MOTEL, a new event space at Manifattura Tabacchi, opens in Florence.

The Manifattura Tabacchi district gets a new event space: MOTEL. Located on the ground floor of building B3, the heart of the Florentine industrial complex, the project was created as a flexible container, designed to host exhibitions, happenings and cultural initiatives of various kinds, offering more than 3,000 square meters between indoor and outdoor areas, including more than 1,500 square meters of event rooms, 500 square meters of garden and terrace and more than 900 square meters dedicated to the Caveau of Memory. The new space, which was presented to the city on Wednesday, March 18, in the presence of Florence City Councillor for Culture Giovanni Bettarini, Michelangelo Giombini, Head of Product Development & CEO of Manifattura Placemakers, artist Patrick Tuttofuoco, architect Luca Baldini, founder of the q-bic studio, and curator Daniela Ardenghi, is proposed as an open destination, capable of combining historical memory and contemporary creativity.

MOTEL represents a room open to the city, capable of coming alive with the participation of visitors and organizers. The name draws inspiration from American motels, symbols of passage and transience, evoking a place where projects, ideas and experiences intersect, generating unexpected dialogues and new narratives. The goal is to offer a temporary platform, for two years, that allows for an integral experience of the industrial complex before its complete urban regeneration.

MOTEL’s hybrid vocation is reflected in the versatile configuration of the spaces. The indoor areas are designed to host fashion shows, photo shoots, conventions, and major film or television productions, while the urban garden and covered terrace provide ideal frames for outdoor events. The Memory Caveau, more than 900 square meters dedicated to preserving the history of Manifattura Tabacchi, houses machinery, fixtures, objects and materials from the former factory, which have been catalogued and made available to the public through free guided tours. The space can also be used for private events, offering a unique context in which industrial memory confronts the contemporary.

The entrance to MOTEL is marked by artist Patrick Tuttofuoco’s work Hercules, a luminous triptych depicting two eyes and an orchid, balancing masculine and feminine aspects. The sculpture highlights the centrality of the individual in the transformation of space and will be permanently placed within the complex in the future. In parallel, the Florentine studio q-bic designed the space, enhancing the building’s industrial characteristics and drawing inspiration from the iconography of American motels. The environments, autonomous but integrated into a unified system, are designed to generate a dynamic and continuous flow, in which the public can move freely and experience nonlinear paths. The interventions are light and reversible, bringing new vitality to the ground floor of B3 and consolidating the connection between the creative and workplace hub of the complex.

MOTEL is not limited to being a space for rent: it will also drive Manifattura Tabacchi’s cultural offerings. The inaugural calendar includes Botanica Urbana, an exhibition market of plants and flowers organized in collaboration with the Società Toscana di Orticultura, scheduled for March 21 and 22. The initiative will host botanical craft workshops, meetings and screenings, involving more than 20 exhibitors from all over Italy and exploring the relationship between nature and the city. Starting in June, it will be the turn of Paper/Northern Lights, an installation by architect-artist Gianni Pettena curated by Davide Giannella. The exhibition, originally created in 1971 at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, will be adapted to MOTEL’s spaces, with long strips of paper suspended from the ceiling that visitors can cut out, constructing a temporary and modifiable architecture. The work will be accompanied by a public performance program, continuously reactivating the use of the space and transforming the public into an active part of the work.

MOTEL, a new event space at Manifattura Tabacchi, opens in Florence.

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.