Vista della mostra " Uno a Uno " / View of the " One to One " exhibition
ADI Design Museum a workshop of ideas on Italian design culture
The meeting with ADI President Luciano Galimberti
Open to the public in 2021 , the new ADI
Design Museum , promoted by ADI in partnership with the City of Milan , is a dynamic space of over 5,000 square metres housing the Compasso d ’ Oro collection , i . e . the objects that have won the prestigious award for Italian design from 1954 to the present day . Located in the former Enel area of Porta Volta in Milan , the exhibition design and layout is by Migliore + Servetto Architects and Italo Lupi . The prestigious historical collection of over 200,000 items required a design and narrative approach capable of enhancing the value of a heritage that encompasses the evolution of culture , taste and technological development , in a dialogue with the contemporary world made up of exhibitions and moments of reflection on the active role of museums in relation to society and other national institutions , with the help of the web . Luciano Galimberti , president of ADI , shares his views on the subject in this interview .
President Galimberti , why is ADI - Associazione per il Disegno Industriale ( Industrial Design
Association , ed .) important ? And how does it represent Italian excellence in the world ? It is important precisely because for almost 70 years it has represented the very idea of Italian design in the world . An idea that combines the skills of a complex industry , from designers and companies to the training , communication and distribution system .
The ADI Design Museum displays the historical collection of the Compasso d ’ Oro Award : why is it still a coveted award in the age of the Metaverse ? I think it is because it represents a measure for absolute excellence : it is a prize that is comparable to the Nobel Prize in terms of scientific practice and selectivity . It is an institutional prize , not a commercial one : in 26 editions we have only awarded 360 prizes .
Among the award-winning objects , from 1954 to the present day , which are the most revolutionary for you and why ? It is hard to choose , as each of the awardwinning objects represents in its very own way a fundamental evolutionary stage of the object / user relationship . Italian design has always gone beyond the mere definition of shapes , searching for new relationships .
Opened to the public on May 26th , 2021 , the ADI Design Museum is located in the former Enel premises in Porta Volta , Milan : does the container itself reflect the Italian design culture ? Italian design predates ADI by far . This is exactly what is told in the beautiful multimedia installation at the entrance of the museum , where the expressiveness of the original industrialisation tells us about a culture that is as profound as it is refined . To pay respect to the industrial memory that lives on in the museum building itself was therefore a natural and coherent choice .
Besides the permanent collection , what does the museum offer to prompt its visitors to come back over and over again ? A museum must be part of the contemporary world ; it should not limit itself to preserving its ashes , but rather feed the fire . In this perspective , the museum format addresses contemporary issues in relation to the permanent collection , in a constant and direct dialogue , without physical or ideological barriers .
What role does light play in the architectural and exhibition design ? Being it natural or artificial , light is always
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