MILAN – In early December 2021, Triennale Milano, an art and design museum in northern Italy, opened the Sala Sottsass on the first floor of the Palazzo dell’Arte. The Sala Sottsass contains the reconstruction and permanent display of an interior of the Casa Lana, a private residence designed by Ettore Sottsass in the mid-1960s in Milan. It is now accessible to the public thanks to a donation by Barbara Radice Sottsass.

A series of exhibitions and events, highlighting different aspects of the great master’s works and ideas, are being put on around the permanent display of the Casa Lana.

Alongside the various exhibitions, a number of targeted donations will form the core of an important collection of works by the architect Ettore Sottsass Jr. in the permanent collection of Triennale Milano.

Stefano Boeri, president of Triennale Milano, said, “Triennale Milano is giving the world a wonderful surprise: the faithful reconstruction of a part of Ettore Sottsass’s Casa Lana, a ‘room within a room’ that Triennale has dismantled and reassembled exactly as it was, thanks to the assistance of Iskra Grisogono of Studio Sottsass and to conversations with the family of the original owner. Milan is now home to an authentic time machine, created by one of the international geniuses of the twentieth century.”

The central area of the Casa Lana, on display at Triennale, consists of a wooden structure with sofas arranged in such a way as to form a protected place to sit and chat or listen to music, while the space around it can be used for various activities and purposes. The spaces are optimized because, by eliminating the corridors, “a little piazza is created, where one can move and meet,” as Ettore Sottsass himself described it (Domus, 1967).

The layout of the Sala Sottsass and its faithful reconstruction are the outcome of a meticulous study by the Triennale Milano archive and restoration center, which saw the participation of Luca Cipelletti, who oversaw the reconstruction in the central space on the first floor of Triennale.

The display is accompanied by a series of exhibitions curated by Marco Sammicheli with installation design and graphics by Christoph Radl.

Visit the (Italian-language only) website of the Triennale Milano and see its dedicated page for the Sala Sottsass permanent display.