Sleeping With DESIGN-Design Hostel began as creator Davide Crippa’s answer to a Milano Design Week dilemma—designers need both exhibition space and a place to sleep while visiting Milan. From April 1 to 11, 2017 MakersHub, a creator space which opened last November in the Milan neighborhood of Bovisa, transformed into a combination hostel and exhibition space where designers and design appreciators intermingled, networked and literally slept together.
The collaborative initiative of MakersHub, IDEAS Bit Factory and the Department of Design of Politecnico di Milano filled the MakersHub space with curtained “rooms” for forty guests. Ten of the spaces hosted selected designers and featured their work, from established designers like Andrea Giovannetti to newcomers like student duo Ninedesign from Panama. Temporary showers were installed, with shower heads provided by Nuova Osmo.
In its first year, Design Hostel offered a surprising alternative to regular exhibition spaces. Design Hostel notes on their website that guests, “the protagonists of the project,” should not expect privacy, but the intimate setting allows creators and designers to construct promising professional relationships. The collaborators hope to recreate the hostel-exhibition space annually to draw design week visitors to the developing Bovisa neighborhood.
