Milan’s Triennale Opens New Research Hub, Library
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MILAN — Following a 70-year hiatus, the Triennale di Milano museum has reopened its research center here. A hub where architects, designers, students and design enthusiasts can convene and find key resources under one roof, the institution’s archive includes some 300,000 drawings, projects, photos, letters and texts, which have all been digitized, the museum said.
Named Cuore [heart] — Research, Study and Archives Center of Triennale, the contemporary space was redesigned with the help of Italian office furnishings company UniFor, which is owned by Italy’s Molteni Group.
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Founded at the height of the city’s Art Deco heyday, Triennale is based in the Palazzo dell’Arte, built in 1933 by Giovanni Muzio. Within Cuore, a modernist winding staircase by Muzio was restored and serves an installation within the research center.
Dubbed by UniFor as the “archive of archives” the research center will be open to the public, “in line with its mission to involve the community and the institutions in a dynamic and participatory way, striving to make the extraordinary historical heritage readily accessible,” UniFor said in a statement, adding that it’s a hub designed to welcome visitors, the scientific community, scholars and researchers, but also a network that unites universities, superintendencies, public and private foundations, and companies.
Longtime Triennale di Milano collaborator architect Luca Cipelletti Studio AR.CH.IT. designed the modular elements of the display system intended to house various archival collections. Made by UniFor and covering about 3,230 square feet, the new system is outfitted with display cases, cabinets and shelves for photographs, objects, models, prototypes, fabrics, drawings, volumes, posters — and is designed to enhance the use of the various contents. The first displays, thanks to touchscreens integrated into a structure created by UniFor, is meant to welcome visitors to its interactive interface.
The library has more than 22,000 books and about 800 periodicals, many of which have been collected by the former Triennale Research Center starting from 1935. Among those on display are an anthology of Swiss French designer Le Corbusier’s work between 1938 to 1946 published by Les Editions d’Architecture Zurich, the “Firenze Fashion Atlas” published by Marsilio and “Giorgio Armani: il Sesso Radicale” (“Giorgio Armani: The Radical Sex”) by late Italian journalist Giusi Ferré.
The opening event on Feb. 13 was attended by pillars of Milan’s design arena. Gio Ponti’s grandson and founder of the Gio Ponti Archives Salvatore Licitra was in attendance, as well as Achille Castiglioni’s daughter Giovanna Castiglioni, who is also the head of the Castiglioni Foundation. The younger Castiglioni was visibly in awe of the open space model, commenting on how the old Triennale archive was kept on the basement floor. “This is so much better. It’s so vast and open, easy to navigate.”
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