What happens when two seemingly distant disciplines synergistically combine their skills to carry out a didactic experiment aimed at teaching architectural design? This is the experience of the Interior Design Studio. It is a course of the Master in AACI (Architecture Built Environment Interiors) of the AUIC (Architecture Urban Planning Engineering) School of the Politecnico di Milano. The Studio is divided into two disciplinary modules: Interior Design and Urban Design. The collaboration between these two fields allows the development of a theme that combines complementary perspectives.

The studio is divided into two disciplinary modules: Interior Design and Urban Design. The collaboration between these two fields allows the development of a theme that combines complementary perspectives.

The studio focuses on the neighbourhood scale as its primary field of study and application, exploring it in its many dimensions. The Urban Design module builds a process of exploration and understanding of the neighbourhood being studied, while the Interior Design module translates this knowledge into a narrative through small exhibition installations. Each installation is designed to reveal an unexpected aspect of the neighbourhood.

This approach gives rise to the Mostre di Quartiere (MdQ) project: a series of small exhibitions scattered throughout the area that, taken as a whole, reconstruct the complex identity of the neighbourhood. The result is Mostre delle Mostre, a collective exhibition of MdQ projects in public spaces provided by the local administrations.

For several years, MdQ has been telling the story of the city, collecting the voices of those who live, work and study there. This is done with the support of active local associations and institutions, in a collective narrative that involves designers, researchers, professors, students and local public and private actors.

MdQ collects stories and brings them to life through exhibitions created in collaboration with local administrations, non-profit organisations and small local businesses. These installations are set up in places that are important to the residents of the neighbourhood or in places that have yet to be rediscovered and fully appreciated.
Over the past five years, MdQ has explored various neighbourhoods in Milan, often characterised by urban complexity and fragility: Città Studi, the Aler San Siro district, Bicocca, Rogoredo and Quarto Oggiaro. Each of these parts, when put together, helps to reconstruct a broader and more articulated image of the urban territory.

Initially developed within an academic framework, MdQ has now become an initiative that local public institutions are following with growing interest and in which they are seeking active participation. MdQ is an ongoing experience that demonstrates how academic research, when closely linked to local territories, can generate concrete experiences of strong social engagement, which can eventually evolve into real processes of transformation and change.

Keywords: Interdisciplinarity, innovative method, exploration.