Civilization of living and relationships between space and furniture

Research focus

The Peer review has evaluated this group as Excellent

The team research activity is organised into the following sectors: 1. Theory of Interior Architecture and Furniture Design. The research expounds on the idea of Carlo De Carli regarding “Primary Space” as the constituting basis of interior architecture, developing it with the contribution of other Italian Maestri of Interiors (Gio Ponti, Franco Albini, Vittoriano Viganò, etc.), in comparison with the current theories of Architecture and Industrial Design. 2. History of the Culture of Living from ancient times to modern day, focussing particularly on the period of Humanism and Modernity. The study, which is based on the retrieval of published and unpublished iconographic sources, uses reconstructed three-dimensional scale models of examples of houses arranged in time sequences (benefiting from the contribution of the Model Constructing Laboratory). Another type of historical research regards furniture products, which are surveyed and returned to create a full scale reconstruction, with the aid of the relative manufacturing department. 3. Social living project geared to a particular category of users (old people, university students, immigrants, homeless, etc.) and based on the systematic restoration of public living quarters carried out in direct collaboration with the managing organisations (Aler Milano and Regione Lombardia). For these same user categories, in addition, the creation of full scale prototypes of furniture elements or systems, in collaboration with the relative manufacturing departments. 4. Design of new work spaces for the service industry, on the basis of the new potential offered by information and communication technologies, focussing especially on the problems of disabled workers. 5. History and criticism of modern exhibition displays as a temporary architecture phenomenon and as the experimental forerunner of the architectural project in a broad sense. This study uses redesigns and reconstructed scale models of case studies, arranged in chronological order, as well as their design application to specific themes and contexts. 6. Study of the relationship between modern and contemporary Interior Architecture, Industrial Design and Visual Arts, considered as an occasion for synergies and mutual influences and verified examined on different scale, from landscape to the architecture of buildings, from furniture to product. 7. Development of strategies and products for a new craft-oriented entrepreneurial category with activities of cultural promotion and applied research in the wood-furniture manufacturing sector of the Brianza 155 district near Milan and Como, through the service regional organisation (Centro Legno Arredo of Cantù). 8. Project of “urban interiors” as an active force of social and environmental renovation in the current disjointed urbanisation of the areas. Analysis of the inhabited environment, study of the open space as an area of the relationship between collective human habits and the physical environment, analysis of the different theoretic and design formulas for the non-built up areas of the city; planning and maintenance of spaces, design of facilities and objects for public urban spaces; scheduling, planning and design the structures for activities integrated in the public space, elimination of architectural barriers and development of highly accessible information systems.

Dipartimento di afferenza

Dipartimento di Progettazione dell’Architettura

Docenti afferenti

Full Professors
Gianni Ottolini
Associate Professors
Roberto Rizzi
Gennaro Postiglione
Assistant Professors
Giuseppe Finessi
Manfredo Manfredini
Sergio Boidi
Michele Ugolini
Immacolata C. Forino