Altre Cose Boutique / Bang Bang Nightclub - Milan 1968

Altre Cose Boutique 

Bang Bang Nightclub

Milan 1968 

Between 1960 and 1970, exciting nightclubs emerged in Italy from architects associated with the Design Radical movement. These included names like Ettore Sottsass, Ugo La Petra, Archizoom, UFO and Superstudio. The movement refuted the Bauhaus aesthetic principles and questioned consumerism and the way to build a society.

In 1968, it opened the first disco in Milan, the Bang Bang, a futuristic space, a nightclub accessed through the fashion boutique Altre Cose, designed by Ugo La Pietra, Aldo Jacober and Paolo Rizzatti.

The entrance to the Altre Cose boutique was by means of an electrically operated door, divided into unequal parts: one part slid upwards and the other laterally. Its clothes were displayed in cylindrical transparent acrylic containers, electrically operated, moving 2m up and down from the ceiling, transforming the perception of the space: an experience amplified by the existence of a mirrored wall.  Inside the fitting rooms, customers could listen to the soundtrack of their choosing while checking out their reflection on the multifaceted mirrors. The Bang Bang disco was located below the boutique, accessed either by a stair or by a space-age, inclined lift, enclosed in transparent acrylic, and designed for only 2 people. 

Its accompanying lift room had transparent acrylic sliding screens in 3 rows, from floor to ceiling, which shielded the clothes and circulation. This refracted the light creating an abstract 3 dimensional effect. Both the floor and ceiling were clad in blue carpet.

Ugo La Pietra, architect, artist and designer, included this project in his set of works called “The Immersions”, which he described as:

“The immersions are an invitation to quit reality and discover a refuge in a kind of privacy that is both a separation and a way for exploring the possibilities for intervention through elements that shift and break with the traditional codified terms.”

Altre Cose boutique / Bang Bang disco was an innovative space designed to accommodate the new social and cultural changes, new music, new behaviours and new fashions led by the youth culture of the 60s.

Photo 1 and 3 by Saporetti

Photo 2 by Ugo Mulas

https://ugolapietra.com/