MILAN — During a career that has spanned five decades, designer Michele De Lucchi has created everything from funky lamps to eco-living yachts and inspiring hotel interiors.

Now the Ferrara, Italy-born maestro has been appointed the first creative director in the history of Milan’s Triennale Milano museum. He was also named director of the permanent design installation, the Museo del Design, taking the reins from Marco Sammicheli.

“It is the role that suits me best, the role of designer, and I wish to transform the Triennale institution into a laboratory of vitality. Design is not a static act, but is increasingly today the process of devising a positive shared scenario that will, in particular, guide us through the big contradictions: between past and future, between the concrete and the virtual, between human and digital and between disciplines and divergent visions,” he said in a statement.

De Lucchi, who was a major proponent of the radical design movements Memphis and Studio Alchimia, was also head of design for tech firm Olivetti. He founded his own studio in the 1980s, which later became known as a multidisciplinary practice AMDL Circle in 2018.

Founded in 1923 at the height of the city’s Art Deco heyday, Triennale is based in the Palazzo dell’Arte, built in 1933 by Giovanni Muzio. 

Situated on the edge of the city’s verdant Parco Sforzesco, the museum opened Museo del Design in 2019.

The museum is in the throes of a new chapter. In June, it appointed art historian and professor Vincenzo Trione the new president of its board of directors, after architect and urban planner Stefano Boeri concluded his eight-year term.

The Triennale di Milano named new board members, including Salone del Mobile.Milano president Maria Porro as its new vice president. The board also includes Dario Rinero, chief executive officer of Haworth Lifestyle, which controls design firms Poltrona Frau, Zanotta and Cassina.

Sammicheli, who served as the director of Museo del Design since 2020, will now spearhead the Milan design week exhibition program. De Lucchi will be joined on the advisory committee by the new curator of architecture Manuela Lucà-Dazio, the current executive director of The Pritzker Architecture Prize, as well as art historian, curator and writer Andrea Viliani, appointed curator of contemporary art.

As a part of its 2026 to 2030 plan, Triennale said it will work on strengthening the Museo del Design Italiano through acquisitions while broadening its focus beyond objects to include the ideas, cultural contexts and design methods that shaped Italian design.

The institution is also expanding its educational and publishing ambitions. New initiatives include a specialist course, a Ph.D. program and international research fellowships, alongside a reorganized publishing program spanning catalogues, books and albums, with stronger podcasts, digital content and online editorial output. To support this long-term development, Triennale plans to enhance its patron program and explore the creation of a board of trustees.

New exhibitions, projects and activities for 2027 will be presented at a press conference in November.