Pen down Ventura Centrale and Ventura Future in view of the forthcoming Milano Design Week 2018. You heard it right: after the overwhelming success of the previous 8 editions of Ventura Lambrate – Milan’s best-loved design district which has been drawing the attention of thousands of visitors on one of the city’s most exciting former industrial areas –, Ventura Projects moves on to a new location barely a few kilometres away.
Margriet Vollenberg, founder and curator of Ventura Projects, explains how the district’s major goal – to provide a platform for young emerging design talents – needs to be developed further. So goodbye Lambrate, whose unaccessible prices have gone beyond the reasonably affordable, and welcome to a brand new design district located in the urban area between Lambrate and the Central Railway Station.
Ventura Future aims at showcasing a huge array of projects in several locations – like Loft and FutureDome, the latter being a historic Liberty-style Milanese townhouse where representatives of Futurism once used to gather, and now offering a pilot housing museum aimed at enhancing contemporary art and design under the coordination of Ginevra Bria and Atto Belloli Ardessi. The most buzzed-about highlights include: Editions Milano with Patricia Urquiola and Federico Peri, Mason and Mingardo with creations by Federica Biasi, Denis Guidone, Mae Engelgeer, and Valerio Sommella.
Located on viale Abruzzi, 42, the former Pharmacy Department of the University of Milan will provide the second location to host the most illustrious design academies from all over the world. Strong of the massive success of the first edition of Ventura Centrale – with the ex Magazzini Raccordati being reopened for the special occasion –, a fresh new parade of contemporary design mixing site-specific installations and exclusive collections by both promising designers and well-established firms (Nitto, Asahi Glass, Surface Magazine with David Rockwell, and Fabrica) is expected to steal the stage within those very premises.
There is more. A new Ventura Project is to land in Dubai at the INDEX Design Series 2018, the most relevant global forum for architecture and design specifically addressed to the Middle East and Northern Africa markets. VENTURA DUBAIwill be a creative oasis in a mostly commercial environment, bringing 40 innovative design concepts to a 1,000-square-metre diamond-shaped area.
“We have been invited”, Margriet Vollenberg is keen to point out, “by virtue of our experimental and creative approach. Although people in Dubai and the Middle East are fond of European design, they still aren’t that familiar with it. We are going to showcase the works of 9 design studios from just as many world countries so to encourage a more engaging and interactive response from the audience. Indeed, 3 projects will involve the public directly, so that humans can turn into a key element of the entire creative cycle.”
At the opening: The facade of Futurdome, the historic Liberty-style milanese townhouse soon to host Ventura Projects at the Milano Design Week 2018.
