When a school method become THE
method. From Bauhaus to ECAL
Beside the exhibition "Hello, Robot. Design between Human and Machine", the Vitra Design Museum present the exhibition" The ECAL Manual of Style - How to best teach design today?", curated by the designer Jonathan Olivares and ECAL Director Alexis Georgacopoulos. The exhibition is an assemblage of twenty project, coming for the current student of the ECAL and the Alumni such as Michel Charlot, Jung-You Choi, Christophe Guberan, Giorgia Zanellato & Daniele Bortotto.
With this presentation, the exhibition tells the story of each project, made between 2000 and 2022. But, like every exhibition or project, you need to make some choices, thus the curator and director of the ECAL, Alexis Georgacopoulos had to choose 20 important project, which shed light on the school or reimagined a subject or a theme. Thus, 20 projects are presented with 1-2 objets and books, adding to this presentation, many personalities are responding to the question: how to teach design today.
During the discussion and presentation of the exhibition by Alexis Georgacopoulos, the director told us that the book of the exhibition edited by Phaidon came first, before the exhibition of the Vitra Design Museum. But for him, the two are one big project between the text of the publications, the photos of the artworks, the graphic design of the book and the design of the scenography, the project was made by the student of the ECAL, the artist and the curator.
In a sense, this project became the project of many project of the ECAL. This project is the translation of the ECAL legacy for 20 years, between experimentation, research project and brand project, which were thought by the school, the teacher and the student.
One of my favorite project of the exhibition might be the collaboration between ECAL and the Villa "Le Lac" which is a Villa made by Le Corbusier for his mother. This exhibition, which took place during the summer 2012, was a tribune to the 125th anniversary of the birth of Le Corbusier.
The villa "Le Lac", which was design by Le Corbusier in 1923 is a jewel along the Lac. While the house is quite narrow, the architect developed a new design, a new minimalist style where you can have great comfort, nice view over the environment and the lake while keeping a small scale of 64-square-metre. In those 64-square-metre, the architect developed an open floor plan, a roof garden and the ribbon window—one of the first in the history of architecture.
During the summer of 2012, the student of ECAL developed a tribune to this architecture by making new objects that can furnish the villa. The project, which was developed by Elric Petit, head of the Bachelor in Industrial Design at ECAL, and Chris Kabel, professor at ECAL was a defunct one, between the deadline, the framework of the architecture of house, the quality of the furniture, etc.
Informations about the exhibition
Place: Vitra Design Museum
Date: 15.10.2022 – 16.4.2023
Curators: Alexis Georgacopoulos
Ticket: Available at the front desk of the museum
Informations about the Vitra Design Museum
Vitra Design Museum
Charles-Eames-Str 2
D-79576 Weil am Rhein
Phone: +49 76 21 702 3200
Fax: +49 76 21 702 3590
Mail: info@design-museum.de