(b. Palazzolo dello Stello, Italy 1927)

Gaetana Aulenti was born in Palazzolo dello Stello, Italy in 1927. After, she graduated from the Milan Polytechnic School of Architecture in 1954, she established a private practice in Milan. Aulenti has taught and lectured throughout Europe.

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.

Aulenti believes that to create an effective domestic environment, architects must maintain the spatial elements and attributes that exist within a city. Accordingly, she attempts to design buildings in such a way that they share the complexity and density that exists within an urban atmosphere.

Aulenti, like other prominent Italian architects, works on a wide-range of projects that encompass industrial design and interior design, as well as architecture. In her later works, Aulenti has moved from the design of houses and showrooms to larger commissions.

Q & A with Gae Aulenti, architect of the Asian (conducted October, 2001)

Can you describe the most intriguing aspects of designing a new home for the Asian Art Museum?

I can say that the conversion of the former Main Library into the Asian Art Museum has been one of the most challenging projects of my career. To design a museum in an existing building means dealing with many constraints—on the one hand, I had to consider the rules set by the existing structure; on the other hand, I had to meet the requirements of the new, completely different function. But first of all it was important to have a new vision for the new museum. Because the needs were so complex, it was necessary to keep a strong vision of the project. We could not design this renovation in pieces, by meeting single detailed requests, because in this way it would have been impossible to achieve a good architectural result and satisfy the program.

When did you first conceive of your design for the building?

When I visited the old Main Library for the first time in 1996, I thought that the building was very closed and gloomy, while a museum had to be a place full of light and air and be "transparent" to help orient the visitors. It was very clear that we had to maintain some historical parts, the lobby, the central stair, the loggia and Samsung Hall. This was the central core of the old building and it had to remain the core of the Museum—but with the aim of integrating the old architecture with the new one.

How was your vision for the building formed?

I have taken into account all the requests of the Asian Art Museum. The museum asked for open public space, education space, 45,000 sq. ft. for special exhibitions and for permanent collection galleries, and then a cafeteria and museum store. They also wanted easy circulation, natural light, and friendly and elegant interiors. The first step has been to extend the two courts along the whole building to bring in a lot of natural light. In this way, we have created a large, single piazza. In agreement with the director of the museum, Emily Sano, and with all the curators, our concept for transforming the former Main Library into the Asian Art Museum was aimed at finding the best possible synthesis and integration of three main points: the building, the museum programs, and the collection.

When directing the adaptive re-use of a structure, does the building inform the design or does the design inform the building?

When designing an adaptive re-use, the existing building is the foundation ground, together with the context—the place where the building is. So I start from the observation of the building, of course I mean the structure and not the appearance of the building. The other focal points in a project of adaptive re-use are the new functions of the building, the new content, and who will be using all this.

Are there certain philosophies or principles that guide you?

There are three important principles that have guided my work, three basic skills from which architecture derives. The first is analytic ability, in the sense that we must know how to study and recognize every different kind of architecture, so to create specific and single solutions always in relationship with their context, with their foundation place. The second is synthetic ability, knowing how to make the necessary synthesis to give priority to the architectural major principles, so to disregard what is only arbitrary in a project. The third is a prophetic capacity, that of artists, poets, and inventors. And, if cultural tradition is not something that can be passively inherited, but something created day by day - as Eliot says - this third capacity can only be an aspiration—an ambition to create continuity in culture, to build its forms, in a personal but always contemporary way.

The building was once the City's main library and now will be a museum of Asian art. Please tell us how your design addresses the building's new purpose.

The starting point was based on the concept that converting a library into a museum means radically changing the attitude of the users of the place. People go to a library to reach books and documents and then quietly sit down at a table in the most possible concentrated way. Their attitude is therefore completely static. On the contrary, people visiting a museum go to see and enjoy a collection, something unique that they will discover during a tour. This attitude is absolutely dynamic. In our building it was necessary first of all to create open spaces with natural daylight to help visitors' orientation and their best perception of the works of art.

The Asian is your first project in the United States. Have you discovered any major differences between working in Europe versus the U.S.?

A major difference between working in Italy and abroad, for example, here in the United States, is the possibility to build after winning a competition, as it happened with the Asian Art Museum. Another difference is the tendency—very strong here in America—towards detailed specialization. In Europe it is different, and I have personally always tried not to fall into specialization, but rather to face all the different aspects of architecture: industrial design, interior design, exhibition design, and stage design.

San Franciscans are very proud of their history and their institutions. What have you learned about this city from working on this project?

This project is part of an ambitious program to upgrade the Civic Center area, the "historical" part of San Francisco, where all the main political and cultural institutions are located. I had to relate a Beaux-Arts building of European tradition with an Asian art collection—one of the most important in the world. And this has been an occasion for me to learn how this City is an important cultural crossroads, a melting pot of different cultures living together while keeping their own identity, and also how crucial is the role of private citizens in artistic patronage and in public works financial support.

There are numerous museum construction projects currently underway throughout the world, including several here in San Francisco. What separates the Asian Art Museum from other projects in the City?

I think I have described how the Asian Art Museum project is a special and complex one. Let's just think of the high technological level of the seismic strengthening system we have adopted. But more than that, I think that this project is special because it is part of another important plan—a cultural, very fascinating idea. It is an extraordinary American idea to create a unifying history for a "young" nation, while enhancing the heritage of each different culture contributing to build this one history. And I am deeply honored to take part and play such an important role.