The Milan Arch Week looks at weak architecture

It will develop around the idea of weak architecture, of an architecture that listens to the needs and expectations of citizens, that dialogues with the territory and its inhabitants: from 20 to 26 May, the sixth edition of the Milan Arch Week, week dedicated to architecture, urban transformations and the future of cities, will be in thematic continuity with the previous one which, spread across the territory, dealt with the suburbs.


Milano Arch Week 2023, Al Lavio Condominio

The objective of Milan Arch Week 2024 is to become a moment of social and cultural reactivation of the city's energies to thoroughly investigate the enabling power of architecture. Implicit homage to two recently deceased masters, Gianni Vattimo, philosopher of weak Thought, and Andrea Branzi, designer of a weak and widespread Modernity, Milan Arch Week 2024 wants to investigate the possibilities present in that "infinite set of 'little things'" that it's the city. By gently questioning its fragilities, perspectives will emerge for looking at the city and cities with new eyes. The active voices of new communities will be listened to, the original paths traced by exceptional guides will be followed, subverting the point of view in the face of more consolidated realities. To reflect on these themes, international architects and designers, emerging studios and professionals, urban planners and landscape architects were invited, including Lina Ghotmeh, Christian Kerez, Boonserm Premthada, Peris+Toral Arquitectes, Alessandro Petti and Sandi Hilal, the Flores y Prats studio, Francisco Alonso.



Milano Arch Week 2023, Visita guidata al progetto ARIA Ex Macello. Ph. Gianluca Di Ioia

After the excellent response in 2023, this year too Milan Arch Week has launched a call to activate all the neighborhoods of the city through varied, plural and shared programming. Institutions, associations, local entities, cooperatives, citizens, foundations, researchers, artists, professionals, student groups and design studios joined the call and proposed a reflection on the themes of the event. The call represented an important platform for reconnaissance of the activities present in the area and for listening to the interests of the city's inhabitants: from social housing to abandoned buildings, to the reactivation of disused spaces; from social inclusion to the representation of the different communities present in the city of Milan. There are over 80 events selected through the call, which take place in 46 locations throughout the city: schools, theatres, associations, libraries, neighborhood gardens, churches, municipalities in the metropolitan area. A network of places that reaches from the center to the outermost neighborhoods. The event thus opens up to dialogue with the various institutions and neighborhoods of the city, involving local activities and initiatives and recounting the polycentric, complex and vital nature of Milan. New to this edition is the As strong as you can format, imagined as a sequence of stories, which brings together projects and research by young voices that highlight how contemporary practice is a plural horizon, where fragility and weakness redefine the perspectives and boundaries of 'architecture.

Over the course of Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th May there will be a succession of speed talks of around 30 minutes each, with designers and studios including: Gia Mussi, Tenet, Studio Ser, La Revolution delle Seppie, Atelier Fanelsa, Elena Barthel , Zattere + Riccardo Orsini, Orizzontale, Oasi, Ecòl, Frantoio sociale, HPO, Zarcola, Linearama, Captcha, Abnormal. During the evenings of 23, 24, 25 and 26 May at the Triennale, after the lectures, screenings and talks are scheduled in the Giancarlo De Carlo Garden, including Bamboo Dialogues, the film Big Ears Listen with Feet by Beka & Lemoine, the film by Elettra Fiumi Radical Landscapes, the documentary by Francesca Molteni Green Over Gray on Emilio Ambasz. A tribute to Andrea Branzi is also planned, through the screening of a selection of films by and with the recently deceased architect. Furthermore, during Milan Arch Week the exhibition Gae Aulenti (1927-2012) opens at the Triennale, one of the most important retrospectives on the architect's work and life.

The main locations of the Arch Week will be the Polytechnic University of Milan and Triennale Milano and will host working tables, talks, lectures and workshops.