MACRO – Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome hosts an exhibition featuring nine projects developed by IED students as part of the Interior Design Final Thesis Lab during the 2025/2026 academic year.
The exhibition presents nine different interpretations of MACRO as a Museum of the Everyday: a museum open to everyday life, capable of accommodating activities and forms of social interaction not typical in museum institutions. The projects imagine new ways of inhabiting the museum’s spaces, complementing its exhibition function with places dedicated to education, cultural production, work, wellbeing, collective rituals and shared experiences.
Taking the existing architecture and its experimental vocation as their starting point, the students approached MACRO as a cultural and civic infrastructure: a permeable organism, rooted in the city and capable of adapting to the needs of contemporary society. Circulation routes, entrance halls, connecting spaces and transitional areas thus become testing grounds for new programmes and flexible spatial devices.
Alongside the nine projects, the exhibition presents the research that informed and supported the design process: a wide-ranging investigation into the history of MACRO, the transformations of Rome’s cultural system, and the legacy of the architectural experimentation that developed in the city during the decade around the turn of the millennium.
The exhibition presents the Thesis Lab as a collective process of research and design, while inviting reflection on the possible future of the museum: not merely an exhibition venue, but a public space, a cultural platform, and an integral part of urban life.
MACRO. MUSEUM OF THE EVERYDAY is part of the Public Programme developed by IED to celebrate its 60th anniversary: a series of events centred on the topic of “Plural Intelligences”, intended to bring together different perspectives and stimulate a shared reflection on new ways of thinking, designing and engaging with the contemporary world.
MACRO. MUSEUM OF THE EVERYDAY
The projects on display are the result of the Interior Design Final Thesis Lab held at IED Roma in collaboration with MACRO – Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome.
Director of IED Roma: Laura Negrini
Head of Design School: Gianfranco Bombaci
Interior Design Programme Leader: Giovanni Cozzani
Thesis Supervisor: Matteo Costanzo
Co-supervisor: Alina Aggujaro
Model Making Tutor: Marco Galofaro
Technical Studies Tutor: Giulio Aleandri
Programme Specialists: Matteo Viscogliosi, Isabella Zampi, Gaia Zangrilli
Students: Taso Archaia, Nazerke Ashimova, Sofia Bressano, Valentina Bruni, Ylenia Castiglioni, Giada Chiacchiari, Sofia Ciaccio, Giorgia Cialone, Anna Chiara Ciuffreda, Marta D’Ercole, Giorgia D’Onofrio, Teodora Maria Enoaie, Francesca Gaudino, Martina Giuliani, Almira Mirzalimova, Viola Saracini, Alessandra Stranges, Valeria Zocco.
MACRO Production coordinator: Maria Elena Ciullo
Exhibition setup: Matteo Pompili