Last week, world-renowned Italian architect and designer Gae Aulenti died on 31 october 2012 at her home in Milan at the age of 84. Aulenti had made her last public appearance only a few weeks ago to receive an life time achievement award. Among her large-scale museum projects, the largest and most prestigious job for Aulenti was the transformation of the former Parisian railway station into the Musee d'Orsay in the 1980s and the refurbishment of the contemporary art gallery at the Pompidou Centre. "We have lost a great woman of architecture and design, but also a great woman to the Centre Pompidou," said the center's director, Alfred Pacquement. Born in Friuli in 1927, Aulenti was one of the few women designers in the postwar period in Italy. She also worked as a stylist and interior designer and taught in several foreign countries. Aulenti is greatly appreciated for her creative talent and in particular for her extraordinary capacity to capture the cultural values of an historic heritage. Aulenti designed a number of design classics for a number of companies. Her Pipistrello lamp for Martinelli Luce is an all time favorite of many. She designed for iGuzzini, Fontana Arte, Artemide and Santa & Cole [gallery order="DESC" columns="4" orderby="title"]
