It would be complicated to suggest a real design itinerary in Milano, because the city is full of design spots, but in a completely different way than in the rest of the world. The idea of design expressed by cool bars and stores - like in London, Holland or LA - is indeed different from what you will find in Milano. Here, design is more associated with history than with contemporary interiors: it includes a vitality of design culture linked to the happiest period of manufacturing industry, belonging to the post-war period, when companies were truly innovative and artistry and craftsmanship cooperated with the “fastest technology of all times” to create high-quality goods available for all consumers, not just unique pieces to be kept in a gallery.

 

From Triennale to Villa Necchi

Thus, that story of extraordinary inventions can be observed at the Triennale Design Museum, but also in via Durini and Brera streets classy shops, or in galleries like Nilufar, Dimore Gallery or Antonia Jannone, or even in monumental villas (Villa Necchi above all), sometimes even in private homes.

The Foundations

Great architects and designers - such as Castiglioni, Albini, Magistretti, Portaluppi - gave their names to several Foundations around the city, but there are also spaces like Torre Velasca or Pirellone entrance halls, Massimo De Carlo Gallery in Viale Lombardia, Villa Corbellini-Wassermann by Portaluppi himself, and the innumerable entrances of palaces built between the 30s and 60s of the twentieth century.

 

The research sites

Certainly, in the city of Design Week, a contemporary dimension of research exists: the main references are Rossana Orlandi in a backstreet of via San Vittore, Luisa Delle Piane in the Sarpi area, Subalterno1 in the Lambrate district, Salvatore Lanteri in NoLo, Camp Design Gallery placed in the Navigli area, and then creative spaces such as MakersHub at Bovisa or WeMake in Gorla. In addition, check these fundamental schools: Bovisa Polytechnic, the IED, the Naba and the Domus Academy.

Studio Museo Francesco Messina

Via S. Sisto, 4/A

 

Temporaneamente chiuso per ristrutturazione.

 

Lo Studio Museo Francesco Messina custodisce 80 sculture e 26 opere su carta scelte tra le più pregevoli dell’artista siciliano. Realizzate nell'arco dell’intera vita del maestro, ne documentano la grande abilità tecnica e l’interesse per il realismo.

 

Lo spazio propone mostre e attività legate al mondo della scultura contemporanea

Fondazione studio museo Vico Magistretti

Vico Magistretti worked for all his career in the studio at the corner of via Conservatorio and via Vincenzo Bellini in Milan, in the building designed in 1933 by his father, the architect Pier Giulio Magistretti.

In 2010 the studio became a museum, or rather a studio museum.Here, conservation, research, enhancement, interpretation and promotion of his archive and his work as an architect and designer coexist and interact with original elements of the place where Magistretti worked for over sixty years.

Fondazione studio museo Vico Magistretti houses design and architecture exhibitions and organises guided tours, talks and meetings on the exhibitions themes as well as workshops and educational activities for schools.