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This article is part of the Milan guide to FT Globetrotter
Milan is synonymous with design. Every April, the city holds Milan Design Week. This is a festival that includes Salon Dell Mobile Furniture Fair and other events, where companies, designers, architects, buyers and creatives from over 150 countries showcase their vision of the future. The fair will be held at the Fiera Milano Exhibition Complex in Rho under the “sail” designed by architect Massimiliano Fuksas and will be emitted into the city through countless events. But if you can’t visit it, Milan is a treasure trove for design enthusiasts all year round, with world-class museums, galleries, pioneering architecture and more.
Books
For me, Italian artist and designer Bruno Munali was a beacon. He was a great friend of my family and taught me about design. He was passionate about attracting art to children, so I was lucky to be able to attend his workshops when I was younger. So my first recommendation is to start with Bocca’s Nella Nebbia Di Milano from his book, “Nella Nebbia di Milano.” It can be found in Italy’s oldest bookstore, operating since 1775 in the heart of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele (its own an architectural icon). It stocks over 5,000 art titles and dozens of artists’ publications, allowing you to spend hours on the shelves.
Book lovers will also enjoy the contemplative silence of the 18th century Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense, who spent an afternoon studying scenic design at the Accademia di Brera, in the same building. The library is one of Italy’s largest and is now part of Grande Brera, a network of cultural institutions in the stylish Brera district. This includes Pinacote Cadi Brera (Brera Art Gallery) and Palazzo Siciteterio, a new gallery of 20th century art that opened last year (it’s been over 50 years). Here you will find the collection of Jesi and Vitali, as well as masterpieces from Umberto Boccioni (including his famous “La Città Che Sale”), Giorgio Morandi, Picasso and Modigliani.
museum
In Brera, pause at the Botanical Garden before heading west to Parco Sempoione. There, you will pass through the 15th century Castello Sforzesco on your way to the Triennale Milan, an art museum. A must-see space will feature a new gallery and research centre Cuore, dedicated to Triennale’s historic archives.
The golden age of Italian industrial and furniture design spanned the 1940s and 1980s and was shaped by visionaries such as Gio Ponti, Vico Migsistretti, Joe Colombo, and Ettore Sottsass. The Achille Castiglioni Foundation is a grand place for anyone looking to explore the roots of Milanese design, and has long set courses of cultures that live beyond the scope of domestic space. Home to the historic collection dedicated to Compass do Oro, the prestigious industrial design award born in Italy in 1954, the Adi Design Museum also serves as a gateway to exploring cities that thrive in radical design. The museum embodies Geo Ponty’s philosophy that design principles should be applied universally. Over time, countless architectural episodes transformed the city into its own design “object.”
Architecture
Among the highlights is the Velasca Tower, built by BBPR in the 1950s. One of the most famous landmarks of the Milan skyline and a signature example of modern Italian architecture in the first wave, the 106m tower has its prominent mushroom-like shape and has recently been restored and rejuvenated by Hines and Astia Architetti. The Quartiere Triennale 8 by architect Piero Botni, one of the great pioneers of postwar reconstruction in Milan, northwest of the tower, is another bold act of design. The Experimental Housing Project also includes the creation of Montestera, an artificial hill made from fragments of buildings created from structures that were devised at the 1947 Triennale di Milan exhibition and destroyed during World War II.
Art Gallery
Milan also has many beautifully designed art spaces. Not to be missed is the Matta Gallery, founded by three 30 verses who studied ropes at Massimo de Carlo and Pace Gallery and specialize in contemporary art.
Designed by Piero Portaluppi in the 1930s, Casa Corberry Wasserman’s Massimo de Carlo’s Milan location is another gallery worth visiting just to see the space. This is one of Portaluppi’s most famous projects and is an exquisite example of Milanese’s rationalist architecture, featuring beautiful details and materials, such as multicolored marble and rich forests.
Other favorites include Pirelli Hangarbicocca, the strict white cube space of Lia Rumma, designed by LaCatelli Partners.
Salone Del Mobile, Fiera Milano, April 8th-13th. direction
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