INFINITE POINTS OF VIEW ON SHOW AT COURMAYEUR DESIGN WEEKEND
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INFINITE POINTS OF VIEW ON SHOW AT COURMAYEUR DESIGN WEEKEND

AN EVENT DEDICATED TO RETHINKING ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN FROM A MODERN, SUSTAINABLE PERSPECTIVE

INFINITE POINTS OF VIEW ON SHOW AT COURMAYEUR DESIGN WEEKEND
By Editorial Staff -

Almost a hundred years ago, Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset wisely explained that “from different points of view, two men look at the same landscape. However, what they see is not the same. To both, a different situation presents a different landscape. What for one person is in the foreground with all of its details illuminated, for another person remains in the background, obscure and blurry. Would it make sense for each person to say that the other’s perception is false? Obviously not: one is as real as the other.”

Points of view” is the theme of the second Courmayeur Design Weekend, to be held from March 10 through 13 in the in this Alpine resort in northwest Italy. Three days dedicated to architecture and design, the event encompasses touring exhibitions, conferences, meetings, and exhibitions featuring both established and emerging talent from the world of architecture.

Even the cable cars on Mont Blanc will be transformed into exposes of the styles and trends to be showcased over the three days. The event is the brainchild of architect Paola Silva Coronel, who works in collaboration with Courmayeur Mont Blanc.

 

The sites of Courmayeur Design Weekend

While Chalet de Tendence and the Jaguar Land Rover lounge will host the bulk of the program, the entire town center and its store windows will also feature design exhibits related to the iconic locations and brands of Mont Blanc and Courmayeur. Piazza della Chiesa will be the site of an immense ecological carpet with a cow decoration, designed by 967Architetti Associati and created by EcoContract. In Piazzetta Brocherel, an extra-large Vanity Fair armchair by Poltrona Frau will welcome people to the event, while the town’s ancient washhouses will be home to lighting installations, created by Progetto CMR and Massimo Roj Architects, that will create dazzling games of light off the water’s surface.

Adventure and the majesty of mountains are often central themes of Progetto CMR’s creations.

>> Discover the new Mottolino Headquarters, a place for people who want to combine skiing with fun and relaxation.

The Edoardo Camardella bivouac, designed by the same studio, is the first such structure to be built above 9800 feet (3000 m).

>> Discover how this homage to the young mountaineer came into being.

In Chalet de Tendence, a group of talented young designers from Valle d’Aosta will be contributing an experiment to the event. The chalet will also be decorated with the polychrome wallpapers created by Jannelli&Volpi, which has made its incredible, iconographic collection of wallpapers available for the occasion.

Still in the chalet, Michele Rossi from Park Associati and ALPI will investigate the design of conference spaces, while Gino Garbellini from Piuarch, together with Cardex and Herman Miller, will transform his vision into an installation dedicated to the future of workplaces and the relationships that we’re going to have to learn to rebuild.

The large Jaguar Land Rover exhibition space, inside the Courmayeur Sports Center, will be the place to find out the latest news from various companies, including about their latest hi-tech products. The space will also again be the site of the event’s conference program and where live interviews will be recorded for broadcast on the event’s social media channels.

Mont Blanc itself will also be getting in on the act through Skyway, its famous cable car that takes you to 11,370 feet (3466 m). Fuoripista, a wood and glass exercise bike designed by Studio Adriano Design and produced by Elite, will let visitors test their fitness in the low oxygen levels at this altitude, while also admiring the bike’s clean, essential design, created from technology and transparency. And transparency is also key to the new Punta Helbronner café, designed by Kartell and inaugurated at the first Design Weekend. The feeling of being both seated and projected towards infinity is enhanced by the interplay of transparencies created by the brand’s products, which form the backdrop to this special setting where the products almost seamlessly mix and interact with the natural scenography of Mont Blanc.

 

Unmissable highlights

“Writing about Architecture and Design” will be the opening keynote of the event. It will see the participation of architects and journalists from specialized publications, who’ll try to reconcile the vision of the architect with the journalists’ ability to anticipate the public’s perception of it.

Dedicated to sustainability, the second session will be equally important. It’s being presented by multinational giants Hermann Miller and 3M, who’ve made sustainability a successful corporate philosophy. An exhibition put together by the 3M Foundation will focus on the same topic. Entitled “The Horizon We Look At” and curated by Roberto Mutti, the event will examine the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 through a collection of images by various contemporary photographers intended to prompt visitors to reflect on the future of environmental and social sustainability. The theme will also be examined in the JLR Lounge, with an exhibition dedicated to the sustainability of materials.

Of course, the program again takes in the popular skiCAD competition, now up to its 21st edition, in which architects and designers will compete in a giant slalom on the slopes on the morning of Friday, March 11. The winners will be awarded trophies and iconic design piece the day after.

 

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Credits

Location: Courmayeur, Aosta
Date: 10-13/03/2022
Photography by Giacomo Buzio and Design Week-end, courtesy of Courmayeur Mont Blanc and Design Week-end

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