Ventura Lambrate

The Milan Design Week is the most important and renowned design event in the world; for more than 50 years, this event has announced the start of the new design year internationally. Every April, the official fair ‘Salone del Mobile’ and all associated events (with the overarching title ‘FuoriSalone’) occupy the center and reach out into the neighbourhoods of Milan, transforming the city into a hub of creativity. Each year, hundreds of thousands of visitors head to Milan to discover the newest designs, to scout fledgling talent, to obtain fruitful inspirations and to do business.

Within this exciting frame, Organisation in Design made the conscious decision to create a new and completely curated exhibition district called Ventura Lambrate. The project started in 2010 and quickly grew to become a cutting-edge design district with internationally acclaimed creatives, never-before-seen niche projects and extraordinary pop-up restaurants. Since 5 years, a selection of international debuting and established designers, academies, institutions, companies and labels have the opportunity to present their creations here, in a coherent design circuit to the large, influential and professional audience of the Milan Design Week.

With every edition Ventura Lambrate is shaped by its continuous focus on the essence of design and on designers’ growing capacity to expand their boundaries to research, self-production, performances and other fields such as health-care and science. Exhibitions coming from all around the globe run through each other at the individual spaces and the clustered theme-furnished locations in and around the streets of ‘Lambrate’, a vibrant transitional area between urban and industrial in the northeast of Milan.

The Ventura Projects are curated exhibition areas dedicated to present international designers, design studios, design labels and brands, design institutions and galleries. Each Ventura Project presents a coherency of carefully selected exhibitions, temporary initiatives, as well as special projects, creative restaurants, etc. The Ventura Projects attract a large professional and influential audience consisting of journalist, photographers, bloggers, cultural institutions, curators and representatives from the corporate world.

The first Ventura Project originated in 2009, when – after 10 years of experience in scouting design talents and organising exhibitions in Milan – Organisation in Design met the architect and cultural entrepreneur Mariano Pichler, who was working on a major requalification project to regenerate the post-industrial borough “Lambrate” in Milan. Starting from the charming atmosphere of the Lambrate district and the desire to create a never-before-seen area during Milan’s prestigious Design Week, Organisation in Design launched the Ventura Lambrate show.

After Ventura Lambrate’s successful first and second edition, the Ventura Projects have expanded into established exhibitory circuits: the annual editions of Ventura Lambrate, the biennial Ventura Interieur and the special edition of Ventura Berlin. Every edition is committed to present the most interesting expressions of contemporary design, with a particular eye on:

•  emerging trends and talents
•  debuting and established creatives
•  top quality and innovative design labels
•  new processes and production methods
•  conceptual and niche projects

Organisation

The Ventura Projects are initiated and produced by Organisation in Design, a studio specialised in managing a broad spectrum of design related activities. Organisation in Design conceived the Ventura Projects format basing on its profound knowledge of designers’ needs, on its accurate way of selecting and organising and on its capability to connect designers with companies, press and buyers in the right business situations.

Established in 2005, Organisation in Design is run by Margriet Vollenberg and Margo Konings, curators of the Ventura Projects. Beside these Ventura Projects, the studio also takes care of different projects in order to diffuse the design culture, promote its talents and make business happen. With the help of an international staff mainly based in the Netherlands, in Italy and in Sweden, Margriet and Margo provide PR; intermediation; special projects and consultancy for and on behalf of several design studios, creative labels, institutions, and fairs.

The main goal of Organisation in Design is to present challenging, highly substantive design projects and to strategically assist talented designers in order to help them communicate and promote their pioneering creations and business. Over the years, Organisation in Design has conducted works that span the planet from Italy, Belgium, France, Netherlands, Germany, Slovenia to US and Japan. To know more about Organisation in Design, visit www.organisationindesign.com.