Switch On exhibition – Images by ArchiPanic or courtesy of Switch on.

Milan 2016 – As Design Week seems to be squeezed between digital and the handcrafted, Switch On exhibition invites for a journey focused on what there’s between low-tech and high-tech. Iconic kitchenware from 1900 to 2016, vintage advertising and magazines narrate how our lifestyle and society changed along with the evolution of home-technologies.

Switch on will be open until the 22nd of April at Biblioteca Umanistica dell’Incoronata on Via Garibaldi 112, Milan.

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From manual mechanical tools lIke vintage mokas to the electrical wonders for the “perfect house-keeper of the 60’s” up to high-tech fridges and smart kitchen fans. The exhibition makes reflect on how everyday objects actually brought the idea of future and technology in our own living rooms.

ArchiPanic: which is the fil-rouge that links all these vintage and futuristic technologies?

Anty Pansera, co-curator of Switch On: “I believe it’s a like a round trip that began with the manodomestico (manual device). When it became electric it grew a tail -wire- that plugged it in the house. Then it shrinked in size bur grew in technology until it lost its tail again and became and independent high-tech device”.

“The new home-appliances regained their simple and clear look again. Before being high-tech meant to physically show the mechanism, the wires and a heavy hardware. Now being cutting-edge means invisible technology”.

Vintage Kabold Vacuum cleaner.

On show products by historical brands like Vorwerk AG that displays  Kobold vacuum cleaners from the ‘30s and the ‘70s as well as today self-driving sweepers. Iconic pieces from Alessi Museum, including Richard Sapper’s iconic coffee maker and cheese grater are exhibited with high-tech fridges by Samsung and more.

Alessi cheese graters: Left, GIRO 160 by Davide Piazza 1912. Todo by Richard Sapper, 2004.

The exhibition spans over a century of daily home-routines; from the humble nutcracker to the awarded domestic coffee machine designed by F.lli Castiglioni for Cimbali. Archivio Storico Faro provided toys from the ‘40s until now, from mechanical to battery-charged and today’s digital wonders.

“Home appliances allowed us to have more free time for ourselves pushing new social rituals and routines even outside the private environment” comment curators Anty Pansera e Mariateresa Chirico.

The “Casa Elettrica – Electric House” exhibition in Monza in 1930 showed an’idea of modernity.