Media Facade World Tour: Milan’s Arengario Museum

Milan, Italy’s capital of industry and a cultural hub, is home to the Arengario Museum. Built in 1293 on the Piazza del Duomo, the museum lies just a few steps from the gothic Duomo di Milano.

The museum’s recent reconstruction created an opportunity to develop a new media-façade category. A Mediamesh digital wrap was placed on a construction scaffold in front of the museum during its five-year refurbishment.

In collaboration with ag4 and GKD, the Milanese agency Urban Screens SRL installed the 480-sq.-meter Mediamesh façade.

In 1991, ag4 was established as an interdisciplinary company that creates media-architectural projects that enable such companies as BMW, Aventis and Merck Serono to communicate their identities in public spaces. In 2004, ag4 developed the application of LEDs that made the design and installation of transparent media facades possible and premiered the technology in T-Mobile’s media facade in Bonn.

A public window into the Milanese community and culture, the facade not only posts advertising, but also showcases the city’s history and art. The shimmering wrap contrasts with the cathedral’s gothic façade, but the juxtaposition also marries tradition and commerce, Milan’s two building blocks.

The media façade will transmit, live, this year’s opera season at La Scala. In addition, special advertising placements for the next five years will generate the necessary ROI to cover the media façade’s capital costs. The media façade will also reinforce Piazza del Duomo’s original function: a public gathering place.

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