The Time Machine – The Museum of Alfa Romeo History of Arese

Defining “ The Time Machine – The Museum of Alfa Romeo History” just as a museum is simply reductive. The renovation and new exhibition installations by the Camerana&Partners studio transformed into a “brand centre” this historical museum in Varese dedicated to Alfa Romeo, opened in 1976 and designed by brothers Vito and Gustavo Latis.
This is an outstanding case history for Iris Ceramica Group, presented during the Mipim of Cannes in March 2017 with an exclusively developed product, Alfa Romeo Black by Fiandre. These are slabs with a size of 100x100 cm and a thickness of 6 mm faithfully reproducing the original flooring installed in the 1960s in the building in Arese. They have all the advantages of a high quality porcelain stoneware, and are made using the Maximum Fiandre Extralite®technology, ensuring an unalterable state over time and high resistance to chemicals, abrasion etc.

The project by Camerana&Partners, preserved the layout of the building, but included new functions, symbols of the contemporary world. An example of this is the new construction erected in the original building, painted in new Alfa red, and clearly visible from the motorway. The colour, a symbol of the brand, stops being an urban landmark to become a welcoming sign, guiding people from the car park to the exhibition where it becomes, once again, the staircase building we can see from the motorway.
Today, the historic museum is complete with a bookshop, a café, a documentation centre, test roadways, areas for events and show-rooms. The exhibition installations by Camerana&Partners do not fail to highlight the identity of the brand, whose DNA is symbolically represented by a light installation: a helical element comprising lights, words and signs, inserted into an ideal transparent volume. The installation vertically crosses the entire building, and links the three museum floors, representing the brand principles: timeline, intended as industrial continuity; beauty merging style and design, and speed, as a synthesis of technology and lightness.

(Agnese Bifulco)

Renovation and new exhibition installations: Camerana&Partners
Location: Arese (MI), Italy
Images courtesy of Museo Alfa Romeo

www.museoalfaromeo.com
www.irisceramicagroup.com
www.granitifiandre.it

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