Take the proverbial bite and enter the rabbit hole that is Madhattan. A nod to the journey of Alice in Wonderland, end-to-end retail solution providers, ALU, will transform its SoHo showroom into a dark and dreamlike “enchanted forest.” Conceptualized by renowned design firm STEPHANIEGOTO, ALU products are re-imagined in unexpected ways to create the fantasy experience, to immerse visitors into a multi-sensory mix of design, sound, scent, and visual arts.
ALU will debut this unprecedented installation of experiential design during A.R.E. Retail Design Collective opening on December 4 through December 8 at 50 Greene Street, 3rd Floor, NYC.
Madhattan will showcase the creative works of partners including Air Sculpture® by famed perfumer Christophe Laudamiel of DreamAir and Prolitec, audio and sound design from Activaire, video art from Todd Sines of + SCALE, and lighting design by Reveal Design Group with technical support from A.C. Lighting Inc., LeapSonic, NEC Display, and ColorEdge.
Madhattan guests will journey and physically engage in themed settings such as “Down the Rabbit Hole”, “The Forest”, “The Tea Party”, “Deck of Cards”, each created to evoke emotion through trickeries of the senses with magical elements designed to present new technologies in modern retail design.
“Madhattan is an attitude. Different is our creed. We've gathered a rare and ingenious collaboration of experts to journey through the reinvention of the retail design experience. From creatives and sounds, to visuals and scents, guests will step into a wonderland of magic as we raise our mad hat to rebellion.”-Abramo Manfrotto, CEO, ALU
Madhattan will be realized using the ALU product line including the famed Autopole, one of the best- selling fixtures in the international retail sector, and also part of the permanent design and architecture collection at MoMA New York. ALU will also début new products including Billboard, Cage and Slash, as well as 5 new poses of the live cast Ophelia Mannequin Collection.
Madhattan is a unique collaboration that explores the artistic process and creative exchange that goes into retail design and the psychological study of the consumer experience.
Madhattan will be open to the public December 4-8, 12pm-5pm daily.
For more information visit www.alu.com
Press inquiries, attendance and to schedule interviews (based on availability) contact STATE PR at 646 714-2520 or email madhattan@statepr.com
About ALU
ALU is an international company with over 25 years of experience catering to the retail world. With a portfolio of ALU products and fully custom products, they offer end-to-end services anywhere in the world, including Product & Production Engineering, Manufacturing & Logistics, and Retail Store Execution.
Their in-house designers work with clients to envision their own made-to-measure, bespoke systems/solutions totally in line with their brand identity. The result is a focus on brand immersion in the design and construction of retail environments, with a view towards assisting the client in creating a coherent brand experience.
ALU’s origins date back to 1987, when photographer, inventor and entrepreneur Lino Manfrotto realized that New York retailers were using his Autopole in their window displays and store interiors. Lino took the cue and soon branched out from the photography supply business, opening ALU’s first showroom in New York’s Fashion District.
Success in America followed quickly, and riding that wave, ALU plunged into the European market in 1992.
In November 2009, MoMA New York added both Autopole and Super Clamp to its permanent design and architecture collection.
With headquarters in Romano D’Ezzelino, Italy, ALU serves its customers through a worldwide network of distributors, as well as through subsidiaries in New York, Paris, Amsterdam, Sao Paulo and Mexico City.
About STEPHANIEGOTO
In 2004, Stephanie Goto established the boutique architecture and design firm STEPHANIEGOTO with a vision for an architectural practice that creates, produces, and integrates architecture with art, graphics, fashion, and lifestyle. The company’s mission is to blur the boundaries of design using architectural thinking in all aspects of the creative process in order to create totally integrated concepts that narrate each client’s story while focusing on the use of materials and details to investigate form and function.
Raised in New York and Tokyo, Stephanie Goto was educated at Cornell University, College of Architecture, where she was editor of the Journal of Architecture’s fifth volume. She began her architectural career working closely with renowned architect Rafael Viñoly and David Rockwell.
Goto’s international commissions range from private residences and hotels to restaurants, retail and cultural projects. A fixture in New York’s culinary community, she has designed many of the New York City’s Michelin starred restaurants including Corton and Aldea. In the spring of 2012, she completed the Calder Foundation’s Project Space, one of her many projects with president and founder Alexander S. C. Rower, and a New York apartment for celebrated chef Daniel Boulud.
Goto has also gifted her creative energy to the museum community with her active engagement in envisioning projects such as MADCrush at the Museum of Arts and Design where she conceptualized and built an imaginative dining environment with temporary furniture and decor constructed from recycled wine boxes for museum’s summer event series, curating every detail from the wine to the chefs.
About Christophe Laudamiel of DreamAir and Prolitec
Christophe Laudamiel is a perfumer, scent composer, lecturer, performer, writer, osmocuratorTM and trained chemist who has created fragrances for Houses such as Estee Lauder, Ralph Lauren, Burberry, Tom Ford, Clinique, Michael Kors, and Abercrombie & Fitch. He is Master Perfumer at DreamAir LLC, a unique enterprise in bespoke fragrances. With colleague Christoph Hornetz, he has designed Air Sculpture® scents for such places as the Ferrari, Lacoste and Belstaff flagship stores (NYC), Virgin Fitness (Milan), Babochka (St Petersburg), Giorgio Armani (worldwide), Hotel Americano(NYC) and AZUL (Japan) and Cesare Paciotti worldwide. He partners with Prolitec, a leading developer of air treatment, scenting and air care technologies under the Air/Q brand.
Christophe authored and managed the 30+ scents for the first ScentOpera (New York and Bilbao Guggenheim Museums, 2009). In 2010, he co-created controversial yet permanent scents for Garden of Addiction at the Grasse Perfume Museum. He was the creator of the first solo show ever devoted to olfactory art in a main street gallery in Manhattan: Phantosmia, 7 artistic scent installations (Dillon Gallery, 2012), 3 of which becoming Curators' Choice at Art Miami 2012, followed by Iconosms in 2013. To note are also his scent-track for Perfume (by Patrick Süskind, for Thierry Mugler), Air Sculpture® designs and workshops for the WEF in Davos, an Elton John candle, the Jason Wu Orchid Rain candle, Orchidelirium for the Royal Botanicals (London), and the first olfactory retrospective (1957-2012) at the EU Parliament (Brussels). He recently installed 2 self-alternating scents for the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art Biennale and a permanent scent track at the only American factory for the Blind (Brooklyn NY).
Avant-gardist, he often gives keynote speeches at renowned institutions such as Harvard and Columbia Universities, the French Embassies, the University of the Arts in Berlin. He is the first and only perfumer to have scents formally archived (at Harvard University and at the International Grasse Perfume Museum) and is now founding the not-for-profit Academy of Perfumery in the USA.
About Activaire
Activaire is a music service agency specializing in design and deployment of audio programs for global brands. Activaire executes all aspects of musical presence for brands, including background music, video for public space, music supervision, messaging, event coordination, interactive solutions, and AV systems integration. Activaire's goal is to create a commerce-based consumer experience, which translates to a brand's omni-channel strategy. A client's musical journey often starts with broadcast for branded locations. Activaire curates the offline brand experience with in-store broadcast, video, and live activation. Activaire extends the brand experience with online initiatives, ranging from social media to traditional advertising.
Activaire utilizes a powerful combination of science, art and culture to reinforce brand identity and message. Music is one of the top 5 touch points that brands can use to communicate core values, so Activaire curates programs to communicate the unique and authentic values of our clients. The agency was founded in 1999 with the goal of deploying music as a tangible, fluid, and culturally potent design element. The name "Activaire" refers to the phenomenon of how a sound wave displaces air particles as its energy passes through the atmosphere. Sound is a perceptible and influential atmospheric element; invisible yet audible.
About Todd Sines | +SCALE
Over the last 22 years, Todd’s projects have included direction, visual effects, art direction and sound design for feature films, commercials, branding, advertising, installations, music videos, and editorial design. His work as + SCALE for clients MTV, Miramax, Visionaire, VH1, Limited, The Weinstein Co. and Burton Snowboards has awarded recognition from One Show Interactive, Communicating Arts, and Hollywood Reporter’s Key Art Awards. He’s been a guest lecturer of motion design + architecture at SCI-ARC in Los Angeles and the Departments of Art + Design at The Ohio State University, where he received his BFA. He has contributed films, photography and articles for V, V Man, Idolize, SHK, Zink, Prophecy, XLR8R and RES magazines and his work as a ‘zine maker from 1987-1992 was recently published by Nike + Wizard Publications in Freestylin’ the book. Todd is also an accomplished multi-instrumentalist [guitar, bass, drums, keys], producer and DJ, with a recording history spanning two decades, having played across the world: LA, Berlin, London, Paris, Barcelona, Malta, Vienna and Moscow. He is currently in pre-production on his first feature film, Internal.
About Reveal Design Group
Reveal Design Group, is an award-winning architectural lighting design company that brings to each project a breadth and variety of experience from each member of the design team. The collective backgrounds in architecture, art history, museum studies, theatre and fine arts contribute to a fresh and comprehensive approach, aesthetically grounded in architectural and visual design vocabularies. Reveal Design Group is committed to a collaborative design process helping clients meet their goals while keeping the design integrity and having hands on approach. Their resume of work includes residential, corporate, retail and hospitality clients including the W Hotel, Westin, the Hyatt Group, Luxury Resorts, Starr Restaurants, Notar Hospitality and others.
Founded in 2010 by Kenneth Ventry and Levia Lew, their extensive and distinguished portfolio of experience has quickly made Reveal Design Group an industry front-runner. Most recently Reveal Design Group was recognized by a Cooper Source Award for W French Quarter and a Lumen Award for the Park Hyatt in Washington DC. In addition, their work has been covered by industry publications such as Mondo Arc, Interior Design, LD+A, ha+d, Enlightenment and Azure.
