Museum Seeed. The Futurability of Cultural Places. Milan

Book Design.
Graphics.
Curatorship.

Electa / Milan. Italy / March 2024

Written and designed by the Studio and published by Electa with the support of the Italian Culture Institute in Seoul, this book offers a vision of the future of architectural and interior design projects for cultural spaces starting from the concept of “museum seed”.
Like a seed, the museum grows, transforms and extends into its “augmented” version in a state of constant evolution, shifting between conservation and narrative and opening up to new forms of accessibility and inclusion. Inhabiting cultural spaces today requires a new planning approach that is able to integrate architectural, design and graphic projects within the encounter with the evolution of technologies, neuroscience and artificial intelligence.
In this design perspective, museums and cultural places are interpreted as dynamic systems that are permeable, open to mutual exchange and capable of building awareness and community, where all the elements of the project feature a unitary leitmotif: a sort of narrative dramaturgy.
Drawing on the long research and practice that the Studio has developed over its years of activity, the book aims to expand the investigation by bringing together multiple voices from the world of culture: directors, curators, collectors, academics, architects, designers, journalists and psychologists discuss the topic of the future of cultural spaces.
The volume opens with a text that expresses the Studio’s vision of cultural space design and unfolds into a veritable manifesto based on the titles of the eight chapters: 01. Form follows content and emotions, 02. Museum as content producer, 03. Innovation Guarantor, 04. Expanded Frame, 05. Healing Places, 06. Urban Nesting, 07. From hidden archive to dynamic cultural seed, 08. Museum as living organism.
Each chapter features reflections, questions and contributions from numerous figures from the world of culture and design, such as: Ilaria Bonacossa, director of the National Museum of Digital Art; the architect Giampiero Bosoni, professor at the Politecnico di Milano; Marco Carminati, art historian and journalist; the Korean architect Eui Young Chun, president of the Korean Institute of Architects (Kia); Angelo Crespi, director of the Pinacoteca di Brera; the psychologist Andrea Gaggioli, professor at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan; Paolo Inghilleri, doctor and professor at the University of Milan; the Korean architect Jooyun Kim, professor at Hongik University in Seoul; the Korean curator Daehyung Lee, founder of Hzone; the art and digital culture expert Maria Grazia Mattei, also president of the MEET Digital Cultural Center in Milan; Davide Rampello, artistic director, curator and founder of Rampello & Partners; Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, president of the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation; the Korean designer Yong Bae Seok, creative director of Tod’s No_Code brands; the architect and UIA ambassador to COP28 Gaetan Siew.
The volume closes with an afterword by Fulvio Irace, professor emeritus at the Politecnico di Milano, who examines how it is possible and necessary to rethink the museum today in the era of a hypermedia revolution that has penetrated cultural spaces with a tactile and immersive sensoriality.
The book is enriched with images of museum set ups and international environmental installations realized by the Studio, such as the interventions for the Natural History Museum of Milan, 2023; for the new headquarters of The Human Safety Net, the social foundation of Generali Group, within the Procuratie Vecchie in Piazza San Marco in Venice, 2023; for the Egyptian Museum in Turin, 2015; for the Chopin Museum in Warsaw, 2010; for the Italian Pavilion “4 Elements taking care”, at the XXII International Triennial Exhibition of Milan “Broken Nature”, 2019; or even urban works such as the Flags Boulevard for Expo 2015 in Milan and the “Blue Line Park” linear park overlooking the ocean created from reconverting 5 km of disused railway in Busan, South Korea, 2020.