Nanda Vigo, Enzo Mari, Vittorio Gregotti: QT8 welcomes the new heart of design

Starting October 1, Milan brings back an important piece of its design story: the former QT8 market, a masterpiece by Piero Bottoni created for the 1947 Triennale, reopens after a long restoration and becomes the new home of CASVA. This isn’t just about saving a building, but about giving new life and visibility to a one-of-a-kind heritage: the archives of over 40 architects, designers and graphic artists – including Enzo Mari, Nanda Vigo, Vittorio Gregotti, Luciano Baldessari – and even the concrete model of the iconic Joe glove armchair by De Pas, D’Urbino and Lomazzi.


Former QT8 municipal market: project by Piero Bottoni

Until now, CASVA’s collection was scattered between Fabbrica del Vapore, the storerooms of Castello Sforzesco, and private homes. Now, with 3,000 square meters restored in QT8, it finally has one big, functional, and open space for everyone. The project – supported by the Municipality with about 9 million euros and developed together with DAStU (Dipartimento di Architettura e Studi Urbani at Politecnico) and the Triennale Foundation – respected the original spirit of the building while adapting it to today: classrooms and community spaces, a bookshop, a café with a terrace over the park, and a 500-square-meter multipurpose hall for exhibitions and conferences on the ground floor; in the basement, the beating heart of the center with archives and storage, now enriched by the collections of Carla De Benedetti and Nanda Vigo, which also highlight the role of women in Italian design.



The new CASVA is more than a cultural project – it’s also urban and social. QT8 – a modern neighborhood born from the ruins of WWII to house displaced families and imagine a new Milan – now welcomes a cultural hub that mixes memory and future, research and community. With the opening of CASVA, the city adds a new chapter to its identity as a capital of design and architecture – a place where the archives of the past become living material for the future.