. The pavilion, commissioned by Chanel head designer Karl Lagerfeld, initially hosted an exhibition of artworks inspired by Chanel bags by 20 artists and called Mobile Art. Subsequently donated by Chanel to the IMA institute it is going to be used to promote cultural programs and to host several exhibitions and happenings promoting the best talents from the Arab countries. The pavilion is a perfect marriage between of the iconic smooth flow of lines marking Zaha Hadid’s style and Chanel’s typical elegance. Thanks to the new digital modelling tools the unit becomes a living sculpture far away from the typical idea of “building”. Its form looks like is always turning into something different. Every step you make around pavilion, it changes its form naturally and sensually, in stark but pleasant contrast with the rigid order and repetition of the nearby Jean Nouvel’s IMA building. This richness of forms and spaces finds a mirror in the interior of the structure, where the need of multifunctional versatility had been developed with a series of arch shaped elements well underlined by artificial lighting softly laying on the walls. The exterior is connected to the interior also by a large opening in the roof letting the sun light flood the black and white interiors and illuminate the large central courtyard that can be a meeting point for visitor during an exhibition as well as hosting events by itself. Born to travel around the world, all the structure (flooring included) had been designed to be easily built in less than one week, an essential requirement for a mobile museum.

October 2011 Year 11 Number 5

The flooring selected and installed follows the design and the philosophy of the entire project: organic minimalism. An area of 1.600 m2 was covered with Artigo UNI in a special dark grey RAL reference (7016) harmoniously blending into the interior design and the architectural features that strongly characterize the spaces of the building. The elegant and minimal look of Artigo UNI perfectly lands itself to this kind of application since it does not divert the attention of people while visiting the exhibition. Artigo production technique can match almost any RAL, Pantone, NCS or custom colour, giving total freedom and a strong medium to the designers to better realize their ideas. Artigo flooring had been chosen several times for exhibition project (just to mention several exhibitions at the Grand Palais in Paris, the Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Erarta Modern Art museum of St. Petersburg) . The reason of this choice is quite clear not only under a look point of view but also thanks to the technical performances it features : the natural slip resistance of rubber, the abrasion resistance and the highest reduction of sound due to treading among the resilient flooring of the same thickness. Zaha Hadid’s Chanel Mobile Art Pavillion is a perfect example of how Artigo flooring can fit into the most exclusive projects of the greatest architects of our time. All these reasons make of our UNI a perfect “exhibition animal” ! (all images © designboom)

October 2011 Year 11 Number 5

Currently on display : ZAHA HADID , of course ! As the first woman to have been awarded the Pritzker Prize, the English architect of Iraqi origin is seen as pushing the boundaries of urban architecture and is known for her fluid shapes and curving structures, often juxtaposing intri-cate interlaced forms with the imposing buildings they make up. If you had in mind a weekend in Paris, well … hurry up !!!

Not an easy job : It has not been easy to please all of the actors involved in this nice project. The rolls had to be custom cut to fit the hardwo-od panels dry laid into the structure. The colour at the start was simply a black, but this more subtle dark grey was even-tually selected. Our customers:

APC+AIA Productions and Enia Architectes : for the selection Viry S.A. : General contractor assembling the structure on site Mr. Van Den Broucke : installing the custom size rolls