"TAKING CARE: Signs of Change"

Polytechnic Culture Exhibition promoted by the School of Architecture, Urban Planning, Construction Engineering (AUIC)

"TAKING CARE. Signs of Change" explores the relationship between architecture, health, and society through the signs that, over time, have organized care and built space. Following the theoretical framework of Jacques Attali, care is interpreted not only as a medical practice, but as a symbolic, corporeal, technical, and informational order.

The exhibition is structured around five signs:

• The sign of the gods, in which care is configured as a sacred and communal act;
• The sign of bodies, in which the body becomes matter to be protected and organized;
• The sign of machines, in which the hospital asserts itself as a technical infrastructure;
• The sign of codes, in which data and networks redefine places of care;
• The sign of the future, which explores emerging scenarios and advanced technologies.

These signs do not follow one another in a linear fashion, but rather they come into tension, overlap, and continue to coexist. The exhibition invites us to recognize them in the spaces we inhabit and to question how and where "caring" is constructed today.

TAKING CARE. Signs of Change is an interdepartmental exhibition on Architecture, Health, and Society that explores how spaces of care have shaped—and continue to shape—the relationship between bodies, cities, and health throughout history. Through a dialogue between historical case studies, contemporary projects, and experiments, the exhibition highlights the evolution of care from ritual and community practices to contemporary, increasingly technological and data-driven environments.

Curators
Stefano Capolongo (DABC)
Pilar M. Guerrieri (DAStU)

Dates and times
April 17th – June 12nd 2026
MON-FRI 10 am – 7 pm

Place
Spazio Mostre Guido Nardi
Politecnico di Milano – Campus Leonardo
Via Andrea Maria Ampère 2, 20133 Milano
Building 11, Ground Floor