Contract in museums: 5 projects to explore

Negli spazi comuni dei luoghi di cultura, comfort e rigore estetico devono fare i conti con standard di sicurezza severi: gli arredi devono resistere all’usura, essere lavabili e igienizzabili, facili da spostare e capaci di rendere flessibili gli interni. Per la luce il discorso è più complesso: temperature, fasci e intensità vanno calibrati sulla fragilità delle opere e sul comfort visivo dei visitatori, senza dimenticare la presenza degli apparecchi nello spazio. Tra scenografia e funzionalità l’equilibrio è delicato, e un impianto permanente è una grande responsabilità. Il contract per i musei nasce dallo spazio, non dal catalogo, e quando funziona quasi non si nota: insieme, arredo e luce creano luoghi sicuri, accoglienti e per tutti. Cinque progetti, dal Museo Egizio di Torino alla Collezione Peggy Guggenheim a Venezia, mostrano come.

Read also: Salone Contract 2027: the Masterplan by Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten (OMA)

Museo Egizio, Turin, Artemide

To refurbish 500 square meters between the ground floor and the basement level, with a view to the bicentenary celebrated in autumn 2024, the Museo Egizio in Turin chose Artemide. The spaces are lit almost entirely with the A.24 magnetic track and the Turn Around system, both designed by Carlotta de Bevilacqua. The display cases are lit by the Vector 20 and 30 modules, the smallest in the Artemide catalogue: they shed light on the artifacts without affecting them by their presence. An example of museum lighting that works by subtraction, with the focus on the exhibits.

Bourse de Commerce, Paris, Flos

In 2021, the Bourse de Commerce in Paris, the former Stock Exchange renovated by Tadao Ando to house the Pinault Collection, was lit with installations by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, created by Flos Bespoke. The project concerned the entrance, monumental staircase and restaurant: Horizontal Light, with five six-meter-long glass and aluminum tubes, floats in the entryway, while Vertical Light also appears in the restaurant. The designers specified that they should not light the exhibition rooms but the transitional areas. The result is a delicate dialogue between historic architecture and contemporary design.

Triennale Milano, Milan, Tacchini Italia Forniture

At Triennale Milano, Tacchini Italia Forniture is the furnishing partner for Cucina Triennale, the restaurant-cafeteria managed by T’a Milano on the Park level, overlooking the 7,300-square-meter garden in Parco Sempione. In the entrance space, leading to the exhibition galleries, it has placed a selection of furnishings: the Le Mura XL seating system by Mario Bellini, the Additional System armchair by Joe Colombo, the Mano Light floor lamp and the Altar coffee table, all upholstered in Dedar fabrics. Reissues of design masters and contemporary pieces thus welcome visitors to a place to be lived, not just visited.

ADI Design Museum, Milan, Pedrali

At the ADI Design Museum in Milan, the permanent home of the Compasso d’Oro Collection, Pedrali contributed to the set-up with Dome chairs, designed by Odo Fioravanti, for events, initiatives and presentations. Made of injection-molded polypropylene with fiberglass, the chairs are light, stackable, easy to clean and maintain. A detail makes the project even more significant: Frida, another Pedrali chair designed by Fioravanti, received the 2011 Compasso d’Oro and is part of the collection. Hence the company furnishes a museum that preserves one of its products.

Arper × Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice

In the historic Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, where Peggy Guggenheim lived for thirty years, exhibition space is limited and finding seating room is not easy. For the veranda on the Grand Canal, Arper, a supporter of the museum since 2017 with the Guggenheim Intrapresæ program, chose the Pix and Kiik collections. They had to be comfortable, with a color palette capable of enhancing the installations without constraining them, resistant to temperature changes and the Venetian climate, and easy to move to make the space flexible. The result is a comfortable, quiet breakout space for visitors.