Milan Design Week: Fare Posto

There is a place in Milan where hundreds of people experiencing homelessness and social marginalisation come every day seeking guidance and shelter: the Centro Sammartini, housed in the tunnels beneath the tracks of Milano Centrale station. It was from this space — and its many layers of complexity — that the City of Milan initiated a collaboration with IED to reimagine its environments through design.

The project is called Fare Posto. Cronache e Design dal Centro Sammartini del Comune di Milano and is promoted by Fondazione Francesco Morelli. Developed by the Master of Arts School at IED Milano, under the guidance of architect Davide Fabio Colaci and lecturer Riccardo Ferrari, it brought seven students from the Advanced Diploma in Interior Design. Spatial Practices for Gathering Cultures to work side by side with the Centre's staff — listening to their needs, observing their daily practices, and translating all of this into three prototypes designed to make those spaces more functional, more human, more beautiful.

The three prototypes — Gentle Frame, Kaleidoscope and Synestesia — will be on display at the Centro Sammartini from 20 to 24 April, as part of Milan Design Week, alongside Dropcity.

For Fondazione Francesco Morelli, Fare Posto is a concrete example of what design can achieve when it places itself at the service of the community as a tool for inclusion, connection and dignity.

The exhibition will open on Sunday 19 April at 6:00 pm with a conversation exploring hospitality as infrastructure and fragility as a space of encounter, capable of imagining new forms of coexistence and practising kindness. Following institutional greetings by Lamberto Bertolè and Donatella Ronchi, the discussion will feature writer and architect Gianni Biondillo, Davide Fabio Colaci and Miriam Pasqui, and will be moderated by Federica Zambeletti.

From 7:00 pm, a VJ set curated by the IED Milano Visual Arts School will translate the project’s themes into a visual and sound experience.

FARE POSTO – An IED project, Master of Arts School, in collaboration with the Centro Sammartini of Comune di Milano, promoted by Fondazione Francesco Morelli.
Milan, Via Sammartini 118/120
Opening: Sunday 19 April, 4:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Talk at 6:00 pm, VJ set from 7:00 pm
Open to the public: from Monday 20 April to Friday 24 April (9:00 am – 1:00 pm; 2:00 pm – 6:00 pm; Wednesday 2:00 pm – 6:00 pm)