Cucù Duomo

Duomo di Milano

The heart of the event is the “Cuckoo Duomo exhibition: the Milan clock”; 150 cuckoo clocks that reproduce the shape of the famous Cathedral in Sala delle Colonne of the Duomo Museum.

The proceeds from the sales of the watches, all unique pieces for finishes and materials, will be donated to the initiative “Adopt a Spire” for the restoration of the Monument.

To bring citizens and international public participating in Milan Design Week to consolidate their relationship with one of the hubs of the urban space, the event reached the top of the Duomo. In a walk between spiers and design, a serie of cuckoo Duomo in macro version will be exhibited on the terraces of the Cathedral.

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The Project

“When Diamantini&Domeniconi asked me to design a Cucu’ clock , it was natural to think about the shape of the Duomo for this project also as a tribute to my master

I was struck by the appeal recently launched by the Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo which urged citizens and city authorities not to forget this reference which is precisely the cathedral, dedicated to Maria Nascente on 20 October 1577.

An invitation to make and take back small and large donations that have allowed, through the various eras, to maintain the immense mountain of marble since 1386, the year in which the first stone was laid.

Here the idea of designing 150 models of the Cathedral, stylized and on a smaller scale, produced in the many material that compose it; a sort of material and formal epiphany declined into a domestic and emotional object.

I thought to mention the different materials from the inlaid woods used for the floor of the Jemale Chapel to the ceramic and bricks with which the base of the Cathedral is built; materials that characterize the series of cuckoo clock of the same shape but varying in appearance.

A tribute to the current restorations are the “Duomi” made of cement, a construction material used for structural consolidations.

The cuckoo Duomo composed with fragments of glass are intended to recall the brilliance and the complexity of the large polychrome windows of the apse. I thought about the cuckoo Duomo in mosaic to recall the complex interweaving of light and dark marbles of the floors, among which the black Varenna, the white and pink of Candoglia, the red of Arzo originally, today almost completely replace by the red of Verona

The proceeds from the donations for the cuckoo Duomo will be used for the restoration of Veneranda Fabbrica and this will make me happy and proud.

The design as a concrete gesture. As a poetic act in support of a city and its symbolic monument.”