Imagining the Museum of Argentine Design alongside Taller a77

IDA Foundation initiated a collaborative work process alongside Taller a77, a new group integrated to the School of Architecture, Design, and Urbanism of the University of Buenos Aires (FADU-UBA), with the aim of providing mutual aid related to academic, scientific, cultural, and professional issues. As part of this plan for inter-institutional cooperation, professional training and updating programs are meant to be implemented, while the exchange of methodological information and the study of innovative research alternatives will be fostered, alongside the organization of diverse extension activities.

The project, planned to begin during the 2020 school year, focuses on the development of architecture proposals and equipment for the Museum of Argentine Design promoted by IDA. Due to the global health crisis, classes and discussions among students, experts in legacy management, and IDA team members are being held virtually. In such forums, participants analyze such topics as the ideal space conditions for the project, which will be the first of its type in the country. This is being done through the examination of similar archival venues and museum buildings abroad and the evaluation of fundamental technical and typological particularities based on the ways implemented to manipulate, keep, install, and transport the pieces.

The main goal of the initiative is to train students not only in theoretical concerns but also in the field, thus helping them establish a real and analytical connection with the social and urban environment while incorporating ideas that have been often overlooked in professional practices, such as the assessment of the cultural and productive context. The outcomes will nurture and boost the creation of the future museum; they will be compiled and published with the aim of fostering a collective awareness of the need to create such a center devoted to the field.
In this way, we inaugurate a new phase in terms of both the practical application of intellectual knowledge and the collaboration between academic and patrimonial entities, which learn from one another through a shared experience.

For that purpose and in order to achieve a right transference through time, international standards related to digital preservation have been adapted, as well as Anglo-Saxon and Ibero-American thesauruses of particular specialties in the field.

The Foundation’s aspiration is to consolidate Argentine design through the creation of patrimonial preservation systems, both physical and digital, merged with an integral communication program. The final goal is to offer services and data that is permanently processed by the communities themselves through active, transparent, and collective participation.