The restoration of the former QT8 municipal market has been completed, one of the beating hearts of the Quartiere Triennale Ottava, designed by Piero Bottoni for the 1947 edition of the Milan Triennale. On September 30, 2025, the building officially opened its doors as the home of the Centro di Alti Studi sulle Arti Visive (Casva), with a ceremony attended by Mayor Giuseppe Sala and Deputy Mayors Marco Granelli and Tommaso Sacchi. This news carries double significance for Milan as a city of design.
Casva opens at QT8, housing the archives of Mari, Vigo, Gregotti and more
The new home for the archives of key figures in art, architecture, and design finds its place in the postwar district born with the Eighth Triennale, a modern urban masterpiece by Piero Bottoni.
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- La redazione di Domus
- 06 October 2025
The QT8 neighborhood in the unpublished photographs. Photo © Francesco Secchi
The QT8 neighborhood in the unpublished photographs. Photo © Francesco Secchi
The QT8 neighborhood in the unpublished photographs. Photo © Francesco Secchi
The QT8 neighborhood in the unpublished photographs. Photo © Francesco Secchi
The QT8 neighborhood in the unpublished photographs. Photo © Francesco Secchi
The QT8 neighborhood in the unpublished photographs. Photo © Francesco Secchi
The QT8 neighborhood in the unpublished photographs. Photo © Francesco Secchi
The QT8 neighborhood in the unpublished photographs. Photo © Francesco Secchi
The QT8 neighborhood in the unpublished photographs. Photo © Francesco Secchi
The QT8 neighborhood in the unpublished photographs. Photo © Francesco Secchi
The QT8 neighborhood in the unpublished photographs. Photo © Francesco Secchi
The QT8 neighborhood in the unpublished photographs. Photo © Francesco Secchi
The QT8 neighborhood in the unpublished photographs. Photo © Francesco Secchi
The QT8 neighborhood in the unpublished photographs. Photo © Francesco Secchi
The QT8 neighborhood in the unpublished photographs. Photo © Francesco Secchi
The QT8 neighborhood in the unpublished photographs. Photo © Francesco Secchi
The QT8 neighborhood in the unpublished photographs. Photo © Francesco Secchi
The QT8 neighborhood in the unpublished photographs. Photo © Francesco Secchi
The QT8 neighborhood in the unpublished photographs. Photo © Francesco Secchi
The QT8 neighborhood in the unpublished photographs. Photo © Francesco Secchi
The QT8 neighborhood in the unpublished photographs. Photo © Francesco Secchi
The QT8 neighborhood in the unpublished photographs. Photo © Francesco Secchi
The QT8 neighborhood in the unpublished photographs. Photo © Francesco Secchi
The QT8 neighborhood in the unpublished photographs. Photo © Francesco Secchi
The QT8 neighborhood in the unpublished photographs. Photo © Francesco Secchi
The QT8 neighborhood in the unpublished photographs. Photo © Francesco Secchi
The QT8 neighborhood in the unpublished photographs. Photo © Francesco Secchi
The QT8 neighborhood in the unpublished photographs. Photo © Francesco Secchi
The QT8 neighborhood in the unpublished photographs. Photo © Francesco Secchi
The QT8 neighborhood in the unpublished photographs. Photo © Francesco Secchi
First, for the very existence of Casva, which is now being given new value: created by the municipality in 1999, the center brings together the professional archives of 44 internationally renowned architects, designers, and graphic artists. Think of names like Enzo Mari, Nanda Vigo, Vittorio Gregotti, Luciano Baldessari, or objects such as the concrete model for the iconic Joe glove-armchair by De Pas D’Urbino Lomazzi. Until now, however, Casva had never had a proper home, and with the opening at QT8, all the archives—previously distributed between Fabbrica del Vapore, the storage at Castello Sforzesco, and private collectors’ homes—finally find a single, publicly accessible location.
Then, there’s the district itself: QT8 was conceived as an urban plan to represent postwar Italy, the Italian and Milanese vision on modernity. Domus rediscovered it and recounted it here: a major residential project designed to house those displaced by the war, it rises at the foot of Monte Stella, built from the rubble of a transformed, then bombed, city. Alongside Bottoni, contributors included Roberto Menghi, Ettore Sottsass, Gabriele Mucchi, Vico Magistretti, and many others. A neighborhood that has shared the life and development of the city up to today, and which, with the arrival of Casva, is enriched with a new cultural epicenter, including spaces for events and exhibitions, a bookshop, a café, and areas dedicated to research and community gathering.
Inside the new Casva
The new Casva occupies the former covered market on Via Isernia, a building of approximately 3,000 square meters restored in a project that preserved the original structures while introducing sustainable solutions. The spaces house exhibition rooms, workshops, classrooms, consultation areas, and climate-controlled storage for archival materials. The 7.3 million euro intervention was carried out in collaboration with the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies at Politecnico di Milano and the Triennale Foundation.
A particularly significant moment of the opening was the return of Marino Marini’s Donnina of Milan to QT8—a limestone sculpture about 2.30 meters high, originally placed atop Monte Stella by Piero Bottoni. The work, which had long been part of the Museo del Novecento collections and moved several times, is now definitively returned to the district that welcomed it, reestablishing a historic and symbolic connection between the city and QT8.