Gianfranco Ferré Research Center headquarters

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The Tortona area in Milan is a world-class hub where design, fashion and culture meet and merge: it became a pole of attraction for leading Italian and international brands, ad agencies, idea incubators, prominent designers and promising young talents which turned it in the three last decades into a real “creative district”.

"Tortona 37" complexGianfranco Ferré Research Center, Politecnico di Milano

"Tortona 37," housing the Gianfranco Ferré Research Center, is a mixed-use complex arranged around a tree-lined courtyard, designed by Matteo Thun. It embodies a significant reuse of the area, blending restored industrial sites with new buildings

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Here many things infuse the place with the Gianfranco Ferré style and above all with the designer’s rich and complex personality.
The interior décor is the work of Architect Franco Raggi, university classmate and close friend of Gianfranco Ferré. He is the same architect who cooperated with Ferré in designing other of the fashion designer’s offices, the headquarters on Via Pontaccio in particular.

Entrance Gianfranco Ferré FoundationGianfranco Ferré Research Center, Politecnico di Milano

In 2008, the Ferré family established the Gianfranco Ferré Foundation. In 2021, they donated the archive and headquarters to Politecnico di Milano to ensure continuity and accessibility, and to develop a research center with expanded cultural and scientific impact

Sketches archiveGianfranco Ferré Research Center, Politecnico di Milano

Since its inception as a Foundation and continuing now as a Research Center, one of the primary activities has been the creation of an archive housing everything preserved from Gianfranco Ferré's work.

Vestimentary archiveGianfranco Ferré Research Center, Politecnico di Milano

There are around 3,000 garments and accessories from his collections, photographs, sketches, films, press reviews, editorial articles, press releases lectures, and notes from the designer. All of this material has been entered into a database for easy consultation

Data baseGianfranco Ferré Research Center, Politecnico di Milano

The database, which is continually being updated, presently contains more than 70,000 items. They are organized on the basis of a well articulated, yet easily usable system, specifically in terms of both subject matter and chronological.

Alongside conservation and digitalization, the Research Center is redefining the archive's architecture and enhancing its contents with new access models and innovative narrative formats, aiming to create positive impacts on the cultural and creative industries

Conference room Gianfranco Ferré FoundationGianfranco Ferré Research Center, Politecnico di Milano

The Gianfranco Ferré Research Center is a multifunctional space where hosts lectures, conferences, presentations, workshops, fully reflecting the style that connotes the entire headquarters

Fondazione Gianfranco Ferré, From the collection of: Gianfranco Ferré Research Center, Politecnico di Milano
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