If you are interested in exploring how design ideas actually evolve into real and physical form, then schedule a visit to a venue that is very significant in the history of Italian product design: the Giovanni Sacchi Archive. Sacchi was one of the industrial design prototype makers whose work was commissioned, from the 1950s onwards, by major Italian designers, including Giò Ponti, Aldo Rossi, Ettore Sottsass, Achille Castiglioni, Franco Albini, Marcello Nizzoli and Marco Zanuso.

Understandably, the history of design evolves around designers and manufacturers but it also comprises those who enable  design to take shape and, more than anyone else, Giovanni Sacchi contributed to this. In 1998, he was awarded the Compasso d'Oro-Adi for his career and for his pivotal role in Made in Italy’s design process. He was described as a sort of "interface between the idea and the designer, and between the prototype and the client".

His studio workshop in Via Sirtori in Milan - which he closed in 1997 to devote himself to the dissemination of his craft until 2005 - is now partially reconstructed inside the MIL cultural venue in Sesto San Giovanni, his home town. A space equipped for prototype/woodworking workshops and lathe turning courses,  which also exhibits a series of mock-ups, products, photographs and sketches available for consultation to researchers and students.

We suggest you then continue your out-of-town experience in another beautiful location: the nearby Campari Gallery, where you can immerse yourself in the world of art and graphic communication and raise a glass to the iconic aperitif!

FASCINATING FACT

Giovanni Sacchi created thousands of 3D mock-ups of objects for design and architecture; one example is the ubiquitous white plastic chair found in many outdoor bars and restaurants.

INFO

Guided tours by appointment only.