LITEC QH40 in Museum of Cultures, Milan

Architectural installations increasingly require integrated structural and lifting solutions. Close collaboration between our technical team and the project designers ensured a clear alignment between engineering requirements and the artistic concept.
Area Four Industries Italia supplied the motorised support structure for The Moment the Snow Melts, a site-specific work by Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota, exhibited from 19 November 2025 to 28 June 2026 in the Agora of MUDEC – Museum of Cultures, Milan. The artwork transforms the space through a dense weave of suspended threads carrying handwritten notes, offering a poignant reflection on absence and memory.
Our structure supports the thousands of threads that form the installation. The main challenge lay in designing a motorised system that remained clean, discreet and fully coherent with David Chipperfield’s architectural setting.
The suspension system, entirely concealed above the Agora ceiling, houses 4 EXE Rise 1-metric-tonne chain hoists. Below, a 21x6 m LITEC QH40 truss structure – engineered in a special configuration with additional central diagonals – provides the dedicated frame for the artwork. All components were finished to match the hall’s colour palette for optimum visual integration. Precise ceiling perforations allow only the chains to pass through, delivering a solution that is both technically efficient and visually refined.