CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati and Italo Rota have designed the new MAE museum dedicated to carbon fiber. Made of the same material, the museum is designed to showcase its ecological potential. As a material that is central to the future of manufacturing, the project will be built largely out of carbon fiber, both new and recycled, pursuing a circular approach to design.
As the team explains, the museum collection illustrates how synthetic fibers are used in a variety of industries, from automotive to fashion to cycling, and employs robotics to open up MAE’s vast archives for the first time. Developed for leading machinery manufacturing company MAE, the new museum is located in renovated warehouse in Piacenza, Italy. The exhibition path will employ robotics to guide visitors through the world’s largest archive of acrylic fiber technologies.
Most interior components are built with acrylic and carbon fiber, including the entrance doors which open like a curtain. The MAE museum’s exhibition path is conceived as a twofold journey from "the past into the future: from the heyday of synthetic fibers in postwar European clothing, to the latest breakthroughs in chemical and engineering research." The MAE Museum is located at MAE’s Italian headquarters, a one-hour drive from Milan. It's designed to cater to different audiences including the general public, schools and chemistry and engineering specialists.
“From high-performance bikes to the Lamborghini Aventador car, carbon fiber is driving innovation in multiple sectors. The MAE museum celebrates a defining material of modernity, by focusing on its new circular frontier and envisioning new applications for its use,” says Carlo Ratti, founding partner at CRA and a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). “We are delighted to work with MAE, a company whose history and know-how pioneered the transition from the original use of acrylic fiber in clothing to today’s use of carbon fiber in industries as varied as aerospace and automotive.”
News via CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati
