REPORTAGE: ADI Design Museum by Cristina Morozzi

ADI Design Museum presents the exhibition "Il Cucchiaio e la Città" and introduces us to the Historical Collection of the Compasso d'Oro. Read the reportage by Cristina Morozzi for Design Italy.



On April 25 2021, ADI Design Museum was inaugurated in Milan, Via Ceresio 7. It’s also known as “the museum of Compasso d'oro”, which is the most authoritative world design award established in 1954 from an idea of Gio Ponti and supported at the beginning by Rinascente.

The headquarters, complete with bookshop and cafeteria, overlooks a large internal square called Piazza Compasso d'oro, which houses the products awarded in the various editions.
The goal of the inaugural exhibition "Il Cucchiaio e la Città", curated by Beppe Finessi, is to tell the story of Italian design by showing not only the industrial products, but also other documents such as original drawings and sketches of the designers.


The exhibition ranges from furnishing objects to children's toys, from clothing to industrial machinery, and has been organized in a series of thematic wunderkammer designed to restore a sense of experience.
The exhibition has also chosen to highlight the fundamental role played by the Italian magazines of the sector: the visitor is accompanied along the route not only by technical descriptions, but also by a selection of author's sentences, by designers, entrepreneurs, critics of design and architecture. Images taken by great photographers accompany the presentation and are present as works in their own right.