Design school Istituto Europeo di Design presents an exhibition of multidisciplinary student projects as part of Milan design week 2023.

The exhibition titled Ecocentrico forms part of the Alcova design fair and includes multimedia installations and workshops, which address the topics of urban regeneration and memory.

 

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This year's Alcova fair takes place in the neighbourhood of Porta Vittoria – the former butcher's district of Milan – and many of the student projects use local materials recovered from the area and engage with the history of the site.

This is the result of the workshop Studi Visuali Urbani in which students presented individual installations through video, photography, sound, drawing, graphics, fashion and objects collected in the former Butchery.

One of the seven workshops taking place is Fluid Shapes by Mauro del Santo, which uses soap bubbles to explore ideas around complexity and harmony. Participants are invited to play with the material properties of the bubbles and discover "different ways of making".

The workshop is held inside a gold geometric dome, which references the architecture of traditional steppe nomad yurts. A second silver yurt acts as a workshop and exhibition space for students' work.

One of the projects featured in the exhibition is 1/1000 – Bangs of Life by Paola Riviezzo, which is informed by Alcova's history as a site traditionally used for animal slaughter.

1/1000 – Bangs of Life includes organic packages made from soil and seeds called "life bombs", which aim to counteract the number of animals killed with "new life".

As part of the project, visitors can take home digital formulas and instructions on how to re-create their own life bombs at home through QR codes.

Other projects exhibited make use of projections, audio and found objects to reflect on urban regeneration.

Throughout Ecocentrico's runtime, IED's student collective called Fanzine will record the events taking place, through photography and video.

After the fair is complete, the former butchery in which the exhibition takes place will be converted into a new IED International Campus.

IED is a design school based in Italy, with nine international campuses situated across major Italian cities, Spain and Brazil. The school was founded in 1966 by Francesco Morelli.

Milan design week 2023

Econcentrico takes place as part of Milan design week  from 17 to 23 April 2023, at Via Molise 62, 20137 Milan, Italy. See our Milan design week 2023 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

Partnership content

This video was produced by Dezeen for IED as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen's partnership content here.