LAVA: christmas windows for la rinascente

christmas windows at la rinascente by chris bosse all images courtesy LAVA

chris bosse of laboratory for visionary architecture (LAVA) has created a window installation for the famous italian department store la rinascente for its vetrine di natale 2010 (christmas windows).   LAVA’s window installation is an origami coral reef using 1500 recycled and recyclable cardboard molecules that explores the intelligence of natural and architectural systems.   the sculpture plays with space by climbing up walls and arching over to create coral caves.  based on the geometrical structures of sea foam and corals, the colourful reef comes to life through dynamic lighting and sound.   bosse, is one of seven designers from around the world to be commissioned to create a window – others are kirsten hassenfeld, gyngy laky, andrea mastrovito, satsuki oishi, richard sweeney, margherita marchioni and TJEP.   the store windows are at la rinascente’s piazza duomo store, in the centre of milan. this is the first time la rinascente have commissioned artists to do christmas windows.   the installation shows how a particular module, copied from nature, can generate architectural space, and how the intelligence of the smallest unit dictates the intelligence of the overall system.

current trends in parametric modeling, digital fabrication and material-science were applied to the space-filling installation.