LA FORMA (NON) SEGUE I FEMMINISMI

On November 10th, 2026, at 6:30 PM, Polifactory (Building B3, Bovisa Campus, Politecnico di Milano) hosts the second meeting of the new cycle of Open Polifactory, Transfeminisms x Design. An exploration of agency, power and knowledge.
The 2026–2027 cycle is dedicated to the relationship between transfeminisms and design, and invites us to question the assumptions that guide design practice, from urban space and material culture to the history of objects, visual communication and emerging technologies. Along the way, it asks what role design plays, and what responsibility designers hold, in the construction of artifacts, realities and knowledge.
The second meeting, La forma (non) segue i femminismi. Spazi domestici, oggetti ed artefatti tra il privato ed il politico, shifts focus to the domestic sphere and everyday objects. Just as urban spaces do, domestic environments and the artifacts they contain embody assumptions about who can use them, and in what ways and times. Drawing from the material history of feminist movements, this talk explores and reclaims private spaces and everyday objects as tools of resistance, care, self-defense, and daily activism, critically questioning the design logic that dictates what is produced, for whom, and to what end.
On the same occasion, the spaces of Polifactory will also host the exhibition La Cassetta degli Attrezzi Femminista, curated by Chiara Alessi, Giulia Siviero, and Marie Moise. The exhibition will remain open and visitable at Polifactory until November 18th.
To guide us through the topic, three researchers and curators will meet in conversation, moving between material history, spatial research, and daily activist practices.
Chiara Alessi works in material culture and design as a researcher, writer, communicator, and exhibition and podcast curator. Through her work, she investigates the relationship between objects, society, and contemporary culture, with a particular focus on the history of Italian design and the social and emotional meanings of everyday artifacts. She is the author of essays including La sedia del sadico. Il design sul corpo delle donne (Laterza, 2026), Tante care cose. Gli oggetti che ci hanno cambiato la vita (Longanesi, 2021), and Lo stato delle cose (Longanesi, 2023), as well as podcasts for Il Post, Storielibere, Repubblica, and Archivio Olivetti. In 2020, she created #designinpigiama, a participatory design outreach project. Since 2022, she has directed the OILÀ series for Electa, dedicated to anti-heroic biographies of 20th-century women.
Giulia Siviero is an Italian journalist and feminist activist. She studied Philosophy at the University of Verona, where she worked with feminist philosopher Adriana Cavarero on sexual difference theory. She writes for Il Post and collaborates with il Manifesto and Internazionale, focusing on gender issues, material practices, and women’s political movements. She is the author of Fare femminismo (Nottetempo, 2024), a history of feminist movements from the eighteenth century to the present, tracing the collective practices and tools that have shaped feminist struggle across eras and geographies. Together with Chiara Alessi and Marie Moïse, she curated the exhibition La Cassetta degli Attrezzi Femminista, exploring the material history of feminist activism through objects.
Michela Bassanelli is an architect, PhD, and Assistant Professor (RTT) in Interior Architecture and Exhibition Design at the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies (DAStU) of Politecnico di Milano. Her research primarily addresses transformations of the domestic space, focusing on their historical evolution and contemporary phenomenology through an interdisciplinary theoretical framework. In recent years, her work has oriented toward gender studies, focusing on the spatial, social, and cultural implications of care. On these topics, she has published numerous essays and articles and co-edited, with Imma Forino, the volume Gli spazi delle donne. Casa, lavoro, società(2024).
The event is organised by Polifactory, the makerspace and fablab of Politecnico di Milano, as part of Open Polifactory, an annual series of presentations, events and debates that explores complex themes in contemporary design research, with the aim of keeping the discussion as open and accessible as possible. Curated and produced by the team of researchers of Polifactory, it is addressed to faculty members, researchers and students of the Politecnico community, as well as to citizens, designers, professionals and civil servants interested in advanced perspectives on design culture.

Admission is free and open to everyone, and the event will be held in Italian.

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Polifactory, 22-30 Via Privata Simone Schiaffino, Milano, Italy

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