Milano Arch Week 2019

"Anthropocene and architecture" is the theme of the 2019 edition of the Milanese week dedicated to architecture

Milano Arch Week, the week of events part of the YesMilano program dedicated to architecture, contemporary urban challenges and the future of cities returns from Tuesday, May 21 to Sunday, May 26.

The event is promoted by Triennale Milano together with the Politecnico di Milano and the City of Milan, in collaboration with the Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, under the artistic direction of Stefano Boeri.

After the success of the previous editions, Milano Arch Week 2019 is back with the title “Anthropocene and Architecture”, where “Anthropocene” stands for the name coined by biologist and Nobel laureate Eugene F. Stoermer in the ‘80s, referring to the present time. A new geologic era during which stratigraphic surveys have identified human beings and their activities as the cause of the main territorial, structural and climatic changes.

The event aims at exploring the current condition of global urbanization, starting from demographic projections showing that in 2050 nearly two thirds of the world population will be living in an anthropized environment (UN, World Urbanization Prospects 2018). Cities, therefore, will be at the center of the event, within a research journey on the system of flows and networks, of artifice and nature. Urban contexts intended as places continuously shaped by a “contemporary plurality of subjects, individuals, and trajectories”, as centers of material and immaterial production.

The theme, “Anthropocene and Architecture”, is closely connected with the ones identified by the XXII Triennale di Milano, curated by Paola Antonelli and open to the public until September 1, 2019, called “Broken Nature: Design Takes on Human”. The issues at the heart of the Triennale are environmental sustainability, technological development, migratory phenomena, social transformations, in their relation with the urban space and through an urbanistic and architectural perspective.

The events of Milano Arch Week 2019

To face the issues connected with urban complexity and the evolution of future architecture, the great protagonists of the international scene will take the stage, including Rem Koolhaas in a conversation with Stefano Boeri (Saturday, May 25 at 12.00 pm, Triennale Milano) and Shigeru Ban (Saturday, May 25 at 2 pm, Triennale Milano).

Bjarke Ingels, Milano Arch Week 2018- photo by Louis De Belle

Many guests and important speakers will animate the event: Mario Botta (Wednesday, May 22 at 6.30 pm, Politecnico di Milano), Kunlé Adeyemi (Wednesday, May 22 at 7.30 pm, Politecnico di Milano), Italo Rota and Cino Zucchi (Thursday, May 23 at 1 pm, Gaggenau DesignElementi Hub), Urbz (Friday, May 24 at 5 pm, Triennale Milano), Al Borde (Friday, May 24 at 6 pm, Triennale Milano), James Wei Ke(Friday, May 24 at 7 pm, Triennale Milano), Giancarlo Mazzanti (Saturday, May 25 at 4.30 pm, Triennale di Milano), Eyal Weizman (Saturday, May 25 at 5.30 pm, Triennale Milano), Andrea Branzi (Saturday, May 25 at 6.30 pm, Triennale Milano), Ricky Burdett (Saturday, May 25 at 7.30 pm, Triennale Milano), Winy Maas in a conversation with Stefano Boeri and Joseph Grima (Saturday, May 25 at 8.30 pm, Triennale Milano), Yuri Grigoryan (Sunday, May 26 at 7 pm, Triennale Milano), Assemble (Sunday, May 26 at 6 pm, Triennale Milano), Tatiana Bilbao (Sunday, May 26 at 9 pm, Triennale Milano), with a focus also on the young talents of architecture.

On May 23 at 11.30 am the First National Award of Architecture will also be presented, promoted by Triennale Milano and MAXXI National Museum of XXI Century Arts.

The topics of Milano Arch Week 2019: the relationship between man and nature and nature and architecture

The Milanese week of architecture will also provide the opportunity to open the debate and take stock of important issues. Starting from the question on “how to reestablish the disrupted relationship with Nature”, intended as a complex web of environmental, social, cultural and economic issues, in the current condition of global urbanization, to the comparison between generations of architects (and not only), who see the world and city from different points of view, (Vittorio Gregotti and Cino Zucchi, Cherubino Gambardella and Federica Verona, Edoardo Tresoldi and Studio Azzurro, etc.). Lifestyles change and so do living spaces: the digital city, the relationship between man and nature and the relationship between nature and architecture, are among the main themes of the “talk” format of this edition, which will see Italian and international guests talk about the state of future architecture.

Sou Fujimoto, Milano Arch Week 2018 - photo by Gianluca Di Ioia

We could say “it doesn’t end here”, because Milano Arch Week, as well as spaces for lectures and meetings, also offers an intense program of workshops and a series of tours to discover the hidden corners of the city of Milan, from “Marmi Milanesi” to discover marble architectures to “Regeneration & the City”, a journey through the spaces and urban regeneration projects for Milan.

There will be numerous events facing important topics connected with urban regeneration, with the participation of the Fondazione Ordine degli Architetti di Milano [Foundation of the Council of Architects of Milan] in the series of meetings “Regenerating great Milan”, of the City Municipality and of FS Sistemi Urbani. This is the case of the public consultation on the masterplan “Climatic agents – Regeneration of the Farini and San Cristoforo railway stations” with OMA, Laboratorio Permanente, Philippe Rahm Architects, Vogt Landscape Architects, Ezio Micelli, Temporiuso, Arcadis and Net Engeneering.

Something similar will be done by the Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli with the new edition of “About a City – Rethinking Cities”, from May 23 to 26, where the goal is to rethink the role of cities in creating more inclusive and democratic forms of citizenship starting from three themes: borders, common good and culture.

Finally, three events will crown the week: “Storie Milanesi” with journeys to discover the houses of important personalities of the Milanese city, “Open! Studi Aperti” promoted by CNAPPC, where architecture firms will be open to the public, and “Open House Milano” that will allow access to sites that usually cannot be visited.

A packed schedule, rich in food for thought on the current and future condition of our cities and architecture, an open event for everyone to become aware of the challenges that impact the spaces of our life.

Triennale - photo by Gianluca Di Ioia

Milano Arch Week is organized thanks to the participation of important partners: Eni (Main Partner), Timberland, Consorzio Marmo Botticino, Earth Asia Design Group, Gaggenau, H3, GaiaGo e Driade.