ADI System

Since 1956, ADI has brought together designers, companies, researchers, teachers, critics, and journalists to address issues related to design: project development, consumption, recycling, and education. It has played a key role in the development of industrial design as both a cultural and economic phenomenon and has been a main partner in promoting the design system to governmental institutions. Over the years, it has collaborated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy, and the Ministry of Defense.

The ADI system aims to promote and contribute to the creation of the most favorable conditions for the design of goods and services, without any profit-making goals, through cultural debate, institutional engagement, and the provision of services.

Since 1958, it has managed the Compasso d’Oro Award, the oldest European design award, conceived in 1954 by Gio Ponti and reaching its 70th anniversary in 2024.

ADI oversees the preservation of the objects awarded throughout the various editions of the prize, along with related documentation, thus creating the historical Compasso d’Oro Collection. The organization promotes historical research and in-depth exhibitions on these items. The collection is one of the most significant international testaments to contemporary design, officially recognized by the Ministry of Culture as a “heritage of exceptional artistic and historical interest” and included in the national heritage.

The collection comprises over 2,500 projects, with 380 on public display at the ADI Design Museum in a cyclically renewed exhibition. The ADI Design Museum spreads design culture both nationally and internationally through the exhibition of the permanent collection of the Compasso d’Oro Award and the organization of temporary exhibitions focused on contemporary design. These exhibits are also presented internationally, with tours in Europe, Asia, and the United States. The museum is a dynamic cultural center focused on modernity and research, aiming to play an active role in the global museum network. It is a space that transcends traditional cultural boundaries and embraces the complexities of a globalized world, establishing connections between design and the realms of business, art, fashion, architecture, science, and technology.

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Editions of Italian Design Day

71

Exhibitions

15

International exhibitions

28

Editions of Compasso d’Oro Award