New materiality in the project of small architectural devices for exhibition set-up: a research experience between conception, language, perception and construction

The space set up in a trade show becomes a domain of consideration of the project as linked to the new way of relating to the art of exposing objects and to the ability to transmit the company’s brand through an expressive language that could reveal the emotional value of a certain concept. This domain of intervention, which has its or- igins in the interior design and in the temporary exhibition set up sectors, represents a peculiar field of experimentation and research where the designer is called to re- think the project for the new forms of trade exhibition market. The point is thinking about a project that, for a temporary event, should be carried out as a performance; a theatrical representation offering the opportunity to occupy the scene in an engag- ing way while interpreting the current ‘mood’ (Bramston, 2010). New ways of setting up are therefore possible, and they can generate different ways of relating to space with an original project approach in the ‘exhibiting’, interpreting an expression ‘moodboard’ in an active, creative, empathic, emotional, flexible, and changing environment adapting to the possible formal implications linked to the var- ious needs of a company and market demands. This last sector is always more inter- ested in an ever growing need for optimization of the economic resources and it re- quires new outfitting expressivity aiming to obtain the most with the least resources available, for a rapid temporary event. The set-up project is then featured as a small architectural ‘device’ marked by a strong chameleonic concept feature, able to adapt to the possible shapes of spaces and rooms in the trade show pavilions and express a constituent and versatile language with a strong communicative feature (Vitta, 2001). A device that becomes a ‘display’ of al- ternative languages to reproduce multiple meanings, often perceived as personal com- munications for those who make use of it. The configurations of the outfitted spaces are the result of unconventional project strategies which express, through a collage of highly aesthetic figurative/constructive solutions, a simple language which is also evanescent, surprising, persuasive, seduc- ing, and engaging so as to establish an empathic link between the users and the in- stallation (Norman, 2004). Therefore, this is about simple constituent bricolage exer- cises that follow the collage principles, in which different images/solutions are put in contrast and can be clearly identified. Through constituent processes of addition, in- tegration, and insert, it is possible to obtain various light expositive devices through the repetition of simple and cheap building solutions (Maeda, 2006). Most of the time, the innovative feature of the expositive stands does not reside in the detail designed for each project nor in the use of performing materials, but in the designer’s creative ability of simply and freely combining standardized systems, semi-finished materi- als, and industrialized components available on the market. The possibility to combine the expositive stands drags the visitor’s attention to the way’s materials are produced and the products are ‘described’ and ‘narrated’. The outfitting structures want to generate a new modality of fruition/exposition/per- ception by the users. This modality should not be confusing, but reassuring, trying to set up a univocal vision of the exposed objects, shaping a flexible expositive path that can be personalized and adapted to the different modalities of ‘discovering’ the ob- jects. The exhibition modalities, conceived to produce interest, awaken curiosity, and create empathy in the users can trigger an interaction between the work and the ob- server in order to define an interactive path/visit. The paper wants to bring back the research activity with the aim of experimenting a new expositive/project/communicative modality as an instrument of knowledge and experimentation, able to generate a figurative/formal/constructive new language expressing the ability to com- municate/show/expose in the rapidity of a temporary event, where everything must be carried out in a specific context1. (1)