A few days ago, the ambitious new project for a research centre for Architecture and Design was presented in Milan, which will see the conversion of the Magazzini Raccordati spaces. The initiative was born from an idea of architect Andrea Caputo back in 2018 with the aim of establishing a place of aggregation and debate on Architecture, Design and the contemporary city.

Redesigning the spaces along Via Sammartini contained by the Central Station, the project envisages the use of over 10,000 square metres, divided into 28 tunnels. The programme is currently divided into exhibition galleries, production ateliers, carpentry, robotics and advanced prototyping laboratories, as well as an additional area dedicated to research, teaching and office space for professionals in the sector for a total of approximately 400 workstations. Completing the project – scheduled to be inaugurated during spring 2024 – are a materials library and a public library, focusing on Architecture and Design topics.

With a total of 3,500 graduate students in architecture per year, Milan is home to more than 12,000 architects, with a very high territorial density. Dropcity stems precisely from the desire to systemise this apparently “supernumerary” potential, to create a new fertile ground, capable of rethinking a new neighbourhood model: a place dedicated to the culture of the project, where to create opportunities for new generations of researchers, curators, designers.

Entitled “Dropcity Mockups”, Angela Rui – curator and researcher for design – with Anna Paola Buonanno – designer, editor and co-founder of the From outer Space studio – will instead present a rich public programme inviting thinkers, publishers, authors, architects and designers to come together and imagine what kind of cultural prototype the new centre will embody. By raising topical issues related to the profession and education, social and ecological practices, and the transformation of cultural institutions into catalysts for inclusion and social justice, the week itself thus aspires to become a mock-up of the spirit and creative climate that will characterise Dropcity.