bright red installation by binocle displays vico magistretti's works at the triennale di milano

the triennale design museum in milan, italy, unveils the ‘vico magistretti. architetto milanese’ exhibition designed by architecture firm binocle. the show presents the work of the world-renowned designer vico magistretti, bringing together a series of urban planning, landscape, architecture and design projects, from an archive of 30,000 drawings, 7,000 photographs and 3,000 documents. the bright red display structures -a large table, a long shelf/wall and a gigantic hood- are formed as blow-ups of domestic archetypes, organize the exhibition space and allude to a place in which to work, design, think, stay and live.

image courtesy of delfino sisto legnani / DSL studio (also main image)

binocle’s proposal arises from the attempt to present the contents of such a vast and complex exhibition in a clear and easily understandable path. in this sense, the project reduces, simplifies and crystallizes the infinite trajectories made theoretically and metaphorically possible by the digital dimension of the catalogued work, and forces them into a defined and limited physical space. the structure strives to offer and to stage a free and fluid browsing experience –a sort of wandering albeit not aimless- between the different contributions, suggesting continuous visual relationships between the different projects and between the documents that illustrate them. the path that the visitor follows through the exhibition is not reduced to a merely chronological, thematic or typological sequence, but rather gives shape to one of the many possible ways of looking at the work of vico magistretti in its complexity.

image courtesy of delfino sisto legnani / DSL studio

the space set aside for the exhibition, located on the first floor of the triennale, is a single room 24 metres long and 13 metres wide. closed on three sides by 6-and-a-half-metres high white walls, the room can be reached via the suspension bridge and overlooks the giant central staircase with a large glass façade. the principal exhibition structures are designed as blow-ups of two archetypes of storage units: a large table shaped as a horizontal surface on which to lie, study and explore and a long shelf/wall within which to store, classify and rediscover.

image courtesy of delfino sisto legnani / DSL studio

the red color is a reference to vico’s favourite and most used tone, from the façades of some buildings to the lisle socks and numerous design objects. the complex shape of the display table, with its ‘in lets’ that lengthen its perimeter as if they were fjords increasing the length of a coast, may remind some of the gigantic marina grande plateau, stretched over the beach of arenzano and extended via a series of subtractions (the openings and views of the underlying spaces) and additions (the green parterres) that control and define the spatial articulation. a gigantic hood, an out-of-scale reproduction of a symbolically decisive project in magistretti’s oeuvre, constitutes the third major construction of the exhibition. suspended above the entrance to announce the exhibition and make it clearly visible and recognisable through the large window to visitors crossing the access bridge, the large volume defines a space beneath, functions as a roof and invites one to pause before immersing oneself in the work of the great master.

image courtesy of delfino sisto legnani / DSL studio

image courtesy of delfino sisto legnani / DSL studio

image courtesy of delfino sisto legnani / DSL studio

image courtesy of delfino sisto legnani / DSL studio

image courtesy of delfino sisto legnani / DSL studio

piccy, fumagalli, 1946 (re-edition campeggi, 2021)
image by gianluca di ioia, courtesy triennale milano

selene, artemide
image by gianluca di ioia, courtesy triennale milano

top: nuvola rossa, cassina, 1977
bottom right: nathalie, flou, 1978
bottom left: girotondo, de padova, 2004
image by gianluca di ioia, courtesy triennale milano

eclisse, artemide, 1966-67
image by gianluca di ioia, courtesy triennale milano

spiros, acerbis, 1987
image by gianluca di ioia, courtesy triennale milano

foreground: ospite, campeggi, 1996
backgrond: maralunga, cassina, 1973
image by gianluca di ioia, courtesy triennale milano

broomstick, alias, 1979
image by gianluca di ioia, courtesy triennale milano

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project info:

name: vico magistretti. architetto milanese
venue: triennale di milano
duration: may 11 – september 12, 2021
curated by: gabriele neri
in collaboration with: fondazione vico magistretti
exhibition design: lorenzo bini / binocle

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: myrto katsikopoulou | designboom