MOLTENI MUSEUM
“THE MUSEUM IS A LIVING PLACE OF RESEARCH AND MEMORY, OF EXCHANGE AND DIALOGUE, A SPACE FOR ENCOUNTER.”
The mission of the Molteni Museum is to foster a deeper understanding of the Molteni Group within a space conceived for education, dialogue, inspiration, and reflection. The Museum is a living archive that evolves over time to reflect the identity of the brand in a curated environment where design and culture meet.
Through temporary exhibitions and immersive narrative paths, the Molteni Museum invites visitors to engage with more than 90 years of the company’s tradition and to become part of its story, celebrating past achievements and illuminating future possibilities. It is a place where every detail speaks to the timeless legacy of Italian design.
The Molteni Museum is associated with Museimpresa — the Italian Association of Corporate Museums and Archives, promoted by Assolombarda and Confindustria — as well as MuseoCity, an organization dedicated to the development of museum culture in Lombardy, and MUDE - Museo del Design Lombardo, a network of museums and archives dedicated to design.
( Architecture and Light )
The building that has housed the Molteni Museum since 2021 was constructed in the early 2000s: first as a photography studio, later as a showroom, and finally as a space for temporary exhibitions.
The transparency of the pavilion is one of the key architectural features enhanced by the project. The internal layout, based on orthogonal axes, suggests viewpoints and perspectives toward the exterior and creates movement and moments of surprise along the visitor’s path.
Solid corners, generated by the meeting of interior architectural surfaces, define the spatial configuration and volumetric proportions designed to display three-dimensional and large-scale objects or, as in the central gallery, two-dimensional works mounted on walls, such as graphics, posters, and photographic materials from the company’s history.
Light — a metaphor for the very idea of the museum — is the material from which this architecture is made. It enters through the perimeter glass façades and the central skylight, shaping spaces designed to receive natural light from multiple directions with generosity and uniformity.
A courtyard completes the rectangular plan: a garden formed by two walls which, thanks to a hidden projecting structure, appear to float above white gravel, never touching the ground.
The Origins
Molteni&C marks its 80th anniversary with Molteni 80!, an exhibition curated by Jasper Morrison at Milan’s Galleria d’Arte Moderna (GAM). A celebration of timeless design and innovation, the exhibition is later relocated to the top floor of the Giussano showroom maintaining the original curation — and the Molteni Museum is born.
This space, alongside the newly established Molteni Archive, preserves the Group’s creative legacy while acting as a catalyst for future innovation. Through iconic works such as Luca Meda’s Primafila and Werner Blaser’s MHC.1, the Museum traces the companies’ evolution across eight decades of Italian design excellence.
The Molteni Museum finds a new home within the iconic Glass Cube in 2021. This bold change of venue grants the Museum its own identity within the Molteni Compound, making it a dedicated cultural space intrinsically connected to the company’s industrial roots.
Curated by Ron Gilad, the inaugural exhibition reimagines the archive, organizing the collection by designer rather than brand. Molteni&C, UniFor, and Citterio — the Group’s three companies — are presented in dedicated sections, offering visitors an intimate experience of Molteni Group’s design legacy.
In 2023, the Molteni Museum enters a new phase of evolution. The central transept, originally designed for special installations, is redefined as a permanent venue for rotating exhibitions, serving to enrich the Museum's dynamic narrative. The inaugural temporary exhibition, Officina Mangiarotti @ Molteni Museum, explores the dialogue between architect and designer Angelo Mangiarotti and his work with Molteni Group.
With each temporary exhibition, the Museum opens new perspectives, inviting visitors to return, reflect, and rediscover the ever-evolving language of design.
In late 2023, the Molteni Museum expands its curatorial reach with Un Legno Geniale – Aldo Rossi e il Gruppo Molteni, a full-museum exhibition devoted to the work of Aldo Rossi. For the first time, the temporary installation extends across the entire Museum, blending Rossi’s original drawings with the furnishings he designed for Molteni&C and UniFor.
This exhibition marks a turning point by which temporary exhibitions become a guiding principle, transforming the Museum into a living space of continuous reinterpretation.
In 2025, the Molteni Museum marks a decade of cultural engagement with Museum 2D and the birth of the Molteni Theater, housed in the former QallaM space, signals a new chapter. The Museum will now host temporary exhibitions within set timeframes, each exploring diverse dimensions of the Molteni Group’s legacy while reinforcing its role as a dynamic cultural catalyst.
( The Archives of the Molteni Group )
The historical archives play a fundamental role in the Group’s cultural strategy, serving as a reference point for the preservation and promotion of corporate culture.
Living spaces dedicated to research, conservation, and the study of the cultural heritage of the Molteni&C Group, the historical archives of Molteni&C, UniFor, and Citterio are located respectively in Giussano, Turate, and Sirone.
Established starting in 2013, the archives carry out continuous and detailed work of surveying, cataloguing, and preserving historical documents. The story of the companies and their protagonists is entrusted to material traces that can be considered cultural assets — expressions of the ethical and aesthetic values of the enterprise, and of the capacity for innovation that is transmitted from the past to the present.