Gae Aulenti

Gae Aulenti (December 4, 1927 – October 31, 2012) was an Italian architect, interior, lighting, furniture, and industrial designer. She was one of the few prominent female architects in post-war Italy. She was responsible for the interior layout and design of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. In 1987, Aulenti was awarded the French Chevalier de la Legion d' Honneur, and in 1995, the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.

Gae Aulenti in 1986.

Quotes

• Light is impressionism.
  • On positioning galleries for impressionist and post impressionist paintings at the top of her design for Paris's Musée d'Orsay. Time magazine, 8 December 1986

• There are plenty of other talented female architects, but most of them seem to link up with men [...] I've always worked for myself, and it's been quite an education. Women in architecture must not think of themselves as a minority, because the minute you do, you become paralyzed. It is important to never create the problem.
  • The Guardian

• Advice to whoever asks me how to make a home is to not have anything, just a few shelves for books, some pillows to sit on. And then, to take a stand against the ephemeral, against passing trends [...] and to return to lasting values.
  • Vogue magazine

• I am convinced that architecture is tied to the polis, it is an art of the city, of the foundation, and as such it is necessarily related and conditioned by the context in which it is born. Place, time, and culture create that architecture, instead of another.
  • Petranzan, Margherita. Gae Aulenti. Rizzoli Skira, Milan, 2002

• It's not possible to define a style in my work. If you're designing an airport, then aeroplanes are important. It's no more complicated to design a museum. I prefer museums for my personal passion – the art.
  • The Times

• Raggi: Has the fact that you are a woman been a crucial influence in your work? Aulenti: Yes.
  • From a Great Desire to Build a City. Franco Raggi, Modo no. 21, 1979

• The conscious principle in this design has been to achieve forms that could create experiences, and that could at the same time welcome everyone's experiences with the serenity of an effortless development.

• When you're criticized for something, it's best to wait two or three years and see.

• What is more real and tangible within an artificial space than brick?

Quotes about Aulenti

• Aulenti views architecture as a concrete, untouchable entity that uses the city as its form generator. She sees architecture in terms of its relationship to the urban environment. In her designs, she blends the private with the public to generate architectural forms and spatial relationships.
  • Gae Aulenti at reatbuildings.com, accessed June 2014.