Exhibition design
Renzo Piano with Franco Origoni

Macchine celibi
curated by Fulvio Irace
This section aims to explore, through the analysis of two remarkable exhibition designs, the dialectical relationships between two concepts of architecture hitherto located at opposite poles. Comparing Albini’s celebrated design for the “Room for a Man” at the VI Triennale of 1936 with Mollino’s “visions” of the “House of Oberon” and “Farmhouse in a Rice Field” raises the hypothesis of a convergence towards a surrealist and self-referential interpretation of the classic Rationalist theme of domestic habitation.

La Città Nuova: Milano e l’architettura razionale
curated by Matilde Baffa
In 1930, Franco Albini embarked on his professional career in association with Renato Camus and Giancarlo Palanti. From this point on, his work in the field of popular housing became one of the research themes in which Albini best expressed his particular sensitivity to the organization of space. To an even greater degree than the technical and typological contents of his research into minimum housing and the house for all, however, his experimentation in the field of residential building became an opportunity for a scientific treatment of the theme of the new town and social space. In particular, the exhibition will feature plans, models and drawings from the major competitions for the public residential quarters (R. Giuliani, Baracca, Ponti, D’Annunzio) and the experiments with a new metropolitan vision (designs for the four satellite towns and “Milano verde”).

Spazi atmosferici: l’architettura degli allestimenti
curated by Federico Bucci
From the very beginning of his career, Franco Albini boldly interpreted invitations, above all from Edoardo Persico, to seek out an “Italian way” within the “European Renaissance”. This led to the creation of works extremely well received by critics and public alike, such as the INA pavilions at the Milan Trade Fair and Bari’s Levante Fair (from 1933 onwards), the designs for the Aeronautics Exhibition (1934), for the VI (1936) and VII (1939) Milan Triennales and for the exhibition Scipione e il bianco e nero (1941) held at the Pinacoteca di Brera. These works of interior architecture saw the development of the dual nature of Albini’s research devoted to the composition of “atmospherical spaces”; that is to say, spaces constructed “with air and light”. The temporary sets and the furnishings created by Albini in the decade 1930-40 on the one hand initiated a series of experiments with serial production and on the other gave rise to extraordinary inventions in which the architectural elements (such as the “suspended” stairs, the supports, the perforated false ceilings and so on) define the creation of a “room within a room”.

Gli oggetti dell’abitare
curated by Silvana Annicchiarico
Franco Albini’s industrial design objects are “minimum machines” combining the utmost structural efficiency with the lightness of a form that is always conceived as the result of a rigorous investigation into the technological possibilities of the project and material. This section of the exhibition documents the work of Albini the industrial designer, from the experiments of the first Triennales of the 1930s to the serial production of the post-war period, attempting to highlight both the remarkable technical characteristics of his objects (tension, dynamic equilibrium, suspension of weight and connections between the parts) and the unmistakeable seal of Albini’s taste and style. The exhibition features solely original objects.

Stanze della memoria
curated by Marco Albini
The first attempt to clarify the role played by Franco Albini within Italian and international architectural culture was made in the 1950s by Giuseppe Samonà with a famous essay published by Zodiac. However, the natural reserve of the Milanese architect, combined with a detachment from all that did not belong to the concrete aspect of the profession, have by no means facilitated the task of the critics who, in a certain sense, have yet to fully capture the true contribution of the relationships spun by Albini – before and after the war – with the themes and protagonists of the most heated architectural debate. In this sense, rather than presenting individual episodes from the architect’s life, the introductory section to the exhibition intends to contextualise Albini’s artistic and professional development, his training, his friendships, his masters, his family background, in a broader cultural overview that from Milan and the circle of Persico and Pagano’s Casabella magazine (with which Albini enjoyed close and as yet unexplored ties) stretches as far as the heart of modern European architectural culture.

Modernità e tradizione
curated by Augusto Rossari
This section presents some of the most significant examples of Albini’s post-war work and their respective relationships with Italian architectural culture. In particular, taking into consideration a historical period ranging from the urgency of reconstruction through to the early Sixties, attention is focussed on three themes: a reflection on educated and spontaneous tradition, Neorealism and organic influences; Albini’s specific point of view, the Pirovano refuge-hotel at Cervinia, the INA building in Parma, the Cesate quarter, the Olivetti villa near Ivrea and Villa Allemandi at Punta Ala (province of Grosseto); comparisons with Gardella’s Borsalino house in Alessandria and the Ridolfi’s houses in Viale Etiopia, Rome.

L’arte del porgere: il museo tra Albini e Scarpa
curated by Marco Mulazzani and Orietta Lanzarini
Albini’s museums – along with those of BBPR, Gardella and Scarpa to cite some of the finest examples of post-war Italian museography – profoundly innovated exhibition techniques and equipment, pursuing a didactic concept of the museum while at the same time integrating ancient and modern and rising to the status of “works of art” in their own right. Palazzo Bianco, Palazzo Rosso and the Museum of the Treasury of San Lorenzo in Genoa, are masterpieces about which much has been written, but they are also works that merit further analysis, both in the light of Albini’s post-war experience and in closer contact with the debate over tradition and the commitment to teaching that have projected Italian architectural culture into an international dimension. In particular, one of the themes tackled in this section is the comparison with the work of Carlo Scarpa in the museum field, from Palazzo Albatellis in Palermo to Castelvecchio Museum in Verona.

La tecnologia e la città
curated by Claudia Conforti
This section is configured around the interpretation of the city provided by Albini through certain public buildings, in particular the INA office building in Parma, the Rinascente store in Rome, the Sant’Agostino Museum in Genoa, the unsuccessful Eremitani intervention in Padua, the Saipem offices in San Donato and the Zoja spa in Salsomaggiore Terme. A comparison will be made with the urban or artificially naturalistic surroundings through original photographs and film. Furthermore, a comparison has also been established with the office and residential buildings in Via Guicciardini, Florence, by Giovanni Michelucci, the office building in Via Torino, Rome, by Adalberto Libera and the Fiuggi spa by Luigi Moretti.

Download exhibition design card pdf