MUSEUM MUMAC BY ARKISPAZIO

MuMAC, Museum of Coffee Machine, was designed by Paolo Balzanelli owner of Arkispazio and Valerio Cometti founder of Valerio Cometti+V12 Design in order to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Cimbali Group, the most important pofessional coffee machine manufacturer in the world, through its legendary brands LaCimbali and Faema.

MuMAC lies within the establishment of the Cimbali Group a few miles South of Milan. The core of the new architecture is a building previously used as a warehouse, within which are located both the exposition area and a versatile open space suitable for events and exhibitions to the culture of coffee. MuMAC narrates a story that spans across 100 years, recounting the history of this extraordinary objects within its 1,800 square meters.

Both facades of the museum have been rendered with a delicate nonetheless technological technique: “LaCimbali red” slats of a composite material create a sinuous embrace that has been inspired by the flow of the aroma lifting off a coffee cup and at night a carefully designed illumination creates a strikingly backlit grid of light that evokes the energy living inside MuMAC.

Visitors of Mumac, access via a new entrance: a coffee-colored wall identifies clearly such opening. The internal garden is limited by this coffee-coloured wall that is marked by nine trees which divide it into 10 equal spaces: ten decades of the century that symbolize the life and the achievements of Cimbali Group.

The museum area offers an exposition divided into six historical periods from the beginning of the century to the present day: The early years, The age of Rationalism, Invention of the lever, Under the banners of design, The International dimension and The New Millennium.

Area called The early years is characterized by a suspended ceiling and posters from Art Deco period. Exhibition of The age of Rationalism include a severe fascist colonnade and strict grid of orthogonal lines identifies the layout of the marble display stands.

In the area dedicated to the culture of the 50s and 60s we can find a reconstruction of a bar and an entirely cantilevered structure, that supports the machines of the period where thanks to cleverly positioned mirrors, visitors can enjoy both sides of these wonderful machines.

Under the banners of design is characterised by a collection of design masterpieces of the late ’60s and ’70s: great Masters of design have penned coffee machines in these decades, therefore these machine are actual design icons.

The New Millennium is where the display stands are coated in white resin and they smoothly emerge from the floor equally coated in white resin: this area portrays the most modern machines, those designed for an increasingly fast society. This room has a full height red volume, which is visible from any angle of the museum.

Within this volume is visible an installation of the new LaCimbali M100 coffee machine designed by Valerio Cometti+V12 Design: a daring exploded view that allows to grasp the technological content and the level of complexity of such machine, becoming an invitation to reflect on the extraordinary journey that the coffee machine has made during these last hundred years.

 

 

Location: Milan, Italy 
Architects: Arkispazio 
Project Team: Karolina Kolodziej, Massimo Lapenna, Roberto Lamanna 
Structural Engineering: Francesco Terreni 
Mep Engineering: Antonio Bozino 
Head Designers: Paolo Balzanelli, Valerio Cometti 
Area: 1,800 sqm 
Year: 2012 
Client: Gruppo Cimbali 
Photography: Angelo Margutti & Associati 
Software used: Autocad and 3d Studio Max