Thinking of architecture in terms of large-scale interventions is only one way of comprehending what is primarily a mental process rather than architectural as such, and which instead often begins with the most discreet details.

This is the challenge that designer Giulio Iacchetti put to five of the most important Italian architecture studios in the world. He asked them to express their artistic role with a single archetypal element: the door handle, which has distinguished and characterised the identity of houses since the beginning of time. Iacchetti, currently creative director for Dnd, embarks on a subtle operation to lead the five studios (Stefano Boeri, Alfonso Femia, Maurizio Varratta, Cino Zucchi e 967Arch) away from the usual dynamics in which processes and materials, forced to undergo a drastic resizing, emerge as an element that by that point is subject to entirely new rules.

The themes of changing scale and the iconic return of the value of the door are also crucial and are underlined in the exhibition layout curated by the studio Librizzi, which was asked to celebrate 50 years of the company from Brescia. This is an event that tells the story of humans as “inhabitants” and of design as an open manifesto for a future that, just like the tallest palazzi, will be built from the smallest details.