Zanuso and Mendini: Unexpected Connections at ADI Design Museum

The ADI Design Museum in Milan presents 'Marco Zanuso and Alessandro Mendini. Design e Architettura', an exhibition exploring the parallels and intersections between two giants of Italian design. Marco Zanuso (1916-2001) and Alessandro Mendini (1931-2019) are often seen as opposites: Zanuso, a rigorous modernist who pioneered industrial design in the 1950s-60s, and Mendini, a postmodern storyteller who emphasized narrative and relational value. The show, curated by Pierluigi Nicolin with Nina Bassoli, Gaia Piccarolo, and Maite García Sanchis, is organized into twelve thematic chapters—six for each designer—that visitors can navigate like a hypertext. It reveals lesser-known facets: Mendini's dialogue with modernism, including his intervention in Le Corbusier's Unité d'Habitation in Marseille, and Zanuso's engagement with radical architecture, ecology, and nomadic living, exemplified by his Fiat-Anic emergency housing capsule for MoMA's 1972 'Italy: The New Domestic Landscape' exhibition. Another highlight is Zanuso's unrealized 1980s solar-powered underground greenhouse for the Laboratorio Internazionale Napoli Sotterranea. The exhibition argues that Italian design history is a story of interpenetration between these two approaches—technical rigor and 'romanzatura dell'oggetto' (storytelling)—which find synthesis in contemporary design. The display is intentionally lightweight for easy disassembly and reuse. Two portraits by Roberto Sambonet close the show.