Cross-fertilisation and narratives for a cultural space that contributes to the 15-minute city
Food and readings at the new ADI Design Museum. Space for cross-fertilisation and conviviality. A few weeks after it officially opened, the museum dedicated to the Compasso d’Oro collection inaugurated the Officina Design Café, with CHIC Charming Italian Chef, together with the Officina Design Shop managed by Electa Editore. «We have combined bookstore and café, as so many museums in international cities have successfully done » commented Luciano Galimberti, president of ADI.
The entrance is the same as the museum, in Piazza C0mpasso d’Oro 1, in front of Via Ceresio and Piazzale Monumentale, in a former industrial area that in recent years has undergone a major urban refitting. Quality, sustainability and health are the core values of the Associazione CHIC, which in the new museum will provide an original food experience, involving its members and activating important partnerships with the finest companies in the food and wine sector.
Adi Design Museum Bookshop. Ph. ©Martina Bonetti
This cultural space will serve to enable a project that connects food to sustainability, a theme that is very important to the association which years ago launched “CHIC RESPECT”, a process that aims to reduce the environmental impact of the restaurant business, advancing responsible consumption, and seeking to educate the consumer about taste, respect for the environment and the use of natural resources. Sustainability will be the leading theme of the café’s entire bill of fare (opening hours will be Tuesday through Sunday, from 10:30 am to 8:00 pm) with a wide range of ethical products and preparations to consume across the entire day, from breakfast, to lunch, to happy hour.
«Food is a great Italian prerogative – commented Galimberti – and ADI is currently working on a series of projects on the theme of food design». At the ADI Museum, food is linked to design and innovation, it represents a virtuous relationship with the environment, and aims to tell the story of a country, Italy, that offers so much to discover and enjoy».
The CHIC members who are already collaborating include Davide Fiorentini (Faenza) for the croissants, the deep-dish pizzas and the cookies, Renato Bosco (San Martino Buon Albergo) for the crusty pan pizza, Tommaso Cannata (Milan and Messina) for the Sicilian pastry and bread, and the Chefs Stefano Masanti (Madesimo), Emanuele Vallini (Bibbona), Enrico Bergonzi (Colorno), Gianni Tarabini (Mantello) for the “gourmet panini”. For the coordination of the menu and the selection of the various dishes, the director is chef Pier Giorgio Parini from the Romagna region.
Attention to the environment and to food safety is a concern in the furnishings and at the bar, which is made entirely of copper; the project to design the café and bookstore was entrusted to Marco Ferreri, winner of the Compasso d’Oro for Lifetime Achievement in 2020.
Adi Design Museum Bookshop. Ph. ©Martina Bonetti
The architect proposed an open space, organized with identical furnishings, defined in their functions precisely by the things they exhibit.
«This space has the good fortune of being at the centre of the exhibitions, adjacent to the Gallery which is actually a public street inside the Museum with beautiful natural light – explains the architect Ferreri – a situation that is extraordinary in itself. The light especially is what gives that feeling of always being outdoors, in a place that makes you feel good. Officina Design is a space made of copper. A material that is undoubtedly difficult to treat; we deliberately kept it free of treatments that protect it from fingerprints and the signs of wear and tear, because when it is not treated it maintains its property as an anti-bacterial material. As to the rest, as always, I try not to appear in my projects, but simply to work appropriately. I believe that the objective has been achieved here».
A single piazza that opens onto a roofed public pedestrian thoroughfare that runs along the exhibition spaces and ties together the neighbourhood (Via Ceresio and Via Bramante, with the same concept as the Macro Museum in Rome), where the visitor can enjoy a multifaceted experience: in the same large space in front of the Café is the Officina Design Shop, which will host talks and presentations dedicated to new publications in the field.
The ADI Design Museum was conceived as a narrating experiential museum, a container open to exchange, for professionals in the field and everyone else, and Officina Design will be one of the primary venues to advance cross-fertilisation and relations, in the bookshop and cafeteria, which will become places of aggregation where people can spend their free time, get together, or arrange meetings for work.
This is a goal that the museum wishes to advance by joining the project for “15-minute cities”, which includes a series of actions coherent with a new model of sustainable city, in which each citizen can reach essential services, including cultural services, on foot or by bike. «The purpose – explains ADI – is to make the city evolve into increasingly qualified districts, reduce pollution and create socially and economically inclusive areas. In this sense, the space aims to become a point of reference for the entire neighbourhood».
Cover: Officina Design Cafè by CHIC
Translated by: Olga Barmine
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