Casa Manteco
Manteco, 2026
Formafantasma design the exhibition space and showroom of “Casa Manteco”, a series of new spaces located within the headquarters of Manteco, a leading Italian textile company based in Prato. The project was conceived not simply as a company museum, but as a domestic environment in a cultural sense. A space for consultation and research, but also for collective memory. Here, the company’s history, production processes, and ongoing investigations into material and circularity are made visible and continuously reinterpreted.
The exhibition traces how a local manufacturing tradition, developed across three generations, evolved into an international reference for textile innovation and recycling. Through archival documents, production tools, fabric samples, photographs, films, and internal testimonies, it reconstructs the systems of labour, technical knowledge, and environmental responsibility that have shaped Manteco’s identity. Here, sustainability emerges not as an abstract value, but as a set of material practices embedded within the company’s culture of production and research.
Located in former raw material warehouses, the intervention preserved the existing industrial structure and works within it. The space was not neutralized; it continues to function as a place of storage and transformation, not of material but of heritage. A system of modular tables and storage elements organizes the exhibition. These are not only display cases, but working tools that allow consultation, comparison, and research. The structure is reversible and can change over time, following the evolution of the company and the continuous layering of experiences and achievements.
Organized through interconnected thematic sections rather than a linear sequence, the exhibition addresses circular production, family and collective labour, the history of the Prato textile district, and the relationship between artisanal knowledge and industrial innovation.
Organized through interconnected thematic sections rather than a linear sequence, the exhibition addresses circular production, family and collective labour, the history of the Prato textile district, and the relationship between artisanal knowledge and industrial innovation.
The showroom was conceived around the intimacy of the encounter between client, company, and product. A circular display system for textile samples surrounds a central table whose dimensions and material qualities recall those of a tailoring worktable. A boiserie of wood and textile panels lines the perimeter walls, domesticating the space and softening the industrial character of the building without concealing it.
Casa Manteco proposes an alternative model for engaging with industrial heritage: not as a static preservation of the past, but as an active and evolving structure shaped through research, maintenance, and use.
Casa Manteco proposes an alternative model for engaging with industrial heritage: not as a static preservation of the past, but as an active and evolving structure shaped through research, maintenance, and use.
