Hadid first covered her chest and then raised her arms as the viscous white paint streamed out of the spraying devices and onto her torso. At first, it looked like ordinary paint, but then something curious started to happen: it took on a shape of its own, stretching across the front and back of her thighs.

It took about 15 minutes to finish spray-painting the dress, and then a woman came out and cut a slit along one leg, pulling down the sleeves to create an off-the-shoulder look. As Hadid made her way back down the runway, the dress fluttered and flowed, somehow a fully fledged and very wearable garment perfectly custom-fitted to her proportions.

The material, Fabrican, was invented by designer and technologist Dr. Manel Torres. Unsurprisingly, his inspiration first came from silly string. “I thought I could create a mist,” Torres explained in a 2013 TED Talk. “That was the eureka moment.” He approached the Imperial College in London to find a way to bring this idea to life, and they provided a lab and materials for his experiments.

Fabrican was the result of two years of trial and error. Though it’s sprayable, Fabrican isn’t really paint. It’s a liquid fiber bound together with stretchy polymers. Solvents in the mix evaporate when they hit the model’s body, leaving only the fibers and polymers behind.

Coperni designers Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillan took Torres’ invention and created their own design with it, the dress Hadid modeled on the runway. The type and material of fibers used in the mix change the texture and flow of the resulting fabric. In this case, the dress felt like suede and moved like a second skin.

The designers imagine users choosing their own unique combinations to get the results they want, spraying on t-shirts or sportswear on demand. They could even add fragrances or conducive materials that interact with tiny computers to create wearable technology. When you’re done wearing it, you simply peel it off and put it on a hanger like you would any other garment.

“Fashion designers need new materials and fabrics to create products to address evolving lifestyles and consumer demands,” read the Coperni show notes. “In the 21st century we should make it the first time that science and design really march together in close step, illustrating in this way their interdependence.”

The Coperni show was a fittingly dramatic way to introduce this new kind of fashion technology. Fashion lovers may recall the 1995 Alexander McQueen show, in which robots spray-painted a design onto model Shalom Harlow’s white dress, but that was just paint. This is revolutionary, and it’ll be interesting to see whether it’s eventually adopted as a new way to create custom-fitted clothing within minutes.

The post Bella Hadid’s Spray-On Dress Introduces a New Kind of Fashion Technology first appeared on Dornob.

The Eiffel Tower is currently illuminated by 20,000 exterior LED light bulbs that use approximately 7.8 kilowatt-hours of electricity each year. Until September 23rd, the world-famous landmark glowed from dusk until 1 am, putting on a special flickering light show for five minutes every hour. Lightbulbs flash on and off in random patterns to mimic the effect of a fireworks display for visitors.

More recently, The Paris city council decided to turn the lights off every night at 11:45 pm, potentially saving up to four percent of the tower’s annual energy consumption. Originally constructed in 1887, the Eiffel tower was first illuminated by 10,000 gas lights and external spotlights projecting from the base. It was updated to more modern lightning in 1985, with the sparkle effect being added to ring in the millennial year 2000.

Gas and Oil Shortage

The Eiffel Tower’s light restriction comes in response to the growing energy crisis across Europe caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Before the war, Russia had supplied roughly 40 percent of all of the European Union’s gas needs, but now only provides nine percent, causing skyrocketing prices and fuel shortages across the continent. Even those countries that were not heavily reliant on Russia for their energy needs are now feeling the pinch. For example, Germany depended on Russia for 55 percent of its gas needs in the past, but is currently buying more from Norway, reducing the amount available for other faithful customers like Great Britain.

What Else is Being Done?

In addition to dimming the tower lights a littler earlier, the City of Paris is also instituting several other energy-saving measures. For starters, all city-managed buildings will have their temperatures lowered from 19 to 18 degrees Celsius (roughly from 66 to 64 degrees Fahrenheit), except for in elderly care homes and baby day care facilities. Public pools will lower their water temperature from 27 to 26 degrees Celsius (from about 80 to 78 degrees Fahrenheit), and lighting on all public monuments will be turned off at 10 pm.

Around Europe, other countries are taking their own measures to cut energy usage. Germany is turning off spotlights on its over 200 public monuments and government buildings at night, shutting down fountains, requiring all state employees to wash their hands with cold water only, and even cancelling the traditional Christmas lighting along Berlin’s glitzy shopping district.

Spain has put limits on air conditioning and heating temperatures for all shops, offices, and other commercial venues. The Netherlands and Denmark are urging their citizens to take short showers to save on gas. And to ease the burden for their residents, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and France have all set caps on electricity and gas prices. Since the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war, average household energy costs have jumped to nearly five times their previous level.

Even if the Eiffel Tower light reduction is largely symbolic in nature, it shows solidarity with people across Europe who are having to cut back on energy use. Despite the latest measures, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has assured the public that nation’s capital “will always be the City of Light.”

The post Paris Pulls the Plug on Eiffel Tower Lights to Ease Energy Crisis first appeared on Dornob.

This particular apartment, called Gambetta after the street it’s on, features a layout running at an angle to the street-facing facade and rounded walls in the two main rooms, the kitchen/dining area, and the living room. So how exactly does one take an iconic Parisian apartment with this kind of unusual shape and modernize it for the 21st century — without losing its historic charm? Jean Benoît Vétillard Architecture decided to emphasize its curves, creating custom built-in furniture to amplify the preexisting theatrical character.

“The original plan is enlarged, and the lines of force are extended,” explain the architects. “The new composition is made of depths of field. So many backstage and stage spaces, more than serving spaces/served spaces. This new organization of domestic spaces is constructed by the punctual positioning of multifunctional furniture in oiled okoume wood and brushed aluminum.”

“The front of the kitchen table hides the access to the child’s bedroom, the bow window gives its shape to a modular tatami, the living room houses a large library, but also the parental bedroom, round by geometric mirror…the advantage of this design is that it does not alter the original structure, which remains unchanged. In their original material, the light of the Boulevard Gambetta, the white stucco, and the oak parquet floors have reappeared.”

The beauty of this renovation is that the architects have chosen to play up the apartment’s quirks and historic details rather than permanently eliminate or modify them. The brushed aluminum built-in bookcase that curves around the back wall of the living room contrasts with the all-white original trim around it, highlighting the geometries of the space. This material is seen again on the kitchen wall, where it’s joined by warm wooden tones that brighten up the room and complement the flooring.

The child’s bedroom, though small, is made functional thanks to a new built-in lofted bed above a series of built-in cabinets. The primary bedroom faces the back of the living room’s curved wall, now clad in the same wood as the kitchen cabinets. Most fun of all might just be the round modular seating in the living room, upholstered in a rich blue matching the adjacent curtains. It fits perfectly into the rounded nook beside the fireplace, its modern simplicity accented by the rusticity of the old wood floors. Overall, the design feels both mature and playful, contemporary and rooted in old Paris.

The post Curvy Paris Apartment Creatively Reimagined by Jean Benoît Vétillard Architecture first appeared on Dornob.

“Indeed, the arch connects the dots of the various periods of the building’s architecture,” the firm explains. “It is also linked directly to the museum’s collections as the arch is showcased in the Mesopotamian section, but also in the Assyrian, Egyptian, Etrurian, and Roman collection, amongst many others. Regarding its shape and position, the Louvre Pavilions will fit naturally in Paris’ Royal axis, a tribute to the perspective of L’Arc de Triomphe and La Grade Arche de la Defense.”

“It creates a new connection to Paris’s architectural major landmarks such as the arcades located on the rue de Rivoli, la Seine’s iconic rivers bridges, or la Tour Eiffel just to name a few. Resolutely timeless and yet contemporary, these 21st-century arches are in direct continuity to those built in Le Louvre since the 12th century, enlightening the Louvre’s fundamental DNA.”

The arch modules are designed to connect to each other in various ways, including face-to-face, back-to-back, and at right angles. Some are vertical, creating alcoves within which visitors can shelter. Others are horizontal, encircling guests within intimate banquette seating areas. These configurations echo the geometries of the museum, including its vaults and domes. The arches’ acoustics also provide another practical function: noise reduction. Sit within one of the vertical arches and you’ll find that it offers a micro-environment with reduced distractions (a nice accommodation for visitors with autism and sensory processing disorders, whether the architects actively considered those needs or not).

Studio Malka also envisions the pavilions as adaptable modules that can respond to future needs, such as new pandemic-related distancing regulations that might arise. “We must be able to prepare for various possibilities and create suitable scenarios in order to be able to welcome users in the best possible conditions,” the architects explain. “This is also why our reception pavilions are not only modular but also mobile; Thus, their positioning and combinations may evolve depending on the different requests, but also at the rate of peak periods, like celebrations or school holidays.”

The new pavilions look like they’ll be a great example of temporary, modular, and mobile interventions that have a low impact on the historic buildings they occupy. Instead of permanently altering the Louvre itself, they respectfully augment its functionality and the way it serves the roughly 10 million visitors who pass through its doors each year. When they’re no longer needed, they can simply be removed, leaving the museum as it was before without a trace of their former presence.

The post Arched Modular Mini Pavilions by Studio Malka Will Soon Fill the Louvre first appeared on Dornob.

As you might imagine, having access to Pierre Frey’s full catalog of textiles for your own use is a decorator’s dream come true, and the Freys have taken advantage of that ability both in their primary home in Paris and their country home in the Luberon area of Provence.

Elle Decor got a peek into the Freys’ picturesque Luberon home, a stone farmhouse representing a pinnacle of French countryside style. Centuries old, the house previously belonged to Patrick’s parents, and its most notable feature is its original jagged stacked stone walls accented by a clay tile roof.

With all of its texture, character, and sense of history, the stone sets the mood for the home, contrasting with smooth white plaster throughout the interiors. Updating the decor to their own tastes, the Freys wanted to celebrate traditional Provence colors and textures while integrating a touch of modern minimalism.

The couple maintained the rustic character of the house, leaving the stone walls intact and preserving the original floor plan of small rooms. “You have to keep in mind that this house is a maison paysanne at its core — it was a farm in the beginning,” Lorraine says, adding: “I believe that houses should preserve their true history and should remain in their simplicity.”

Pierre Frey textiles bring color, print, and texture to the interiors through curtains and upholstered furniture. A sitting room nestled beneath an original vaulted stone ceiling is awash in soothing neutrals, while the living room features pops of vibrant green. The overall effect is that of harmony and subtlety — and one that avoids too much contrast.

“I only used linen, cotton, piqué — things that are very natural,” Patrick explains. “We played very much with the color, using old hues, to preserve as much of the charm as we could. The same goes for the ceramics, which are painted and rustic. Taken together, it’s all meant to feel a little outside of time.”

Meanwhile, the Frey’s city home in the 6th arrondissement of Paris captures a slightly different feeling, albeit no less harmonious. Saturated jewel tones and eclectic patterns play against the elegance of that apartment’s original millwork. Objects from the couple’s travels are mixed with antiques curated by Patrick’s grandfather René Prou, himself a renowned decorator and artist. A large ottoman in the center of the living room is upholstered in several layers of Pierre Frey textiles inspired by the “galette,” a traditional French pastry.

If the mood of their country home is a little more restrained and tranquil, the Freys’ Paris apartment conveys a sense of playfulness. Clashing patterns and contrasting colors you wouldn’t necessarily think to put together like lavender and mustard are augmented by an abundance of eye-catching decorative objects. There’s certainly no shortage of anything to look at.

“Color is at the heart of European decoration, and one must be daring and playful with color combinations,” Patrick told Home Journal.

The post Peek into Pierre Frey Owners’ Charming French Homes first appeared on Dornob.

The already distinctively difficult market has become even more complicated due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as many people have had to evaluate how they both live and work by either working from home or incorporating a hybrid home/work schedule. So where does this leave young professionals looking for affordable housing?

While the answer is complex, there are some developers looking to create affordable solutions when it comes to finding a place to call home.

Enter French developer Bouyges Immobilier, who launched a co-living company last year to create a new template for how “we rent, use, and share living spaces.” Pairing with the Paris-based architecture studio Cutwork, Immobilier’s aim is deceptively simple: an interior design concept that gives “working people, between 25 to 40 years old, [access to] high-quality, affordable living and a socially connected life…” But how does this lofty goal translate in real life?

To find the answer, look to LEGO.

Currently on display in Paris, the 26-square-meter PolyRoom prototype prefab unit is the ultimate building block creation translated into real-life housing. Designed to stack like LEGO bricks, the prefab modules are built using conventional construction methods — but instead of your standard cookie-cutter apartment units, these units are composed with residents’ ever-changing needs in mind, offering unique spaces to live, work, and adapt. To accomplish this, the modules were modeled to be literally transformative, equipped with movable furniture and clever storage solutions that maximize the living space and its potential for adaptation.

Based on the Japanese concept of washitsu, Cutwork co-founder and architect Antonin Yuji Maeno envisioned spaces that were multipurpose and flexible. He says, “It’s no longer about the amount of square meters [physical living space] we live in but about living in polyvalent spaces that are designed to be reconfigured to fit all our intimate and social needs.”

The bottom line? Residents have a home space that’s in flux and adaptable (yet comfortable), with plenty of options for living their best hybrid work/home lives. Plus, these prefab units can be created more quickly than more traditional building methods, stacking up like LEGO bricks into ready-to-move-in spots that hope to make their mark in the affordable housing sphere.

And just because the units act on the same principle as LEGO bricks doesn’t mean they’ll be dull, drab, and like those dreaded office cubicles stacked on end. Instead, Cutwork hopes to incorporate eco-friendly touches like balconies, facades, and rooftops full of native plants — lush, green spaces that interact with the local ecosystem instead of solely disrupting it. Hoping to open at least 15 of these sites by 2025 (that’s 2,500 PolyRoom bedrooms!), Bouyges Immobilier is ready to impress with these prefab beauties that are transformable and economical, efficient and eco-friendly.

The post These Stackable LEGO-Like Prefab Apartments Reinvent Affordable Housing first appeared on Dornob.

“With its incomparable history and contemporary dynamism, Paris is uniquely positioned as a pivotal epicenter of the international cultural scene,” says Marc Spiegler, Global Director of Art Basel in a statement. “We aim to build on Paris’s unparalleled standing as a global metropolis to help create a vibrant week that even further amplifies the city’s international resonance as a cultural capital.”

With such an illustrious art background, the city could not simply become the subtitle for another “Art Basel” name. Instead, the fair creators came up with a different moniker: Paris+, by Art Basel.

“It’s very minimalist and works in different languages,” Spiegler explains. “We wanted a name that was not going to take up too much space, because one of the big parts of this adventure is that we want to work with other creative industries. We wanted a name that worked well for collab mode.”

Paris+ is also taking over the famed Grand Palais, having outbid the longstanding FIAC art fair in a public bidding war. Art Basel agreed to pay roughly $12 million for a commitment of seven years in the venue, kicking FIAC out after 47 years. This year the new Art Basel will be housed in the Grand Palais Éphémère, the temporary Grand Palais location until the historic building’s restoration is completed in 2024.

In keeping with the organization’s mission to let each show be “defined by its host city and region,” Art Basel has named a team of three to lead Paris+, all with strong connections to the French art world. Parisian Clément Delépine gave up his post as co-director of the young, hip annual Paris Internationale to become director of this latest showcase.

“Even before my appointment, I welcomed the news of Art Basel’s selection to stage a new fair in Paris,” Delépine explains. “The Art Basel team is committed to the highest standards of excellence, and I am immensely honored and humbled by the trust placed in me. I look forward to collaborating with the entire ecosystem of galleries, institutions, creative and cultural industries here in Paris to create a magnetic event for the city and the world.”

Deputy director Maxime Hourdequin also hails from France, bringing almost 10 years of experience from his work as deputy director of FIAC. The general manager position went to Virginie Aubert, former business director and general manager of Christie’s France.

Adds Art Basel’s Spiegler, “We’re excited to have such a strong team at the helm of our new fair in Paris. I am confident that with their range of experience and perspectives we will deliver a strong premier edition of our show this fall — that capitalizes both on Paris’s unparalleled legacy as a cultural capital — and on its position as a vibrant crossroads for today’s contemporary culture.”

While few details about this year’s fair have emerged, Art Basel has said that it intends to bring together “artists, collectors, curators, and gallery owners” from both Paris and around the world. More information will be communicated ahead of the inaugural Paris+ event scheduled for October 20th through 23rd.

The post Latest Art Basel Event Wins a Home – and a New Name – in Paris first appeared on Dornob.

The 1300-square-foot apartment is Gautrand’s first private interior design project. Like many Parisian apartments of a similar age, the space started out rather dark, with a lot of small, enclosed rooms. The clients wanted Gautrand to open it up, infuse it with daylight, and make it feel more modern and playful.

“We wanted to break from the ideas and images of Bourgeois Parisian apartments and lean more towards something that is more in the order of a holiday house, like a ‘cabane de plage,’ those small but colorful shelters from which one steps out to the sun and sky,” says the owner. “We wanted to create something that leaned more towards an artistic statement, and not just a historical one. We wanted to use color and we wanted to sculpt the volumes.”

“Sculpt” became the key word for the renovation. Gautrand approached the project almost like an assemblage, slicing out some areas and bringing in new shapes and modes of circulation. Walls were removed and new voids created to take full advantage of the large windows on the eastern and western facades, allowing the light to travel to two levels of living spaces. These spaces were then divided into zones, each with their own particular style and mood.

At the center of the home stands its most memorable feature: a blocky new staircase in a soft shade of pink that makes the yellow wall behind it look even sunnier. Slightly offset from each other, the steps almost start to cantilever out to the left as they reach the landing and turn upward, arching over niches for a fireplace and shelving.

The stairs lead from an intimate, understated living room tucked beneath the loft up to a vivid yellow mezzanine with an angled ceiling, just beneath the roofline of the historic building. This level contains the primary bedroom, a guest bedroom full of built-in storage, a strikingly textural marble-lined bathroom, and a hallway topped with a long, narrow skylight. Best of all, the bedroom opens onto the full-height living room atrium via atelier-style windows.

“The goal was to create a strip of natural light, through which the sun’s influence, whether it be cold white winter light or warm summer, could cast its shadow and influence the interior, upstairs and down, throughout the day,” says Gautrand. “A traditional staircase would have interfered with the continuity of this strip of sky and so I began playing with the relief that these 20-centimeter thick pieces of cellular concrete would make, and the stairs came out of this. Then I decided to make it even bigger, so that it extended up the wall of the mezzanine and onto the wall under the skylight.”

The post A Chunky Pink Staircase Brings a Playful Spirit to a 17th-Century Paris Apartment first appeared on Dornob.

This year, the prehistoric theme has been drawn outdoors among the plants for “Evolution on a Path to Enlightenment,” a gorgeous illuminated exhibition filled with ghostly hand-painted silk sculptures made by Sichuan-based company China Lights. Some of these creatures tower several meters into the air, gently billowing in the wind so they almost seem to be alive.

A Spectacular Voyage Through Time

The installation follows the evolution of biodiversity through the ages, created through the research and reconstruction work of the museum’s paleontologists. Over a hundred luminous structures represent the many species that have inhabited the Earth over the last 600 million years, including not just dinosaurs, but also lesser-known creatures that went extinct long ago.

The journey starts from Place Valhubert with the Origins of Life (3,700 to 490 millions years ago) during the Precambrian and Cambrian times, and moves into the Primary Era (490 to 250 million years ago) and Paleozoic times when organisms first started to adapt to the terrestrial environment. Then comes the Secondary Era (250 to 66 million years ago) in Mesozoic times when dinosaurs appeared. Finally, the Tertiary Era (66 million years ago to the present time) presents the Cenozoic era, in which many of these animals became extinct and mammals came to dominate the planet.

The inflatables are pretty noteworthy in their own right for the artistry that went into them. Lit from within, each one dazzles against the dark backdrop of the nighttime gardens. Naturally, an enormous T-rex with wide-open jaws is the star of the show, but even the delicate invertebrates are strikingly beautiful. It would be fun to take in this artistic display at dusk after spending the afternoon looking at all the skeletons and fossils inside the museum.

“Evolution on a Path to Enlightenment” opened November 21st, 2021 and will close on January 30th, 2022. It’s hosting visitors every day, and you can buy tickets online for €12 to €15.

A Must-See Paris Attraction

If you’re not familiar with the Jardin des Plantes, you’re going to want to add it to your dream tour of Paris. Founded in 1626 as a royal garden of medicinal plants, it opened to the public in 1650 and became associated with scientific study of botany and zoology in the late 1700s. It covers over 68 acres and houses 6 greenhouses for display and 22 for research, along with 23,500 species of plants like bromeliads, orchids, ferns, aroids, alpine plants, confers, cacti, grasses, and more.

There’s also a zoo on site with Art Deco buildings like the Vivarium, Monkey House, and Big Cat House. One of the oldest zoos in the world, second only to Tiergarten Schönbrunn in Vienna, Austria, The Ménagerie opened in 1794 and still hosts many animals. The most popular is Nénette the orangutan.

The post Luminous Inflatable Dinosaurs Haunt Paris’ Jardin des Plantes first appeared on Dornob.

While several restaurants around the world use autonomous machines to prepare food, most prefer to keep them behind the scenes and out of sight. Pazzi takes a different approach, letting customers watch as mechanical arms handle every step of the pizza-making process. The company website encourages patrons to “come for the show, stay for the pizza.”

Even passers-by can observe the orange-and-silver arms whirling around behind a glass wall, stamping dough, pouring sauce, sliding pizzas into the ovens, slicing them, and placing the final product in boxes for pickup.

Customers can place their orders via the touchscreen kiosks inside or through the online app. The specialized robots can prepare a pizza in 45 seconds, producing up to 80 an hour. No humans are required, and in fact, they would probably just slow down the workflow.

“We are in a very fast process, with a perfect control of time, a control of quality since we have a constancy offered by robotics, and then an environment that is quite cool and relaxed,” Pazzi co-inventor Sébastien Roverso told Euronews. “The idea is also to spend a few pleasant minutes watching the robot while you wait for your pizza to be made.”

The unique experience was created by Roverso and his childhood friend Cyrill Hamon, both engineers, in response to their college-day desires to find tasty pies at any hour of the night. “We dedicate Pazzi to all the curious and inventive minds who think that there is always a way to get what you want!” they proclaim on the website.

The two enlisted the help of renowned chef and triple world pizza champion Thierry Graffagnino, utilizing him as a chief consultant to perfect their automated pizza.

“What is difficult is the dough,” explains Graffagnino. “Because the dough is alive, you don’t work with frozen dough. The machine must constantly adapt to the evolution of the dough. So, we had to give the robot the means to make these corrections on its own, and some pizza makers can’t even manage that themselves.”

Each Pazzi culinary creation also boasts a quality set of ingredients. Organic tomatoes, Auvergne PDO blue cheese, Limousin beef, Bleu-Blanc-Coeur ham, and Lael Rouge chicken are among the elements available for each order.

With the opening of a second store, the next step looks to be international expansion. “Pazzi means ‘crazy’ in Italian,” said company CEO Philippe Goldman at the 2019 opening of the first restaurant. “It’s in the image of our team and the crazy bet invested in research for six years, concretized in particular by five patents. The objective is now to conquer not only the global fast-food market…by creating a European champion but also to fight junk food while meeting the structural challenges of the sector. Pazzi’s mission is to put technology and robotics at the service of taste and healthier food.”

Those outside the Paris area can follow the pizzeria and watch videos of its digital chefs on Pazzi’s Instagram page.

The post Pazzi Pizzeria, Staffed by Robot Chefs, Opens Second Paris Restaurant first appeared on Dornob.

As a posthumous project of the legendary artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude, the “L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped” installation required 270,000 square feet of silvery-blue polypropylene fabric, almost 10,000 feet of red rope, and three months of labor from a team of 1,200 workers.

Resembling a ridiculously large package delivered to the Champs-Élysées, the Arc’s new look has been polarizing among Parisians, garnering both fascination and praise as well as sharp criticism, with some on social media calling it the “shame of France.” Those divergent reactions are a sign that the famous artists’ creations have not lost their raison d’être: to provide a spectacular aesthetic impact while introducing new ways of seeing the familiar.

“All our projects deal with reality. You are exposed to real things: real sun, wind, rain, fear, joy,” Christo once said. “That is why these projects are bigger than our own imaginations.”

Bulgarian native Christo Vladimirov Javacheff and Morrocan-born Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon met in Paris in 1958, sparking a decades-long collaboration of love and art. The married pair were known for encasing dozens of prominent public spaces and nature in cloth. In the 1970s, they strung up a huge curtain in a Colorado canyon. In 1985, Paris’ Pont Neuf bridge was transformed into a shining parcel of gold. In 1995, they also covered the German Reichstag building for 14 days in aluminum material. And just a few years before Jeanne-Claude’s death in 2009, the couple set up hundreds of bright orange fabric “gates” in New York’s Central Park.

Each of the duo’s larger-than-life art installations required years of planning, especially in regard to acquiring permissions from government and local entities. The plan to bind up the Arc was conceived all the way back in the 1960s, but the red tape involved with such a recognizable structure was too daunting. Their vision only became a reality after Christo’s death last year.

“This is the achievement of a 60-year-old dream, a crazy dream come true,” said French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking at the installation’s official opening on September 16th. Clearly, the project is more a homage to the artists themselves than a new piece of artwork.

The piece’s assembly was overseen by Christo’s nephew Vladimir Yavachev and cost roughly $16 million, completely paid for through the sale of the late artist’s prints and drawings, as well charitable donations. The busy adjacent streets were closed off on the weekends for the duration of the installation, and thousands of curious pedestrians filled in the avenues during the first Saturday and Sunday to get a closer look.

The Arc de Triomphe stayed under wraps until just a couple days ago, on October 3rd. No tickets were required, and the artists’ website even invited visitors to “approach and touch the artwork.” For fans outside of Paris, the website also features a livestream YouTube video of tourists’ interactions with the silver-swathed Arc.

The transitory nature of the piece is part of its appeal. “I don’t have any artworks that exist. They all go away when they’re finished,” Christo once said, adding that: “Only the preparatory drawings and collages are left, giving my works an almost legendary character. I think it takes much greater courage to create things to be gone than to create things that will remain.”

The post Paris’ Arc de Triomphe Gets All Wrapped Up in Art first appeared on Dornob.

Street scene in Montmartre (Impasse des Deux Frères and the Pepper Mill) dates back to 1887 and has been in the possession of a single undisclosed French family since that time.

“What is exciting is that it is a Van Gogh painting which has been hidden away ever since it came off the artist’s easel,” Van Gogh expert Martin Bailey told CNN in an interview.

While a black and white photograph of the painting taken in 1972 has been circulated in seven different catalogues over the past 40 years, Bailey said that it has “always been in private collections, so only the owners and their friends knew it.”

The scene depicts a couple walking past the Pepper Mill, also known as the Moulin Debray, which had morphed into a social and entertainment center for Parisians after it ceased operations. The bright but windy wintry landscape, shown from the Impasse des Deux Frères view, also includes a pair of conversing children outside the gates. Decorative lanterns hang from the entrance to the mill area, and a carousel is observable behind the enclosure.

Part of a series brought to life in this hilly area of Paris now known for the Sacre Coeur church, Van Gogh was captivated by the juxtaposition of the pastoral and the urban in Montmartre. It was a district that attracted artists, musicians, and writers, creating an atmosphere full of vitality and excitement – elements captured in Van Gogh’s portrayal of this scene.

“It’s an important painting in the oeuvre of Vincent van Gogh because it dates from the period in which he’s living in Paris with his brother, Theo,” says Etienne Hellman, Senior Director of Impressionist and Modern Art at Sotheby’s. “Before this, his paintings are much darker…In Paris he discovers color. Color blows up into the painting.”

It was also during this time that Van Gogh encountered the Impressionists, a discovery that would shape the rest of this iconic style. He lived in Paris and the Montmartre area for two years before moving to southern France, where he composed many of his most famous masterpieces.

“Very few paintings from Van Gogh’s Montmartre period remain in private hands, with most of the series now held in prestigious museum collections around the world,” Hellman said in the Sotheby’s press release. “The appearance on the market of a work of this caliber and from such an iconic series is undoubtedly a major event, and indeed an opportunity, for both collectors of the artist and the art market more widely.”

Sotheby’s estimates that this latest offering from the master painter could sell for between €5 and €8 million (between $6.1 and $9.8 million).

“But until the hammer goes down, one obviously never knows what will happen at an auction,” cautions Bailey, who writes a van Gogh blog for the Art Newspaper. “There is now a great deal of interest in Van Gogh in the Far East, so the Van Gogh market is truly global.”

The painting first went on display at Sotheby’s Amsterdam from March 1st to 3rd, then on to Hong Kong from March 9th to 12th and auction house Drouot in Paris from March 16th to 18th. The final exhibition will be at Sotheby’s Paris from March 19th to the 23rd, after which it will be up for sale as part of the Impressionist and Modern Art Auction on the 25th.

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This year, for the first time ever, the city offered a free boat-in movie theater with a screen erected along the banks of the Bassin de la Villette. As you can imagine, these narrow waterways can only handle so much traffic, and demand was inevitably high. To earn a spot, hopeful movie watchers entered a raffle to reserve one of 38 electric boats operated by Freshwater Sailor. 150 deck chairs were also placed on the opposite bank for those who didn’t win.

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The 2018 French film Le Grand Bain, a comedy/drama about a men’s synchronized swimming team, was selected as the first movie for the “Cinema on the Water” event, which took place on July 18th to overwheling success. The organizers partnered with MK2 Cinemas to pull off the event, with the company’s CEO Elisha Karmitz saying, “after a few months of confinement, we thought we needed a way to tell the people and to tell the world that cinemas are open in Paris, [and] that Paris is one of the worldwide capitals of cinema.”

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Movie theaters have reopened in Paris at this time, but so far attendance has been low as concerns about the spread of the novel coronavirus remains. COVID-19 has killed more than 30,000 people in France so far, and some European countries fear an oncoming second wave of infections. Outdoor activities are considered fairly safe, however, so open air theaters — like the rare remaining drive-in theaters in the United States — are thriving.

In fact, Cinema Sur l’Eau is such a great idea, it would be a shame if it didn’t catch on all over the world (as weather permits), adding to other socially distanced outdoor moviegoing options that might be available right now. Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo hasn’t revealed whether or not there will be additional movies or showings on the Bassin this summer, but she did say that Paris Plages is a great way to entertain locals who currently aren’t traveling.

“Many Parisians will not go on holidays. Many visitors might come to Paris, especially visitors from other French regions rather than abroad, and we really want to welcome them and keep this festive spirit up in Paris.”

The Bassin de la Villette is the largest artificial stretch of water in the city at 800 meters (2,625 feet) long and 70 meters (230 feet) wide, and it’s not unusual to see all sorts of concerts, theater productions, and other shows there all throughout the year. Officials weren’t sure whether demand would still be high this year due to coronavirus, but it’s as popular as ever, it seems, with measures like distancing stickers on the ground and plentiful free hand sanitizer helping everyone stay safe.

Images courtesy of Sortira Paris

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No matter when a vaccine arrives for the novel coronavirus, we’re not done dealing with pandemics anytime soon. Scientists say COVID-19 is just the beginning, as things like climate change and habitat loss will likely continue to make highly communicable diseases more common. If you think we’re all about to get back to “normal” life as it looked prior to 2020, you’re probably being overly optimistic.

The good news is that there are lots of things we can do to adjust (while simultaneously doing everything we can to limit the impacts of climate change). Designers and engineers are coming up with all kinds of interesting ideas to reduce disease transmission in public places, and thankfully, most of them stop short of putting us all in our own fully enclosed bubbles.

Recognizing that indoor dining is a primary vector of coronavirus spread, the Plex’Eat by Christophe Gernigon essentially places each diner inside their own hanging hygienic shield. These suspended plexiglass hoods surround you on three sides while you’re seated at the table, reducing the risk of airborne infection. They’re big enough to accommodate most people, along with the plates and glasses in front of them.

“I imagined, during my nocturnal creative wanderings of these months of confinement, a new way of welcoming customers of bars and restaurants in search of outings,” says Gernigon. “Though we would have preferred not to arrive at this point, it is better to consider aesthetic, design, and elegant alternatives that guarantee the rules of social distancing.”

He makes a good point, especially about the “guarantee” of compliance. Many diners simply aren’t concerned with the risks and are unwilling to follow the rules on their own. Design that makes participation compulsory solves that problem.

Of course, the single-occupancy Plex’Eat design also presents a few practical problems right off the bat. First of all, dining is often an intimate experience involving close conversation. It’s kind of hard to hear your companion through two layers of plexiglass, and restaurants are already loud enough without people shouting to get around this issue.

But Gernigon has a solution for this, too, proposing that some shields can be large enough to enclose two people together, or entire families. That way, you’re protected from diners you don’t know, but can maintain close contact with people from your own household.

The design isn’t just applicable to dining. Gernigon suggests that it could be used to protect both employees and customers in all kinds of environments, like reception desks, nail salons, casinos, bars, airports, and health care facilities. And, as far as products that limit contagion go, it’s reasonably attractive.

The Plex’Eat has already been installed in a Paris restaurant as a demonstration, and French manufacturer Sitour has begun producing single- and couple-sized models. We might as well get used to seeing a lot more plexiglass in public spaces in the near future. Some people might feel safer, while others might feel like the shields create a claustrophobic, antisocial effect. How would you react to your favorite restaurants and bars installing these things?

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The pair had already worked together more than once. Crasset previously produced a set of rings for Le Buisson, and back in 2014, she transformed a stone farmhouse in the heart of the forest near the Chinon region that Monory had inherited. It’s clear from the results of the 2019 project “Le Rainbow et le Bousquet,” which means “the rainbow and the woods,” that they’ve developed enough of a rapport for Crasset to unleash her creativity at full blast.

Monory gave Crasset free reign to do whatever she wanted with the 861-square-foot space, which originally had a conventional layout with an entryway, two bedrooms, a living room, and a kitchenette. Naturally, Crasset wanted to start completely fresh, focusing on a sense of openness, natural light, and a full spectrum of color. The space also had to be multifunctional, serving as both a home for Monory and, occasionally, a showroom for Le Buisson.

“I wanted to create a space suspended somewhere between two of the main places that define the modernity of Paris, the Eiffel Tower and the tour de Montparnasse: you can see both of them from the windows of this apartment,” says the designer. “After having completely cleared out the original plan, I made the radical choice of playing with color and a near-absence of furniture.”

After tearing down the original walls, Crasset established a clean white canvas throughout the house to act as a backdrop for her rainbow-colored installations. Custom built-in furniture like benches and tabletops defines separate areas within the open space, with the kitchen and showroom areas painted green to set them apart. These parts are “the woods,” contrasting to the “rainbow” seen throughout the rest of the apartment.

The apartment’s centerpiece is a four-person floating lounger, with two halves affixed to a central white wall. Even better, a bright circular screen can be drawn around it for privacy or to filter the light.

Crasset explains that the lounger is “an area for comfortable exchanges in levitation, surrounded by color above all, so we are in the heart of an invigorating rainbow that invites us to take advantage of the present moment each day. Color is life. The present configuration allows double exposure and makes the terrace accessible continuously with the living area.”

“The multi-colored vertical rhythm rotates to organize the area in different ways: along the wall, to accompany the moment of personal meetings; half-closed, it becomes an openwork panel to create several zones; completely turned, it closes the area off to create a space where one can sleep surrounded by this benevolent rhythm of color.”

The result is, according to Crasset, an “invigorating framework [that] helps one to remain active with a lively mind.”

Monory seems to be pleased, too, saying that she “moved just by changing interiors.”

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It’s one of the most impressive tricks up the sleeve of Atelier Pierre Louis Gerlier, the eponymous firm of a French architect who’s rapidly gaining attention for interior designs that are as bold and interesting as they are practical. One of Gerlier’s specialties is the “complete transformation” of a classic Parisian apartment, which he’s pulled off more than once. Each time, the flat’s most iconic details (herringbone or parquet flooring, balconies with swirling railings, embellished ceiling moulding) are preserved, with new, graphic modern elements introduced to freshen up the space.

These new elements might include a whole lot of room-brightening white paint, a vividly tiled kitchen floor, windows between interior spaces slashed by diagonal lines, fun patterned radiator screens, or even an exciting color palette.

Of one pied-a-terre competed in 2017, Gerlier writes: “Having lived in this apartment for several years, the owners wanted a total reorganization with the objective of correcting two major defects: too much wasted space in the hallway and lack of light in some of the rooms. The reorganization of the core of the apartment allowed the entry of light via the three facades.”

Clearly, the architect is an expert at reimagining floor plans within small urban apartments. He manages to reorganize one-bedroom units to accommodate two or more bedrooms, and he expands the living room space without making them feel cramped. But it’s the custom carpentry and millwork that really makes these interiors work (not to mention shine).

A Paris renovation completed in 2017 reorganized an apartment “to create an additional bedroom, and to reduce the area of circulation. Particular attention was paid to the choice of furniture, which echoes the customized carpentry work specific to each room.” A pale blue wall in one bedroom contains all necessary functions, including two twin-sized beds, leaving the rest of the room free for movement. You can see how stacking these elements vertically completely changes the feel of the space compared to a more conventional layout with all the furniture on the floor.

For this apartment in Clichy, completed in 2018, Gerlier optimized each and every square inch using a combination of ready-made storage boxes, built-in shelves, nooks, and translucent panels. Many of the clients’ belongings are tucked behind cabinet doors, and the kitchen can be closed off without eliminating sight lines within the apartment, making it feel a lot bigger.

A renovation in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 2019 transforms a former garage of a house into a comfortable apartment with multiple bedrooms and bathrooms. Three major strategies are at work here. The first is the creation of circular nooks cut into a wall of storage in the living room, which house a television, two speakers, and a mattress for lounging, echoing other rounded shapes found within the space.

The second is a mirrored wall that visually multiplies the space, and the third is a tightly controlled color palette that extends into the kitchen. The white walls and ceiling help carry limited daylight deep into the apartment, while varied tones of soft salmon pink, mint, and mustard yellow define the mood.

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