Fuorisalone 2023: visit these usually inaccessible locations in Milan

It is one of the most grandiose Rococo palaces in Milan’s downtown, but even one the most hidden places, shielded by the imposing 1930s blocks of the East side of Piazza San Babila. It is famous for its two courtyards: monumental and surrounded by coupled columns the first; enriched by a small artificial cave the latter. It hosts, among other things, one of the three installations by MoscaPartners, as well as “Vibrations. The Voice of Matter,” cured by Migliore+Servetto for Neutra. The exhibition associates the monumentality of the palace’s halls with the preciousness of the stones and marbles by Neutra. Among the exhibited items, the projects by Mario Bellini Architects and Studiopiva stand out. 

Palazzo Orsini, a seventeenth century factory, house of the Orsini family and then historical headquarters of Armani, opens to the public for the first time at the 2023 Fuorisalone to present the new Armani Casa collection. Just like in other big downtown buildings, the exhibition extends into the court of honor and into certain selected monumental indoor spaces. An important piece is therefore added to the totality of the valuable private architecture of the city center that opens thanks to the Design Week.

Palazzo Isimbardi, a sixteenth century building that has been widely renovated and expanded – the last time by Giovanni Muzio at the end of the 1930s – is now the traditional venue of Loewe for the Fuorisalone. This year’s installation of the Spanish brand and of its creative director Jonathan Anderson is titled “Chairs,” as if it was an homage to one of the most classic objects of the Design Week. Entering from the street, the public walks through the court of honor and then through the hall at the ground floor in a second unit of the factory into a big garden, a fresh and quiet place, that seems to be far far away from the frenzy of the surrounding streets.

The building of the Circolo Filologico Milanese is a sober architecture of the early 1900s. It has a vague liberty atmosphere that characterizes a small widening on the narrow via Clerici, in a similar way to the Baroque Palazzo Clerici. Inside, the most spectacular and monumental space there is the double-height conference hall, surrounded by a continuous series of balconies and illuminated by a big skylight. This year as well, the Fuorisalone opens this hidden place for true connoisseurs with, for example, a site-specific façade installation designed by MoscaPartners.

The Magazzini Raccordati, the former warehouses that stretch along the back of the Stazione Centrale, are the most legendary and fascinating unused or underused spaces of Milan. An almost uninterrupted series of galleries with colossal barrel vaults line up under the tracks exiting the city’s central station. This site once hosted warehouses and various manufacturing-commercial activities. At this moment, it is “Dropcity. Center for Architecture and Design,” Andrea Caputo’s project sponsored by Nhood, that makes these places accessible for the Design Week, at least on the West side, along via Sammartini.

Even for the former slaughterhouse in via Molise, the strategic space for the transformation of a big portion of the city around the Porta Vittoria station, the Fuorisalone is an important moment of temporary opening, in view of the permanent redevelopment that this place will soon undergo. Alcova, the independent platform conceived by Valentina Ciuffi and Joseph Grima, focuses its installations, designed by more than a hundred exhibitors, on charming, run-down buildings. It could be one of the last chances to visit these spaces and architecture before they are demolished or deeply transformed. 

Among the Fuorisalone’s many trajectories of expansion, the clearest is that that extends the constellation of the event’s locations from the city center to more suburban neighborhoods. For the 2023 Fuorisalone, the Fondazione Rodolfo Ferrari opens for the first time the doors of LABÒ, a complex in the middle of Barone, consisting of four buildings that housed the pharmaceutical laboratories. Its spaces, that will charm you for both their technical and vintage charm, will host more than 40 exhibitors. 

A perfect match is that of the elite spaces of the Tennis Bonacossa, Milan historical tennis club, and the “Clay Court Club” installation designed by Cristina Celestino for the 2023 Fuorisalone. From the main entrance, which is usually inaccessible to non-members, the public will be able to visit the representative spaces of the beautiful building designed by Giovanni Muzio at the end of the 1920s. In the hall of honor, the circular corner room, and in the outdoor space facing the courts, the furniture and the old-style decoration of the club resonate with the contemporary notes introduced by Celestino.

That of the Istituto Marchiondi Spagliardi, a Brutalist masterpiece by Vittoriano Viganò, is one of the most anticipated openings of the 2023 Fuorisalone. The former reformatory, built at the end of the 1950s which is now in a long, deep state of neglect, is made accessible through the project “Reforming Futures” on the initiative of the City of Milan and thanks to a group of private and public actors, among which the Politecnico di Milano (Polytechnic University of Milan) and GAe Engineering. The visitors will be guided though some selected spaces of the building, where the Politecnico students’ proposals for its redevelopment are on exhibit among other things.

A landmark that people in Milan never learned to love, the tower that hosted the city offices in largo Treves 1, designed by Arrigo Arrighetti, will be demolished soon. For its last year of life, and only for the Fuorisalone, the building will be lit by the installation “Dry Days, Tropical Nights” by Glo for Art with Agostino Iacurci. The crucial element of this project is color, which from the facade expands into the now empty indoor spaces, giving the building a spectacular exit from the Milan skyline.