Dine within a rationalist design gem at the newly opened Cucina Triennale

When designing Cucina Triennale, the new restaurant and café for the Milanese design institution, architect Luca Cipelletti and his studio looked to the Triennale archives for inspiration. Discovering drawings of the original tables designed in 1933 by Gigiotti Zanini for the restaurant, the studio, aided by the Molteni Group’s contemporary furniture brand UniFor, were entrusted with reissuing the design, blending historical memory with contemporary technology.

Cucina Triennale opens in Milan

Located on the Piano Parco and overlooking the Triennale garden, the new restaurant also includes a new seating design, the ‘Triennale Chair’, created by Studio Klass and made by UniFor as a contemporary reinterpretation of the building’s historic furnishings. Made entirely of wood, stackable, practical and clean in design, the chair stands out for its balance of solidity and refinement.

Fixed bespoke elements, designed by Cipelletti and crafted by the Italian furniture company, include a large slatted oak counter, enhanced with four glass shelves and a door with an integrated mechanism, combining functional rigour with formal coherence. Along the walls, six niches unfold, each equipped with full-height wardrobes, low cabinets, glass shelves, mirrors and fixed panels, all finished in brown-stained oak. Completing the renovation are two slatted oak cloakrooms, with counters featuring lacquered fronts and pivot doors, designed to ensure functionality, accessibility and overall visual harmony.

The new restaurant – an airy, light-filled space that spills out into the surrounding gardens – is part of a wider redevelopment of the Triennale, also overseen by Cipelletti in collaboration with UniFor, which aims to restore the original spaces in continuity with Giovanni Muzio’s 1933 design. And it makes the perfect spot for a pre-theatre show dinner or a relaxed lunch with friends.

Triennale Milano
Viale Emilio Alemagna, 6
20121 Milano

triennale.org