Museo: MUMAC – Museo della Macchina per Caffè Cimbali Group

Welcome

Welcome to the MUMAC for this special visit! Today, you can actually visit the Coffee Machine Museum of the Cimbali Group on the occasion of the workshop organized with the Politecnico di Milano for the "History of Design" course. You have probably listened to or will listen to a brief introduction to the museum by Barbara Foglia, MUMAC Director, and Anna Cento, MUMAC curator. For this reason, using this APP during your dedicated visit will allow you to enter directly into the world and history of professional espresso coffee machines in a journey focusing primarily on the importance of design for this sector of Made in Italy, allowing you, from the moment you cross the threshold of the first room of the museum, to immerse yourself directly in a journey through time: enjoy your visit! The museum was established in 2012 and was created on the occasion of the company's centennial anniversary, founded in 1912 by Giuseppe Cimbali in Milan. It is the largest permanent exhibition dedicated to the history, world, and culture of professional espresso coffee machines: an unexpected, passionate, and unique place.

Welcome to the MUMAC for this special visit! Today, you can actually visit the Coffee Machine Museum of the Cimbali Group on the occasion of the workshop organized with the Politecnico di Milano for the "History of Design" course. You have probably listened to or will listen to a brief introduction to the museum by Barbara Foglia, MUMAC Director, and Anna Cento, MUMAC curator. For this reason, using this APP during your dedicated visit will allow you to enter directly into the world and history of professional espresso coffee machines in a journey focusing primarily on the importance of design for this sector of Made in Italy, allowing you, from the moment you cross the threshold of the first room of the museum, to immerse yourself directly in a journey through time: enjoy your visit! The museum was established in 2012 and was created on the occasion of the company's centennial anniversary, founded in 1912 by Giuseppe Cimbali in Milan. It is the largest permanent exhibition dedicated to the history, world, and culture of professional espresso coffee machines: an unexpected, passionate, and unique place.

Room 1

Here we are in the first room.

Here we are in the first room. We are in Italy between the late 1800s and the first two decades of the 1900s. The photos on the walls, the large counter, the machines, and the advertising images tell us that we are in a moment of great excitement and innovation. The industrial revolution, the steam engine, and the train are shortening the distances toward novelty and the future. It is in this period of inventions and excitement that espresso coffee is born. But where does it originate? Many think it originates in Naples, but if we assume that espresso coffee comes from the machines that first produce it, its origins are between Turin and Milan. Actually, in Turin, what we might call the ancestor of the espresso coffee machine is realized. It is a machine for “instant” coffee, of which we have a reproduction here, made at the Maltoni Workshops based on the original patent. The machine you find upon entering to your left is a faithful reproduction of the one patented and made in Turin by Angelo Moriondo in 1884. The invention is still far from the development of the first espresso machines. Indeed, the coffee was not yet prepared “cup by cup,” that is, “espresso,” but was extracted in quantity (as can be seen from the large side containers). The merit of Moriondo remains that of producing the beverage for the first time using steam. To reach the “espresso” as coffee produced on the spot, fresh and quickly for the customer, you have to wait for another machine, the one located to your right, the Ideale machine by the Desiderio Pavoni company, the first real espresso coffee machine. Its inception is actually connected to the invention, in 1901, by the Milanese Luigi Bezzera of the single dispensing group present on the machine. Look at the filter holder with one or two spouts and the attachment system to the central body of the machine: they were already very similar to those of today, weren’t they? But this coffee, though “espresso,” was very different from what we are used to today: steam-extracted, it was quite burnt, boiling, and black, without cream. The invention of the dispensing group, applied to the machines produced by the Milanese Desiderio Pavoni, was presented to the public for the first time at the International Exhibition of Milan in 1906 at Luigi Bezzera’s stand, and from that moment, the sector took off. Now, turn around. Look at the large photo on the brown partition panel: it depicts the workers of a workshop where the history of the Cimbali Group begins. A young Giuseppe Cimbali, portrayed standing on the left with his arms crossed, looking directly and proudly at us, was already a pioneer among pioneers in those years. Indeed, this photo is a historical document with a caption telling us a story: in 1905, Giuseppe Cimbali was already active in the sector, precisely in producing those machines that, for the first time, would soon be presented to the world. His story begins here: from an apprenticeship in a small workshop to work in a sector that will see him become a proud protagonist in the following years. Indeed, in 1912, he founded his first workshop in via Caminadella, in the center of Milan, for producing boilers for coffee machines produced by others and, subsequently, in the 1930s, for his own machine production. But now let's talk about design! As you can already see, coffee machines, like many everyday objects, are actual design objects reflecting the time, era, and habits related to coffee consumption. Daughters of their time, if analyzed from this perspective, they genuinely reflect the story they tell and indissolubly bind, from now on, style and industrial design in a harmonious language. The first coffee machines you find in this room are vertical in development because they were thought of as “pots to be put on the fire”: in fact, it was not uncommon to see them powered by real braziers that produced the necessary heat to boil the water to generate the steam needed for the extraction of the drink. From a style point of view, we are in full Art Nouveau, also called Floral or Liberty style in Italy, characterized by ornamental curved, sinuous, and dynamic lines that are present even in the coffee machines, positioned on counters, sometimes with imposing sizes, where they dominated the locale with their column-shaped forms topped by copper and bronze decorated domes. The domes could carry decorations, but the body of the machine itself also became an object to embellish with often brightly colored enamels. The decorations often depicted the brand of the manufacturing company or had a cultural dissemination significance by portraying coffee beans or even the plant with leaves, flowers, and fruits, an origin of an exotic and unknown raw material to most. The exotic plant-themed decorations, inspired by the hardly known coffee plant, became one of the peculiar traits of the machines from the dawn until the rationalist period. If you look, for example, at the plaque applied to the Pavoni Ideale we talked about earlier, the peacock blue color still appears extremely bright and attractive. Or enjoy the details of the Super watt machine branded Eterna: a perfect example of Liberty style, enhanced by precious enamel decorations illustrating coffee plants with leaves, flowers, and drupes to showcase the origin of an exotic product! From here on and for decades, the machines are the undisputed protagonists on the luxurious counters of the cafes. Here you can see one original from 1929. The machines, as we said, reflect the style of the era, a product of Italian ingenuity that soon crosses national borders. In particular, it is thanks to a Turinese, Pier Teresio Arduino, in the 1920s, that the export of the sector's “made in Italy” was initiated. Now you can move on to the second room.

Hall 2

The post-war hall stands out from the previous one due to the style of machines influenced by the Rationalist movement of the era.

The post-war hall stands out from the previous one due to the style of machines influenced by the Rationalist movement of the era. After World War I and the 1929 Wall Street crash, Western countries faced severe issues in every aspect of economic, productive, and social life, with dire consequences. With the American financial crisis, all economic indicators worldwide that measure states’ well-being and economic progress drastically declined. Each state autonomously tried to curb the crisis with economic protectionism. To safeguard internal productions, the first self-sufficient productions were initiated, made exclusively with local raw materials. It was a difficult, complex period of forced immobility that also led Italy to sink into a regime involving state intervention plans, colonial wars, and autarky. In this troubled period, Italian design and architecture began to have admirers worldwide: the austerity of the Rationalist movement, simple and functional, characterized by essential geometric lines, was also applied to coffee machines with stylistic simplicity, favoring clean and unadorned lines. Every decoration, every concession to "beauty" was considered superfluous. The coffee machine, like every other work tool, is beautiful because it serves a useful function, while decoration remains a legacy to be left in the past. Even the brands reflected the spirit of the time and were represented according to the era's dictates: for example, look at the logo of the first La Cimbali Rapida machine, with the typical motifs of the period and the triangular logo with the initials of the company (Officina Cimbali Giuseppe). By the mid-1940s, although technology remained unchanged, the shapes started to change: machines began to shift from vertical to horizontal, and performance improved: with all the delivery groups positioned on the same side, a single operator could manage, while "comfortably" in the same position, the dispensing of multiple coffees, thus becoming faster and more efficient. Another accessory also appeared, previously impossible to have in vertical machines often equipped with domes: the cup warmer, which attested to the growing care for all phases of espresso preparation. The space, usually obtained above or beside the horizontally placed boiler, found functionality by utilizing its heat: from then on, espresso could no longer do without a well-heated cup. This is the period when even the great names of architecture realized the importance of this sector and began to give it the necessary attention. A pioneer was Gio Ponti, who in 1947 designed for La Pavoni a machine still considered the most beautiful in the world: the D.P. 47, renamed La Cornuta for the horn-shaped delivery groups placed above the central cylindrical body. Today, only two exist in the world, of which only one, the one in the MUMAC collection, is always visible to the public inside the museum. It is the most valuable piece of the collection, among the most requested for national and international loans (it has been at the Museé des Art Decoratifs of the Louvre in Paris, the Triennale in Milan, the Deutsches Museum in Munich) and is still considered the most beautiful coffee machine in the world today. This machine is not just a mechanical device for coffee preparation but a real sculpture where mechanics and energy, elegance, and design aesthetics blend into a real engine that dispenses energy in the liquid form of coffee. For Gio Ponti, a machine is much more than a simple device built and put into service when needed. That’s why the housing of "La Cornuta" presents itself as a powerful engine block that guards the “secret of its work” and from which, depending on the model, two, three, or four no less powerful "horns" protrude that seem like exhaust manifolds flanged to the engine block. "A beautiful machine" without a doubt! Despite the unmatched beauty and the style that immediately recalls the futurist-inspired "bolides," La Cornuta was born with steam technology destined to become obsolete shortly thereafter with the transition to a new extraction method that would soon supplant all others: the lever. To discover the new technology, you can move on to the third hall.

Room 3

1950s As you enter, you can see on the display to the left a cross-sectioned piston, placed next to a horizontal coffee machine with two boilers. This represents the new technological revolution that finally led to espresso as we know it today: with the "crema." It's the Gaggia Classica machine equipped with the "lever" mechanism, for which back in 1936, Rosetta Scorza, widow of Cremonese, had filed a patent entitled "Plunger tap for espresso coffee machine." Achille Gaggia, a relatively unknown Milanese barista, acquired the invention, experimenting with it inside his Bar Achille, and later developed his own patent, presenting it for the first time at the Milan Trade Fair in 1939. It was the cream coffee dispenser group (advertised as the "Lampo system, the only coffee compressor that works without steam"). However, everything came to a halt due to World War II. At the end of the conflict, a unique moment in Italian history unfolded, with economic and social recovery focused on innovation. The bar became a place of congregation and sharing, no longer intended for an elite but an ideal meeting point for everyone, consecrating coffee at the bar as a social ritual that transcends class distinctions. Riding the wave of well-being and carefree attitudes that swept through Italy after the dark years of the war, bars became increasingly crowded and lively. People gathered to watch television, a tool of social aggregation and change that was still rare in Italian homes, or used the coffee break to browse newspapers, discuss sports and politics, spend time with others, and give substance to the concept of "leisure time," which had been entirely unknown to most of the population just a few years before. The true revolution in espresso machines, in fact, is the invention of the lever. In 1948, the Classica model was finally put into production by Achille Gaggia. For the machine production, Gaggia collaborated with the FAEMA workshops of Carlo Ernesto Valente, who had opened his Factory of Electro-Mechanical Equipment and Related Products a few years earlier. The machine, equipped with two boilers, allows, thanks to the lever, high pressure and water at a temperature below one hundred degrees, all without generating steam. The result is extraordinary: the beverage is dispensed in just over thirty seconds, all burnt notes caused by steam are eliminated, and for the first time, the coffee crema is produced, which from now on became inseparable from the concept of espresso served at a bar. The design of the machines is not indifferent to the charm of the aesthetic model coming from overseas: the American style, with its sinuous lines, chrome, and sparkling lights, influences new productions, such as in the La Cimbali Granluce machine with its shiny metal body and front lighting. The shapes echo the lines of the most popular cars (the front part of the Faema Saturno resembles the radiator of an American car) and jukeboxes, the undisputed stars of bars and venues of the era. Even great names in architecture become aware of the importance of this sector and begin to dedicate the necessary attention to it. Indeed, the desire to experiment, which characterizes this historical moment – very creative and among the most interesting in our history – also drives coffee machine producers to turn to architects and designers to study new products in line with changing needs. For instance, the Ponti-Fornaroli-Rosselli studio designs some unmistakable style pieces, or Bruno Munari and Enzo Mari who, in '56, win a competition held by La Pavoni in collaboration with the magazines Domus, Casabella, and Stile Industria with the Pavoni Concorso machine. Thanks to the colors and modular elements that give the machine a faceted shape, it is immediately renamed "Diamante" and you can certainly recognize it easily among those displayed towards the end of the long white counter running through the room. In the center, there's also a vintage counter branded Faema where you can relive the atmosphere of a 1950s bar.

1950s As you enter, you will immediately notice on the display to the left a cross-sectioned piston, placed next to a horizontal coffee machine with two boilers. This is part of the new technological revolution leading us to espresso as we know it today: with the "crema." The machine in question is the Gaggia Classica equipped with a "lever" mechanism, which was already patented in 1936 by Rosetta Scorza, the widow Cremonese, under the title "Plunger Tap for Espresso Coffee Machine." Achille Gaggia, a little-known Milanese barista, acquired the invention, experimenting with it at his Bar Achille, and later developed his own patent, showcasing it for the first time at the Milan Trade Fair in 1939. This featured the coffee crema dispenser group (advertised as the "Lampo system, the only coffee compressor that works without steam"). However, the onset of World War II brought everything to a halt. At the end of the war, Italy experienced a unique moment in history of economic and social recovery aimed at innovation. The bar became a place of congregation and socialization, no longer reserved for the elite but an ideal gathering spot for everyone, transforming coffee at the bar into a social ritual that transcends class distinctions. Following the wave of prosperity and carefree attitudes pervading Italy after the grim years of the war, bars became increasingly crowded and lively. People gathered not only to watch television, a tool of social aggregation and change still uncommon in Italian homes, but also used the coffee time to read newspapers, discuss sports and politics, spend time together, effectively realizing the concept of "leisure time," which had been entirely foreign to the majority of the population just years before. Indeed, the true revolution in espresso machines is the invention of the lever. In 1948, Achille Gaggia finally put the Classica model into production. For its manufacturing, Gaggia turned to the FAEMA workshops of Carlo Ernesto Valente, who had founded his Factory of Electromechanical Equipment and Related Devices a few years earlier. The machine, fitted with two boilers, allows, thanks to the lever, for high pressure and water at a temperature below one hundred degrees, all without generating steam. The result was groundbreaking: the beverage was produced in just over thirty seconds, with all traces of burnt flavors from steam usage eliminated, and for the first time, the coffee crema was created, from then on inseparable from the concept of espresso enjoyed at bars. The design of the machines is influenced by the allure of the aesthetic model from across the ocean: American style, with its curvy lines, chrome finishes, and sparkling lights, infiltrates new productions, as seen in the La Cimbali Granluce machine with its glossy metal casing and front lighting. The shapes nod to the designs of popular cars (the front of the Faema Saturno resembles the radiator of an American car) and jukeboxes, the undisputed icons of bars and venues of that era. Recognizing the significance of this sector, notable architects also begin to focus their attention on it. Indeed, the experimental spirit defining this creative and historically significant phase also pushes coffee machine manufacturers to consult architects and designers to develop new products in line with evolving needs. For example, the Ponti-Fornaroli-Rosselli studio designs some distinct pieces, or Bruno Munari and Enzo Mari who, in '56, win a competition organized by La Pavoni in collaboration with magazines Domus, Casabella, and Stile Industria with the Pavoni Concorso machine. Its colors and modular elements give the machine a multifaceted appearance, earning it the immediate nickname "Diamante," and it can be easily recognized among the exhibits toward the end of the long white counter traversing the room. In the center, there is also a vintage counter bearing the Faema brand, where you can relive the 1950s bar atmosphere.

Room 4

1960s

1960s In this context, the true industrialization of the coffee machine sector begins, with machines becoming standardized and easily assembled on an assembly line. Production shifts from artisanal to industrial, and the increasing sales volumes make espresso available in every bar. Companies, bolstered by production strategies that optimize time and resources, are able to expand the commercial horizons of this emerging sector of Made in Italy, which increasingly combines technology and design. Cutting-edge materials, signatures of famous architects and designers, and continuous technological research make coffee machines "companions" of daily life, setting new standards in espresso dispensing. The design, already emblematic in the machines of the previous decade, finds its consecration in the Sixties and Seventies. Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, Rodolfo Bonetto, Marco Zanuso are just a few of the illustrious names who, during those years, turned their attention to the world of coffee machines, in a relentless quest to combine technology and style inseparably. In terms of design, during this period, coffee machines become true masterpieces by the most famous Italian designers: the consecration comes in 1962 when the Castiglioni brothers are awarded the Compasso d’Oro, Italy's most prestigious award for industrial design conceived by the eclectic mind of Gio Ponti. For the first and only time in history, a professional espresso machine receives the prestigious recognition: the Pitagora model by La Cimbali captivates the jury with its essential and clean design. The novel use of stainless steel and a chassis designed to facilitate industrial production on the one hand and maintenance on the other, thanks to a very limited number of components and an extremely simple disassembly mechanism, guarantee its unprecedented success. A special mention must be made for the world's most iconic, well-known, and widespread coffee machine: Faema e61. A machine so revolutionary that it remains in production more than 50 years after it first appeared on the market. It is the first continuous-delivery coffee machine that initiated the production of professional equipment that is simple to use and capable of guaranteeing consistent quality in the cup that the sector had been pursuing for a long time. The lever is replaced by a volumetric pump that pushes water at a fixed pressure, producing an excellent coffee crema. Thanks to the particular infusion valve, the coffee powder is pre-wet before being crossed by the water pressure, allowing the coffee powder to be well soaked before dispensing, thus ensuring the extraction of all the coffee's aromas. Named in honor of the great solar eclipse of 1961, this masterpiece, which also became iconic for the design carefully curated internally by the company but with a line that has remained unchanged and recognizable over time, indeed marks the dawn of a new era in the production of coffee machines for bars. 1970s The following years are challenging, going down in history as the Years of Lead. The decade's gloom is paradoxically offset by the new forms, materials, and colors that also make their way into coffee machines. American influence is felt once again during a period of monumental social changes – youth, women's, and workers' revolutions – coupled with dealing with the first major post-war economic crisis. In design, pop culture shuffles the spectrums, introducing vibrant colors in all sectors aimed at expressing a bold self-affirmation. The last great revolution that impacts the coffee machine sector is perhaps the least researched, but certainly the one with the greatest impact on consumers: a new perspective, a change in the relationship. Work and society impose increasingly frenetic rhythms, coffee is consumed quickly, favoring greater productivity at the counter with more space to serve customers. Machines are thus relegated to the back-counter space, forcing the barista to turn their back on the customer during preparation. The relationship loses substance, a relationship that in previous decades facilitated a slow, "social" consumption, providing a quality of interaction between barista and patron far more significant than merely a service. It's essentially a shift of a few meters, but it marks an epochal change: aesthetics change entirely, focus shifts to the dispensing groups, volumes shrink and strive for compactness. Once again, La Cimbali, in collaboration with Rodolfo Bonetto, anticipates this trend with the M15 (in coral color, you’ll find it toward the end of the room), the first colored model adopting a "C" shaped side to compact the volumes while ensuring more lateral maneuvering space for the barista. The placement on the back counter is a change with European traits, not replicated overseas; in the United States and Australia, machines continue to be the star of the counter. This dichotomy challenges designers to find solutions where machines no longer present a noble side to show customers and one to hide, but can be showcased from both sides, with appealing aesthetic features. Now, turn the corner and enter the next room.

Room 5

80s/90s

80s/90s Fashion and design drive the economy, and "Made in Italy" establishes itself in a world that is becoming increasingly globalized. Even coffee machine manufacturers enter international markets, achieving almost immediate success. This is the era when the Italian electronics industry, along with early computers, conquers markets. The same happens in the sector of professional coffee machines, characterized by elegance, personality, and unique style, thanks to creations by major international designers. Italy, already excellent in fashion, design, and a highly desired tourist destination, becomes increasingly representative as an expression of style and "bien vivre," where the coffee bar ritual and cappuccino gain popularity even abroad. With FAEMA Tronic, displayed at the center of the room and designed in 1983 by Ettore Sottsass and Aldo Cibic, the first electronic machine emerges, equipped with a keypad allowing the dosage of coffee dispensed. The opening to markets where the specialization of personnel is not comparable to that in Italy and automation is more widespread, accelerates the development of "super-automatic" machines with integrated automation to ensure a consistently high-quality product, allowing espresso to be enjoyed "as it is made in Italy" in every corner of the world. This openness to new cultures and consumption habits different from the Italian taste leads companies to design flexible espresso machines adaptable to local needs. This is when many technological innovations arise, intended to further perfect machines to make them easy to use, also optimizing available space. The demand to reconcile fundamental economic principles (competitiveness, productivity, and efficiency) with broader interests, including ensuring work quality, accessing new training processes, protecting health and the environment, is increasingly widespread. In the coffee machine sector, this means improving energy efficiency, optimizing use, enhancing ergonomics, favoring new materials with less environmental impact, paying attention to safety and health of users and consumers, and ensuring ever more innovative and challenging process quality and performance parameters. In 1991, the FAEMA technical office, collaborating on aesthetics with Giugiaro Design, developed an advanced product in the traditional machines sector: the E91, displayed on the counter to the right of the room. You can admire its design, inspired by the harmonious lines of the historic E61 model, thus identifying an element of continuity with the company's tradition. The E91 is equipped with cutting-edge technology for the time, fitted with an improved performance microprocessor, allowing the programming of functions aimed at optimizing ease of use and production output. In parallel, in traditional machines, the need emerges to reduce the operations of attaching and detaching the portafilter, making products increasingly easy for the barista to use. Thus, the advent of electronics is ever more decisive in the development of espresso machines, as it allows numerous parameters to be monitored, improving performance and opening up, in subsequent decades, to various evolutionary possibilities even in design.

Room 6

Upon entering the sixth room, we step into our millennium, where the key words become flexibility and responsibility.

Upon entering the sixth room, we step into our millennium, where the key words become flexibility and responsibility. The global spread of coffee consumption and changes in social dynamics influence the ways this iconic social drink is consumed. The onset of the new millennium, marked by great expectations and significant concerns, drastically altered the global outlook: from the Twin Towers to economic crises, and on to the climate change emergency and the pandemic, the transition has been both swift and significant. Bars are no longer the sole and undisputed gathering places: a good coffee or cappuccino can also be enjoyed in the waiting room of a station or airport, in a bookstore, or in a boutique, anywhere in the world. The early years of the new millennium see a return to minimalism in architecture and public spaces. Machines for making coffee are also influenced by the dominant minimalism of their time: clean, elegant, and essential lines, with almost satin-like impactful materials, characterize the design of the early 2000s, catering to an increasingly fast and demanding society. There is also growing attention to coffee culture and product quality, a trend that leads to the creation of a genuine community of enthusiasts. Simultaneously, professional machines become increasingly flexible and technologically advanced, with extremely simple user interfaces, even touch-operated, combining energy savings with high performance, highlighting a growing awareness of the environment as a space not only to live in but also to protect. While in past decades it was easy to identify a mainstream, today this is no longer possible. The society we live and work in is characterized by fluidity and complexity, features that are rendered aesthetically in the synthesis between postmodernist theses and deconstructionist antitheses. The difficulty and beauty of genuinely contemporary architectures and objects are expressed through virtuosities conscious of these dynamics. It is in this period that Gruppo Cimbali (formed in 2005 following several acquisitions, including that of the historic competitor Faema in 1995) introduced to the market machines whose design is a play on references, as in the case of the Cimbali M100. This is a synthesis of Valerio Cometti's industrial design vision of V12 Design in the new millennium, featuring understated lines of elegance and functionality that conceal high-level technologies. Tributes like Giugiaro's Emblema also emphasize daring in shapes, embodying a creative and industrial process where design carries forward the emphasis felt since the industry's inception. There is boldness in form and technology, which becomes a valuable ally in making machines increasingly “flexible” and suited to satisfy every requirement, from those of coffee specialists (the sommeliers of coffee) to traditional baristas, and, of course, to end consumers. The environmental challenges outlined in the 2030 Agenda and the vulnerability exposed by the "pandemic" society underscore the need for greater attention to social, health, and sustainability issues, which have become indispensable for every production sector since the 2020s. Coffee machines respond to these demands through technological innovations and opportunities offered by the Internet of Things. The broader dissemination of coffee culture and focus on product quality bring to the fore a community of enthusiasts, professional bartenders, and coffee specialists, leading to the production of machines that are increasingly flexible, advanced, and sustainable. And with a greater awareness in the relationship between the offerings of coffee specialists and consumer demands, machines are once again taking center stage on countertops.

Room 7

In this room, the past, present, and future of the Cimbali Group (which became such in 2022, following another international acquisition)

In this room, the past, present, and future of the Cimbali Group (which became such in 2022, following another international acquisition of the Slayer Espresso brand) are manifested through their projects and products that have traversed time, always rooted in tradition with a constant drive towards innovation. A new breath, different air while maintaining continuity. This is how forms become style. Each machine is never just a box for content but rather a different chest each time that stimulates all our senses to reveal an array of sensations that change over time and space. Espresso coffee at the service of the customer remains, after over 110 years, a priority. Today, this means innovating to enhance performance and customization possibilities, thanks also to artificial intelligence, which facilitates the customization of functions while obtaining information to optimize settings and maintenance and to allow for remote technical support. Today's machines are super technological in both their traditional expressions (like the M100 Attiva and FAEMA E71E, deemed worthy of entering the ADI Index 2019 and winner of the Red Dot Design award 2019), and in their super-automatic versions (like the La Cimbali S30, which won the Red Dot Design Award in 2016, or the S15, smart in both use and technology). These are the years of great rebrandings, which, with references to the past, project into the future. The La Cimbali and Faema brands are also subject to a rebranding that addresses the need to meet the demands of a consumer who is increasingly attentive and aware of the necessity for consistency between brand, purpose, and product. In 2021, the LaCimbali M200 and Faemina become the first respective representatives to carry the new logos into the world. Moreover, the latest generation machines embody a sense of style paired with functionality. They interact both with each other and with people, creating a synesthesia of function and aesthetics. The coffee machine increasingly aligns with sustainability standards: energy saving, consumption monitoring, and recyclable materials become watchwords of a new awareness. The present always features customers, now free to even interact via apps to obtain a tailor-made coffee, entirely independently. Attention to the environment, ergonomics, health, and comprehensive sustainability are no longer negotiable topics. In the name of technology, the future is open. A future dedicated to the service and enhancement of one of the most demanded beverages worldwide. Constant remain the desire and pleasure of a perfectly crafted coffee, the quintessential break, where we find ourselves in a time that is only ours, be it at home or at a café. In every sense. Because in the end, the question is only one: shall we have a coffee? And in the heart of the museum, finally, the La Cimbali M100 designed by Valerio Cometti becomes an artistic installation. The "exploded" Centenary machine tells you, through technology and design, the full complexity behind what appears to be just a simple cup of coffee and the responsibility of honoring all those 2000 hands that have carried our beverage from the bean to us. Technological soul, innovation, design reveal all the hands and minds of a long and complex supply chain made of raw materials, patents, creativity, and entrepreneurship. A suspension of matter and judgment, a container of small and large stories. Enclosed here, in an explosion that, like an expanding galaxy, represents a bright and spectacular revelation of itself. Thank you for paying attention to this excursus into the design of a sector of the made in Italy that's complex and continuously evolving, always in step with the temporal flow it is immersed in. From the floral Liberty of the early century to the strict rationalism, from the futurism that made innovation a religion and elevated the machine to the status of an embodiment of artistic sensitivity, where not so much the outer shape of the machine, but its internal spirit attracted the interest of designers and where parts of a device did not merely obey a particular function nor were they the result of a scientific rule, but embodied a fundamental need for "beauty", to our days, to the aesthetics of counterdesign where focus becomes the awareness that the mechanism as it functions is not the ideal one, from the colorful and irreverent pop art to creative post-modernism, from the minimalism of the early millennium to the green drive and finally to today where research is constantly aimed at creating a balance between aesthetics and function, tradition and innovation, conception and creation, in a continuous contamination of worlds, in a blend of spirit and rhythm, form and substance. We have reached the end of our journey!