Design Week 2024

INTERDEPENDENCE - designing relationships

The Design System of the Politecnico di Milano presents "INTERDEPENDENCE - designing relationships" to reflect on relationships and connections through a selection of projects by students of the Politecnico and about 50 international design universities in its network.

INTERDEPENDENCE is a diffuse event related to the fabric of the city, taking place in three main venues - Fabbrica del Vapore, Campus Bovisa Durando and Salone Satellite - and other places around the city.

An interdisciplinary team of students from the School of Design collaborated on the exhibition, which also developed the visual identity that serves as a common thread throughout the venues.


The three main venues:


INTERDEPENDENCE @ FABBRICA DEL VAPORE

Exhibition

Opening: Tuesday, April 16, 6:30 pm
Location: Fabbrica del Vapore, Via Giulio Cesare Procaccini 4, Milan

Date: April 16 - 21 (Tue-Sat, 11:00 am - 10:00 pm; Sun, 11:00 am - 5:00 pm)

On this occasion INTERDEPENDENCE takes the form of an international exhibition that mixes and matches the projects of Design students from Politecnico di Milano with those of design students from around the world.
The exhibition is enlivened by a palimpsest of initiatives, including an extemporaneous performance by Campo Teatrale. Conceived and directed by Simon Waldvogel and inspired by his work "WDWGFH - Where Do We Go From Here," the performance aims to create a fragmented and interconnected experience where different performance languages and the surrounding space merge synergistically. A fusion that occurs in harmony with the bodies that populate the space, resulting in a narrative that challenges traditional boundaries between artistic and sensory elements.


DESIGNXDESIGNERS @ POLIMI CAMPUS BOVISA

Exhibition

Opening: April 15, 1:30 pm
Location: Bovisa Candiani Campus, via Durando 10, Milan
Date: April 16 - May 15 (Mon-Sat, 9:00 am - 7:00 pm)

DesignXDesigners is a big exhibition of the teaching projects of the students of the School of Design.
The exhibition highlights multiple design sectors: from industrial product to fashion, from interior and furniture design to communication, not excluding services, brand and strategy, transportation and design engineering. The exhibition covers 1,500 square meters and includes design boards, models, prototypes and full-scale installations.


INTERDEPENDENCE @ SALONE SATELLITE

Exhibition

Location: Rho Fiera Milano, Corso Italia, Rho, Stand A20
Date: April 16 - 21 (Tue-Sun, 9:30 am - 6.30 pm)


The INTERDEPENDENCE exhibition is enlivened by a palimpsest of initiatives featuring players from the Design System, including:


SHAPING SUSTAINABLE INNOVATIONS THROUGH DESIGN PRACTICE.

Exhibition

Location: Ex Cisterne space (groundfloor), Fabbrica del Vapore, Via Giulio Cesare Procaccini 4, Milan

Date: April 16 - 21

Curated by Venanzio Arquilla, Patrizia Bolzan and Carlo Emilio Standoli, the exhibition will present a selection of projects created by students of the Master's Degree in Integrated Product Design course, with the aim of promoting social, environmental and cultural sustainability through collaboration between designers and other professional figures in a transdisciplinary logic.
The prototypes of the selected projects aim to give shape to new sustainable resources, focusing on the conscious and innovative use of the planet's resources, with particular attention to the creation of new bio-based materials and waste recovery chains. The aim is also to promote new sustainable behaviour, both at individual and community level.
Finally, they focus on the creation of new sustainable ecosystems, proposing design solutions that work on the dimension of more-than-human relations, in which man is only one of the nodes of a wider ecosystem, composed of other living beings and artificial artefacts.
Shaping Sustainable Innovations through Design Practice è parte dei Satellite Events del Festival New European Bauhaus 2024.


DESIGN IS HAPPINESS

Exhibition

Location: Design Variations 2024 - Mosca Partners, Viale Gorizia 14, Milan
Date: April 14 - 21

The exhibition presents the work of students from the Landscape and Interior Spatial Design 2 laboratory led by lecturers Michele De Lucchi, Francesca Balena Arista, Marco de Santi and Francesco Clerici.
Adhering to the sub-theme "Cultural and information interdependence", the students were assigned, as a project theme, not a type of building or interior space but an abstract theme, a keyword on which to build an imaginary, to construct a visible space that could transmit and communicate an intangible value. The theme of happiness is linked to the theme of sustainability, the need to find solutions for everything that can intimidate, and to think of a future as happy as possible.
The students designed and made suspended models and short videos that convey their reflections on the theme of Happiness.

Curated by: Michele De Lucchi, Francesca Balena Arista and Marco De Santi
Exhibition Design: Marco De Santi
Video supervisor: Francesco Clerici
Team: Nicolò Chierichetti, Giada Boromello, Alessia Soressi
Technical sponsor: Gerflor
Credits models:
Happiness is Comparsa
by Evelyn Baruffaldi, Carolina Enriquez Valiente, Alice Jachetti and Ana Paola Pirro
2023

Happiness is Expansion
by Martina Austria, Chiara Biscaro, Elena Fatone and Francesca Piciotti
2023

Happiness is Felice da morire
by Francesca Mannini, Sofia Marietti, Ilaria Pinosa and Benedetta Spada
2023

Happiness is Hide and Seek
by Rebecca Limonta, Asia Pedrini, Irene Vago and Matteo Viale
2023

Happiness is Like a Mold
by Adele Ariozzi, Cecilia Ferrari, Noemi Giussani and Fiorenza Protti
2023

Happiness is Organic geometry
by Ronak Elmimonfared, Alice Iezzi Maiorano, Virginia Laguzzi and Chiara Pruzzo
2023

Happiness is Psyche-delia
by Claudia Moretti, Marlene Onali, Matilde Brambilla and Beatrice Orlando
2023

Happiness is Shaping the Chaos
by Ruyayagmur Altintas, Matilde Brambilla, Alessia Marchesan and Chiara Petronici
2023

Happiness is Wave
by Reihaneh Daraei, Sara Fesa, Iuliia Filippova and Greta Diletta Piazza
2023

THE PALIMPSEST

Many other initiatives that will take place during the week of Salone del Mobile involve Professors and Researchers from the Department of Design, including:

NUOVI MATERIALI

Exhibition

Location: Spazio Bengasi, Via Bengasi 1, Milan
Date and time: April 15 - 21, 10:00 am - 6:30 pm

An exhibition that traces the 10 years of experimentation of the MadeTrans workshop led by Valentina Rognoli focused on material research, from the cultivation of bacteria and fungi to the use of new processes and technologies, addressing current issues such as sustainable design and circularity.
Accompanying the students' work will be two professionals, Barbara Pollini, an ecodesigner part of the MaDeTrans group, and architect Selenia Marinelli: they will respectively show us the potential of biodesigned materials for both conventional and regenerative sustainability and what it means to create new materials for healthier architecture and spaces.
The exhibition is part of the widespread exhibition "Design Peripheral ", curated by Teo Sandigliano and set up by Milo Mussini, in collaboration with the City of Milan, with the aim of promoting discussions and exchanges on the future of design, presenting emerging designers and brands. "Peripheral Design" activates four peripheral spaces in the northern part of the city, each interpreted through a theme, “Scarti per l'Architettura”, “Nuovi Materiali”, “Fashion & Textile”, e “Design e Natura”.


ON WEAVING

Installation

Location: C&C House, Via Brera, 7
Date and times: April 15-21 (Mon-Sat, 10:00 am - 8:00 pm; Sun, 10:00 am - 6:00 pm)

A textile anthology that evokes memories of times past, gestures and ancient rituals in earth tones, with natural materials and a sense of calm elegance.
The installation 'On Weaving' was born from the meeting of two ancient textile cultures, the Italian and the Japanese, reinterpreted and re-adapted in a contemporary key.
The exhibition offers viewers a space that seems suspended in time, where handcrafted textiles from the Earth collection of the Milanese Maison and the Tango region, in Kyoto Prefecture, weave textures, dialogue and layer to create atmospheres in deep connection with nature.
The vertical garden in the courtyard of Casa C&C Milano blends with the apartment interiors in a decorativeunicum in which fine natural materials become sought-after pieces of textile craftsmanship, covering the walls of the interior spaces.
Silks, bamboo and extremely rare wisteria yarns cover the room, along with studies and prototypes of new textile structures that innovate Tango's centuries-old tradition.
The tea ceremony, a ritual par excellence of Japanese hospitality, will also take place in this space.

Traditional Japanese tea ceremony: Monday-Saturday, 4-6 pm, at Showroom C&C.

Project Partners: C&C Milan, COS KYOTO Co., Ltd., Tango Open, NEXTANGO, Kyoto Prefecture, Textiles and Crafts Division, De-Tales Lt, Politecnico di Milano - Department of Design

Textile Research: KnitDesign team with Giovanni Maria Conti and Martina Motta
Textile Concept Development: Martina Motta
Design: Labir_int with Alessandro Biamonti, E. Alberti, E. Curti


TO THE EDGE OF MATTER: AN UNFORGETTABLE JOURNEY

Set-up and immersive video installation

Press preview: Monday April 15, from 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Location: MEET Digital Culture Center, Viale Vittorio Veneto 2
Date and time: 16 - 21 April, 10:00 am to 8:00 pm

In this installation created by Ico Migliore with his studio Migliore+Servetto for NEUTRA, an immersive story about matter is presented. This comes alive and transforms, taking the visitor on a perceptive journey that, through constant zooming in and out, offers a new way of understanding materials.


BE LIGHT

Installation

Press preview: Monday April 15, from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm
Location: Platek Professional Space, C.So Monforte 7 - Platek temporary, Piazzetta Giordano 4
Date and time: April 16 - 21, from 10:00 am to 8:00 pm

The installation realised by Ico Migliore - Migliore+Servetto in collaboration with Pitis, builds a sort of surreal world through an articulated "mirroring effect", developing a reflection on light through the use of natural symbols such as the sun, to guide visitors to discover Platek products.


VISIBLE VOICES HUMAN PATTERNS

Urban video projection (on facade) and augmented reality

Location: Viale Abruzzi 20
Date and time: April 18, 7:30 pm

The original patterns designed by Ico Migliore create a dynamic work in which they dialogue with light to define an immersive graphic landscape. The intervention, realised by I. Migliore - Migliore+Servetto with ETT, constitutes a one-off event and will only be visible for one evening.


"WORK LIVING HUB" PROJECT EXHIBITION

Exhibition

Location: G-Gravity, Via Legnone, 4
Date and time: April 16-17, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm

Students from the Contest Design Studio a.a. 22/23 in Interiors and Spatial Design will exhibit their work during monthly meetings held at G-Gravity, a building originally designed by Gio Ponti as a factory and now transformed in part into a co-working and innovation space. The connection between the reality of G-Gravity and the projects developed within the Lab, entitled "Work Living Hub. Workplace ecosystem for behaviors of the future ", led by lecturers Barbara Camocini, Francesca Foglieni, Marco Bencivenga, and Michele Zini, with the supervision of tutors Melania Vicentini, Elena Martucci and Carola Zulato.

On April 16 at 5:30 pm, there will also be a speech by the Professors of the School of Design Marco Bencivenga and Barbara Camocini titled ‘Progettare spazi e servizi per nuovi modi di vivere e lavorare’.


NEBIOLO HISTORY PROJECT

Talk

Location: ADI Design Museum, Piazza Compasso d'Oro, 1
Date and time: May 25, 6:00 pm

Will be present: Riccardo de Franceschi, James Clough.

The Società Nebiolo di Torino was Italy's most important typeface foundry. Between the 1930s and 1970s, its Art Studio - led by Giulio Da Milano, Alessandro Butti and Aldo Novarese - designed typefaces that marked the history of Italian graphic design and beyond.
An initial critical evaluation of the company's historical heritage, made difficult so far by the dispersion of the archives, was addressed at the international conference Fonderia Caratteri Nebiolo, 1878-1978. New Critical Studies held in September 2021 in Turin. To organize the conference and edit the recent publication of the proceedings was the Nebiolo History Project (NHP) group, composed of Alessandro Colizzi, Riccardo Olocco, James Clough, Riccardo De Franceschi, Marta Bernstein and Massimo Gonzato. The publication of the proceedings (Lazy Dog Press, 2023) finally makes available a broad overview of the most up-to-date research on hitherto little-investigated aspects of the historic Turin-based company. Aimed at scholars, graphic designers, type designers, typographers and typophiles in general, rich in images and well-documented evidence, the volume Fonderia Caratteri Nebiolo, 1878-1978. New Critical Studies collects contributions in original language from Italian and foreign speakers and is intended to give new impetus to historical research on Nebiolo.


SALONE-COME-ECOSISTEMA

Research Project

“Salone-come-ecosistema” is a research project led by Stefano Maffei, Full Professor, and Francesco Zurlo, Full Professor and Dean of the School of Design in collaboration with the Municipality of Milan, and promoted by Federlegno Arredo Eventi.
"Salone-come-ecosistema" intends to investigate in scientific key the Milan Design Week, deepening the phenomenon in its socio-economic scope on the territory in terms of impact but also of legacy, through the collection and analysis of new indicators, as well as through collective and plural reflections of the stakeholders active on the scene.
This first operation, carried out during 2024, will lay the foundations for a future Salone del Mobile Observatory, a permanent research platform dedicated to identifying opportunities and challenges affecting Salone del Mobile and the city of Milan.
The Observatory will inform future decisions regarding Design Week, to make it more sustainable, inclusive and dialogue with Milan and its current policies.
The survey will make use of a mixed research methodology, based on the analysis of heterogeneous databases provided by private and public stakeholders, a process of involvement of Design Week stakeholders and a monitoring and observation activity conducted by the Scuola del Design. The results will be compiled in a final report with a dissemination format, to be published by the end of the year.


ALPI: THE WAY OF MOUNTAIN DESIGN

exhibition/event

Press preview: 26 March, 11.00 am
Location: Ex Fornace Gola in Alzaia Naviglio Pavese 16, Milan
Date and time: 15 - 21 April, from 10:00 am to 10:30 pm

The first edition of the exhibition/event ALPS: THE WAY OF MOUNTAIN DESIGN WEEK will be inaugurated with projects, exhibitions, meetings and videos dedicated to the Mountain in Milan.
The initiative also aims to be a showcase, in the most international of Italian events, of projects and product concepts and services conceived and realised by young designers from the School of Design and Politecnico di Torino, entitled "Design Alpino Lab ".
It will then be the turn of the "ALPI Design Awards " that will be inaugurated during the event, to which all students of the Politecnico will be able to apply free of charge, an idea and organisation of ALPI+MILANO aps in partnership with ARCA International, and which will see its closing event in April 2025.
The visit then continues with the DesignXMountain exhibition: from the ice axe to the bivouac, a historical and evolutionary review of mountain products and equipment over a hundred years of history.
Then, in the evening, there will be a screening of videos from the CORTALp Festival, with a selection of the best short films from the School of Alpine Design course and films selected by the CAI Film Library.



WORLDS IN MILAN AT MUMAC: HERITAGE, DESIGN AND MADE IN ITALY

exhibition/event

Location: MUMAC, via P. Neruda 2, 20082, Binasco
Date and time: April 21, from 4:00 pm to 7:30 pm

In occasion of Milan Design Week 2024 and the National Day of Made in Italy 2024, MUMAC – Museum of the Coffee Machine by Cimbali Group, opens its doors to visitors to offer the public the opportunity to discover the world's most significant collection of professional espresso coffee machines and to delve into the importance of Italian creativity and excellence, recognizing the fundamental role of Made in Italy socially, economically and culturally.

Schedule:

4:00/5:30 pm: MUMAC opening, welcome coffee and free tours

4:30 pm: guided visit with the collector Enrico Maltoni (Book here, 25 admissions available)

5:45 pm: talk, free admission subject to availability (150 seats)

The meeting will focus on the theme of design and Made in Italy, with particular attention devoted to its connection with the cultural heritage of the various fields of expression of Italian companies. It will be a real moment of dialogue that will give voice to different perspectives on how art and design can become the keystone for telling an idea, a project, or an industrial production that transforms beauty into "beautiful Made in Italy".

The meeting, moderated by Patrick Abbattista, Founder & CEO of Design Wanted, will include the participation of:

• Silvia Adler, General Manager MuseoCity
• Gessica Corbella, Communication Manager of Leonardo3 Museum
• Elisabetta Cozzi, Founder and President of Museo Fratelli Cozzi Alfa Romeo
• Barbara Foglia, MUMAC Director
• Giovanni Pitscheider, Director and Director of Photography
• Elisa Storace, Kartell Museum Curator
• Fabrizio Trisoglio, AEMuseum Curator and Scientific Supervisor of AEM Foundation
• Federica Vacca, Associate Professor of The Department of Design of Politecnico di Milano and Vice Director of Gianfranco Ferré Research Center

7:00 pm: Screening of the film 'Worlds in Milan', directed by Giovanni Pitscheider and produced for the MuseoCity Association ETS, dedicated to the network of museums, archives, house museums, corporate museums, to provide an overview and envision future connections between Milanese (and beyond) historical-artistic-cultural-entrepreneurial-industrial heritage on one side, and design and Made in Italy on the other.

7:30 pm: Aperitif and event closing


FUORIMERCATO: IL SALONE DEL MOBILE IN UNA CITTÀ SENZA CASA

talk/exhibition

Location: Out! Il Cortile Sociale, Viale Monza 54, Milan
Date and time: April 18, from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm

A dialogue among students, local committees, and institutions. What is life like in Milan? Particularly, how do students experience life in Milan? Is it possible to create a more inclusive and livable city? What could be the role of the university in the housing crisis? How to create a meeting point between institutions and the territory?

We will try to answer these questions on April 18 from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm during a meeting organized as part of the "Thursday Off Campus NoLo" events.

During the event, there will be an opportunity to review a selection of works by students of the School of Design on the topic of high rents. The exhibited projects stem from an idea by VuotoCollettivo and have been developed by Politecnico students for the Design Without Wires - Dear Rent, I Design You! call.

Schedule:

Intro - 6:30 pm:
Perché siamo qui? | Giuliana Costa, DAStU Professor and StudMIHome PI.
Il progetto StudMIHome: creare un punto d’incontro tra istituzioni e territorio.

Part 1 - 6:40 pm:
Milano è FuoriMercato | Abitare in Via Padova e Chiediamo Casa.
NoLo: come si vive oggi nell’ex Municipio 2?
Sportelli Abitare.

Part 2 - 7:10 pm:
Uno sguardo alle pratiche e politiche abitative di oggi | Gabriele Rabaiotti, City Councilor and Carmelo Benenti, Federconsumatori Milano President.
Male-pratiche nell’abitare per studenti: contratti e contrattazioni;
Politiche in atto e politiche mancate per giovani e studenti.

Part 3 - 8:10 pm:
Questions and debate based on Nedžla's Testimony, an international PoliMi student.

Free tickets to register and access to the event are available at the following link.