Albergo Diurno Venezia

At Milan Design Week (and miart) one of the places most acclaimed by specialists and the public was the Albergo Diurno Venezia underneath Piazza Oberdan, opened with the support of FAI. #MDW2016

If Design Week is an opportunity to rediscover those buildings, courtyards and passageways in Milan that for all the rest of the year we hurry by distractedly, then the FAI – the Fondo per l’Ambiente italiano (Italy’s National Trust) – provides the means of discovery. They are not afraid to get their hands dirty: the FAI does not just work to identify these places and then arrange with the city authorities to reopen them to the public, but its volunteers are the first to take up broom and sponge to clean them and make them presentable – so when you join one of their extraordinary guided tours (like a Dante led by an enthusiastic Virgil), they ask you to excuse any mess you might encounter.

In 2016, one of the places most acclaimed by specialists and the general public was the Albergo Diurno Venezia underneath Piazza Oberdan. This travellers’ service centre opened exactly ninety years ago; it was closed to the public in 2006 after decades of neglect and was reopened for Milan Design Week. The “daytime hotel” (albergo diurno) was an unusual type of establishment, no longer found today. Paradoxically, the same force that was behind its development also led to its extinction – hygiene. The idea started in Britain and then spread throughout Europe (in Milan the other example is the former Cobianchi in Galleria, from 1921), prompted by an understanding of the benefits of a lifestyle of personal cleanliness. In the busiest centres, these facilities offered public baths, spas, barber shops, manicures and places to buy toiletries, as well as – one of the services maintained until around 2000 – a ticket office: the Diurno’s current entrance is via the Porta Venezia underground station.

From the time it opened and then for long afterwards, Porta Venezia was, in effect, the equivalent of today’s Piazza del Duomo, a second centre for Milan. It was a hugely lively area surrounded by places to meet, businesses and social life; the central station, which rose up close by, was a transit station, while trams left for Monza from Piazza Oberdan. The Albergo Diurno Venezia should be imagined then as a major crossroads bustling with people from different places, but also as a place where the residents of the area who did not have bathrooms in their houses could find those facilities, as well as a place to rest and relax – a little like the spa of today. What you paid depended on how long you spent (there are still the small lights near the ceiling in the rooms showing how much time you had left) and the services you used. It is clear from this why they fell out of use: over time, houses began to provide internal bathrooms, while outside the home large swimming pools were built – the 100-metre Diana (the well-known hotel now occupies the site), and later the Cozzi, which opened in 1934. Then there were improvements in hygiene. As the average level went up, the services offered by the Diurno lost ground; both inside and outside, the baths were no longer able to support the sophisticated levels of hygiene that were being attained.

It was precisely because of the dirt and the dust that ended up outside, through the two columns that still dominate the empty piazza, that the residents of the area petitioned the city authorities in court for the baths to be closed. The litigation led also to the loss of all the designs for the space by the architect Piero Portaluppi, which were brought to the tribunal. We owe the attribution to him of the designs for the interior of the Diurno to the recovery of the notes for the hours of work and the fees owning for it, as well as, of course, details of the design suggesting it was his work. As it appears now, the space retains a moving charm, thanks to the nearly intact Art Deco furnishings, and the elegant, sophisticated finishings and the decorations, which differ in each bathroom.

The FAI is investigating how best to conserve this incredibly evocative place. During the Salone del Mobile, harmonising completely with this atmosphere to protect, an exhibition project at the Diurno saw the involvement of the three important organisations working to support areas of Italian excellence and promote new craft skills: the Creative Academy (a school begun in 2003 by the Richemont group), the Fondazione Cologni (a not-for-profit institution that promotes the spread of artistic trades) and Eligo (a new brand promoting historic Italian production, leveraged on the experience of Segno Italiano). The project, called “Vestae”, is dedicated to the history of domestic life. It centres on a collection of materials and products used in the care of the body – sponges, soaps, pins, scent diffusers, shaving brushes and so on – enclosed in a continuous display, contributing to the année folles atmosphere.

For miart 2016, the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi and miart presented Sarah Lucas – Innamemorabiliamumbum, a special project by British artist Sarah Lucas, curated by Massimiliano Gioni and Vincenzo de Bellis, in collaboration with FAI and Comune di Milano. Courtesy Fondazione Nicola Trussardi e miart. Photo Marco De Scalzi

Vestae, the project by Creative Academy students, who worked under the direction of Alberto Nespoli and Domenico Rocca, on show at the Albergo Diurno Venezia, Milan, during the Milan Design Week. Photo © Claudia Zalla

Albergo Diurno Venezia
piazza Oberdan, Milan
Booking: FAI prenotazioni

Albergo Diurno Venezia

At Milan Design Week (and miart) one of the places most acclaimed by specialists and the public was the Albergo Diurno Venezia underneath Piazza Oberdan, opened with the support of FAI. #MDW2016

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