The flow of ideas is embodied in the Giovanni Sacchi Archive. Giovanni Sacchi is one of the most famous Italian model makers in the fields of design and architecture. From 1948, he collaborated with leading Italian designers – including Achille Castiglioni, Marcello Nizzoli, Aldo Rossi, Ettore Sottsass and Marco Zanuso – becoming the ideal partner for translating their design ideas into three-dimensional models. In 1998, he was awarded the Compasso d’Oro Career Award and after closing his business, he continued to incessantly promote the contribution of model-making in project development. In his honour, part of his modelling workshop has been refurbished and an archive has been set up, conserving over 400 models, prototypes and workpieces of design objects and architectural projects, 8000 drawings, 110 products, more than 10 thousand images and videos, hundreds of documents and numerous machines and tools for mechanical processing and woodworking.
Design Week 2019 will feature the “In principio era la matita” (In the beginning there was the pencil) exhibition, which pays tribute to past designers, encouraging future designers not to abandon the pencil. It is an opportunity to rediscover the extraordinary heritage of sketches, technical drawings, author’s proofs, working drawings, notes and visual notes by designers such as Ettore Sottsass, Philippe Starck, Bruno Munari and Arnaldo Pomodoro, created during the product creation process. These drawings are usually kept in the archives of design museums, such as MUMAC, which not only contains a copy of the first bar coffee machine ever created, but also the drawing of the original design.
One of the best examples of project development relates to the espresso world: the first bar coffee machine was created as a project, became a patent and ended as a prototype. On 30th June 1884, Turin resident Angelo Moriondo registered a completely new way to enjoy coffee, which was turned from infusion to espresso.
At the new Circuito exhibition, which will be held in the spaces of the Archive during Milan Design Week 2019, a copy of the original design will be presented to enhance the project’s importance, giving people the opportunity to admire the work completed in a context in which they can witness its evolution. The “circuit” can be experienced from 10th to 13th April at the Giovanni Sacchi Archive, starting with the technical drawings and then discovering the Moriondo, in the halls of MUMAC, on Sunday 14th April.
