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Architecture and design: the exhibitions to visit in 2024

From retrospectives dedicated to Mendini and Mari to science fiction design, from Aalto family projects to exhibitions that combine architecture and social commitment, here are all the must-see events of the year.

1. Triennale di Milano, Io sono un Drago. La vera storia di Alessandro Mendini From the collaboration between the Milan Triennale and the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain in Paris comes the extensive retrospective dedicated to the work of Alessandro Mendini, the architect, designer, artist and theorist who marked the revolutions in thought and costume of the old century and the new millennium. The title of the exhibition – curated by historian Fulvio Irace – I am a Dragon takes its cue from one of his most emblematic self-portraits to emphasize the uniqueness of his figure in the world of design. The exhibition is divided into thematic nuclei and brings together works of different formats, materials and subjects, works from numerous public and private collections, and involves voices from around the world.

April 13 through October 13, 2024

2. Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine, Paul Andreu. L’architecture est un art The halls of the Parisian foundation will be occupied by an exhibition devoted entirely to the architecture of Paul Andreu, is one of the protagonists of the international architectural scene of the second half of the 20th century. From Roissy to Beijing, Paul Andreu's projects are first and foremost crossings that mobilize fundamental principles: the earth and the sky, the square and the circle, the West and the East. From airports to the Osaka Maritime Museum and the Beijing Opera House, Paul Andreu has given architectural expression to flight, whether real or poetic.

From February 14 to June 2, 2024

3. Design Museum, Enzo Mari Curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Francesca Giacomelli, this major exhibition will celebrate the life and work of one of the greatest Italian designers of the 20th century, Enzo Mari, whose designs have inspired generations of creatives around the world. This retrospective, which debuted at the Milan Triennale in 2020, will trace Mari's 60-year career and bring together hundreds of his designs, ranging from furniture, books and children's toys to product and graphic design to more conceptual installation-based works.

From March 29 to September 8, 2024

4. MAXXI, Aalto: Aino Alvar Elissa Curated by Space Caviar, MAXXI will open its doors to an exhibition dedicated to Aalto's design practice. The exhibition presents 11 projects created by the Aalto studio over the span of its entire professional activity, in an experimental layout that helps offer visitors different keys to understanding the firm's work.

Through May 26, 2024

5. MoMA, Crafting Modernity: Design in Latin America The exhibition presents these sometimes contrasting visions of modernity proposed by designers of domestic environments in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela between 1940 and 1980. Here, objects such as furniture, appliances, posters, textiles and ceramics, as well as a selection of photographs and paintings, will explore the tensions between craft and industrial process.

From March 8 to September 22, 2024

6. Vitra Design Museum, Science Fiction Design: From Space Age to Metaverse The annual presentation at Vitra Schaudepot is dedicated to the vision of a new world and crosses a bridge from the furniture of early science fiction films to design for virtual spaces. Revolutionary design objects from the Vitra Design Museum's collection show how technical innovations and design utopias have become part of our daily lives and directly shaped our everyday world.

From May 18, 2024 to May 11, 2025

7. Nasjonalmuseet, Hand and Machine Architectural drawings The exhibition explores the relationship between the architect and hand drawing through a selection of drawings and installations. The earliest works on display date from the time of the global financial crisis of 2008. Following this upheaval, a younger generation of architects began to work more locally, collectively and less commercially. The most recent designs in the exhibition are by architects who were making a name for themselves during the crown pandemic.

Through March 31, 2024

8. Triennale di Milano, Inga Sempé. La casa imperfetta Curated by Marco Sammicheli, the Milan museum will present a survey dedicated to the French designer. The exhibition presents Sempé's recent work to the public and showcases projects, objects, and drawings in a domestic scenario designed by Studio A/C together with Inga Sempé. A scaled house that aims to convey to the visitor the curious mechanics and colorful functionality of Sempé's design.

April through September 2024

9. CIVA, Research in Residence #2 : Anna Puigjaner/Maio Louis Herman De Koninck’s iconic CUBEX kitchen system began to be commercialized in 1931, spreading modern cooking principles in Belgium for decades. The exhibition Unworlding CUBEX critically revisits the original design, hypothesizing potential new forms of kinship and domestic work. Anna Puigjaner (MAIO) is the second researcher to re-expose CIVA’s collections through the Research in Residence program, following her research Kitchenless Cities, in which the elimination of the kitchen from the home allows for the domestication of the urban sphere.

Through April 28, 2024

10. CCA, Groundwork Groundwork is a three-part film and exhibition series curated by the Canadian Centre for Architecture that explores the conceptual development and field research of contemporary architects cultivating alternative ways of engaging with the sites of new projects. The research will follow Xu Tiantian on Meizhou Island, off the coast of China, where he is creating a series of interventions as “architectural acupuncture” to mediate between the pressures of heritage and tourism and marine ecology. A second episode follows Carla Juaçaba in the heart of Minas Gerais, Brazil, where she is developing pavilions in a coffee field, minimal support structures in an area with collectives resisting extractive industrial agriculture. Finally, the series closes with the work of b+, which is organizing a European citizens' initiative to shift culture and legislation toward the preservation and rehabilitation of the existing built heritage. From May 7, 2024 to June 5, 2025

11. MoMA, Life Cycles. The Materials of Contemporary Design Organized by Paola Antonelli and Maya Ellerkmann, the exhibition explores the regenerative power of design as it moves toward a more collaborative relationship with the natural world. The objects on display highlight the entire life cycle of the materials from which they are made. From extraction to reuse or disposal, designers are exploring new ways – sometimes drawing on old traditions – to enlist materials in their efforts to bring ecosystems into balance.

Through July 7, 2024.

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As the year comes to a close, museums and cultural institutions around the world releasing their calendars of events and exhibitions for the coming months. Below, we present a list of the best exhibition projects around the world that you should not miss. In Milan, Triennale opens its doors to a retrospective dedicated to the master Alessandro Mendini, architect, designer, artist and theorist, and former Domus editor, who marked the revolutions in thought and costume of the old century and the new millennium. In Rome, MAXXI opens an exhibition dedicated to Aalto, curated by Space Caviar, presenting 11 projects created by the studio.

MoMA will explore the collaborative relationship between design and nature in an exhibition organized by Paola Antonelli in New York, while the CCA is presenting a series of three films exploring the conceptual development and field research of contemporary architects. And there is more: scroll through the gallery to discover the most interesting cultural offerings of the new year.

1. Triennale di Milano, Io sono un Drago. La vera storia di Alessandro Mendini

From the collaboration between the Milan Triennale and the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain in Paris comes the extensive retrospective dedicated to the work of Alessandro Mendini, the architect, designer, artist and theorist who marked the revolutions in thought and costume of the old century and the new millennium. The title of the exhibition – curated by historian Fulvio Irace – I am a Dragon takes its cue from one of his most emblematic self-portraits to emphasize the uniqueness of his figure in the world of design. The exhibition is divided into thematic nuclei and brings together works of different formats, materials and subjects, works from numerous public and private collections, and involves voices from around the world.

April 13 through October 13, 2024

2. Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine, Paul Andreu. L’architecture est un art

The halls of the Parisian foundation will be occupied by an exhibition devoted entirely to the architecture of Paul Andreu, is one of the protagonists of the international architectural scene of the second half of the 20th century. From Roissy to Beijing, Paul Andreu's projects are first and foremost crossings that mobilize fundamental principles: the earth and the sky, the square and the circle, the West and the East. From airports to the Osaka Maritime Museum and the Beijing Opera House, Paul Andreu has given architectural expression to flight, whether real or poetic.

From February 14 to June 2, 2024

3. Design Museum, Enzo Mari

Curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Francesca Giacomelli, this major exhibition will celebrate the life and work of one of the greatest Italian designers of the 20th century, Enzo Mari, whose designs have inspired generations of creatives around the world. This retrospective, which debuted at the Milan Triennale in 2020, will trace Mari's 60-year career and bring together hundreds of his designs, ranging from furniture, books and children's toys to product and graphic design to more conceptual installation-based works.

From March 29 to September 8, 2024

4. MAXXI, Aalto: Aino Alvar Elissa

Curated by Space Caviar, MAXXI will open its doors to an exhibition dedicated to Aalto's design practice. The exhibition presents 11 projects created by the Aalto studio over the span of its entire professional activity, in an experimental layout that helps offer visitors different keys to understanding the firm's work.

Through May 26, 2024

5. MoMA, Crafting Modernity: Design in Latin America

The exhibition presents these sometimes contrasting visions of modernity proposed by designers of domestic environments in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela between 1940 and 1980. Here, objects such as furniture, appliances, posters, textiles and ceramics, as well as a selection of photographs and paintings, will explore the tensions between craft and industrial process.

From March 8 to September 22, 2024

6. Vitra Design Museum, Science Fiction Design: From Space Age to Metaverse

The annual presentation at Vitra Schaudepot is dedicated to the vision of a new world and crosses a bridge from the furniture of early science fiction films to design for virtual spaces. Revolutionary design objects from the Vitra Design Museum's collection show how technical innovations and design utopias have become part of our daily lives and directly shaped our everyday world.

From May 18, 2024 to May 11, 2025

7. Nasjonalmuseet, Hand and Machine Architectural drawings

The exhibition explores the relationship between the architect and hand drawing through a selection of drawings and installations. The earliest works on display date from the time of the global financial crisis of 2008. Following this upheaval, a younger generation of architects began to work more locally, collectively and less commercially. The most recent designs in the exhibition are by architects who were making a name for themselves during the crown pandemic.

Through March 31, 2024

8. Triennale di Milano, Inga Sempé. La casa imperfetta

Curated by Marco Sammicheli, the Milan museum will present a survey dedicated to the French designer. The exhibition presents Sempé's recent work to the public and showcases projects, objects, and drawings in a domestic scenario designed by Studio A/C together with Inga Sempé. A scaled house that aims to convey to the visitor the curious mechanics and colorful functionality of Sempé's design.

April through September 2024

9. CIVA, Research in Residence #2 : Anna Puigjaner/Maio

Louis Herman De Koninck’s iconic CUBEX kitchen system began to be commercialized in 1931, spreading modern cooking principles in Belgium for decades. The exhibition Unworlding CUBEX critically revisits the original design, hypothesizing potential new forms of kinship and domestic work. Anna Puigjaner (MAIO) is the second researcher to re-expose CIVA’s collections through the Research in Residence program, following her research Kitchenless Cities, in which the elimination of the kitchen from the home allows for the domestication of the urban sphere.

Through April 28, 2024

10. CCA, Groundwork

Groundwork is a three-part film and exhibition series curated by the Canadian Centre for Architecture that explores the conceptual development and field research of contemporary architects cultivating alternative ways of engaging with the sites of new projects. The research will follow Xu Tiantian on Meizhou Island, off the coast of China, where he is creating a series of interventions as “architectural acupuncture” to mediate between the pressures of heritage and tourism and marine ecology. A second episode follows Carla Juaçaba in the heart of Minas Gerais, Brazil, where she is developing pavilions in a coffee field, minimal support structures in an area with collectives resisting extractive industrial agriculture. Finally, the series closes with the work of b+, which is organizing a European citizens' initiative to shift culture and legislation toward the preservation and rehabilitation of the existing built heritage. From May 7, 2024 to June 5, 2025

11. MoMA, Life Cycles. The Materials of Contemporary Design

Organized by Paola Antonelli and Maya Ellerkmann, the exhibition explores the regenerative power of design as it moves toward a more collaborative relationship with the natural world. The objects on display highlight the entire life cycle of the materials from which they are made. From extraction to reuse or disposal, designers are exploring new ways – sometimes drawing on old traditions – to enlist materials in their efforts to bring ecosystems into balance.

Through July 7, 2024.

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