The course New Cultural Institutions at Politecnico di Milano investigates the relationship between space, governance and the economic sustainability of some of the recent Milanese cultural institutions. The aim of the course is to elaborate a critical vision of the phenomenon through the elaboration of experiential installations at the 1: 1 scale.
How to imagine and manage tomorrow’s cultural production spaces? Which models and spaces accompany these processes?
Numerous new cultural institutions have flourished in Milan in recent years, with different approaches and different forms of management: from the Fondazione Feltrinelli to Base, from Fondazione Prada to Mare Culturale Urbano, from Stecca 3.0 to Macao, each of which declines in its own way the cultural unrest of the city of Milan of the last decade. The models are many and varied, cultural promoters range from private foundations to cultural companies, from associations to informal groups, according to management models ranging from private property to affiliation through tender to a public good, from temporary re-use to the informal re-activation of abandoned public goods.
This course digs into the different articulations of New Cultural Institutions, looking at their ancestors in the history of architecture and design, from the Fun Palace by Cedric Price through the Centre Pompidou by Rogers & Piano to The Shed by Diller & Scofidio, exploring the management structures that hold them and finally unfolding their potential development in terms of space, program, governance. The course then actively engages with one specific Milanese New Cultural Institution: Macao.
role: adjunct professor
for: Politecnico di Milano
year: 2017-18
Azzurra Muzzonigro 