A Literal Drop Ceiling for Prada

John Hill

19. January 2023

Photo: Screenshot

For the Prada Fall Winter 2023 menswear show held inside the Deposito at Fondazione Prada, Rem Koolhaas and AMO devised a bare space with a movable ceiling punctuated by 3-meter-tall chandeliers that were revealed then hidden over the course of the show.

The image above, a screenshot from Prada's video of the FW23 Menswear Collection show (at 6:54), captures the ceiling as it makes its descent from the most elevated position. The custom chandeliers – “designed to reference a classical shape with an industrial materiality,” per OMA/AMO – are still fully exposed, but one minute later, as in the image below, the ceiling has completely concealed the lights and left a low, dramatically darkened space.

Photo: Screenshot

To see the slow up-and-down movement of the ceiling, watch the 9-minute “Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons present Prada FW23 Menswear Collection” video:

Don't have nine minutes? Not interested in Prada's menswear? Watch OMA's 13-second film of an empty Deposito that speeds up the movement of the ceiling: