Milano Design Week 2026

Sabato De Sarno curates the debut chapter of Archivio Italia, Vanity Fair Italia's new cultural project dedicated to the human stories behind Italian craftsmanship. Twelve companies, six materials, and a narrative that puts hands, gestures and inherited knowledge at the center. On the façade of Piscine Cozzi, French Artist JR scales the faces of the artisans involved onto the building's exterior as part of his Inside Out project, turning what is usually invisible in the production chain into a sweeping urban visual.

Isola Design Festival marks its 10th anniversary with the theme TEN: The Evolving Now. What started as a local neighborhood event has grown into a global design network, and this edition returns to its roots. The main showcases move back into the heart of the Isola neighborhood, revisiting locations that hosted early editions alongside new venues extending into the emerging Certosa district. Each collective exhibition revisits a past Isola format through a new lens, combining established ideas with fresh voices. Specific program and exhibitors to be announced closer to the opening.

GEELY Auto and multidisciplinary studio Dotdotdot take over the Sala dell'Organo at Fondazione Istituto dei Ciechi, a neoclassical palazzo built in 1892 around the primacy of sound and music. Inside, five monumental veils respond in real time to visitors' presence, generating layered soundscapes and shifting visuals that intensify as more people enter the space. The more visitors, the more alive the work becomes.

One of the most anticipated destinations of every Milan Design Week, Nilufar Depot transforms this year into an imaginary hotel suspended beyond time and space. Curated by Nina Yashar, the 1,500 sqm industrial space on Viale Lancetti becomes a sequence of signature hotel rooms, each imagined by david/nicolas, Filippo Carandini, Allegra Hicks and Bethan Laura Wood. Objects, materials and installations create an atmosphere of spatial storytelling where collectible design meets fictional hospitality. Also presents at Salone Raritas.

At Nilufar's historic gallery on Via della Spiga, La Casa Magica curated by Valentina Ciuffi of Studio Vedèt with exhibition design by Space Caviar invites a symbolic and ritual reflection on the home. Objects drawn from different design sensibilities are presented as devices capable of activating narratives and restoring to domestic space an immaterial quality that contemporary living too often strips away. Intimate, conceptual and quietly extraordinary.

Named one of the eight most important design galleries in the world, Galleria Rossana Orlandi is a Milan Design Week institution. Set inside a former tie factory on Via Matteo Bandello, the labyrinthine three-floor space with its vine-covered courtyard is as much an experience as the work it shows. Curated by Rossana Orlandi and her daughter Nicoletta, RoCollectible 2026 presents over 90 international designers in a polyphonic exhibition that traces the expanded field of contemporary design. The gallery that launched Maarten Baas, Formafantasma, Nacho Carbonell and Piet Hein Eek. Not optional.

Balenciaga presents “Artean – Eduardo Chillida,” marking the Maison’s first exhibition dedicated to a major artist collaboration under creative direction by Pierpaolo Piccioli. The installation brings together works by Basque sculptor Eduardo Chillida, establishing a dialogue between the Maison’s heritage and sculptural abstraction. The project reflects Balenciaga’s historical connection to the Basque region through a contemporary artistic framework.

Now in its 11th edition, Alcova has become the most anticipated destination for collectible and independent design during Milano Design Week. This year the Exhibition spreads across two historic sites in Primaticcio: Villa Pestarini, the only private Milan residence designed by Franco Albini, and the vast Ospedale Militare di Baggio. Over 120 international exhibitors present across both venues, with a program that mixes emerging studios, established names, and cross-disciplinary practices. Alcova does not follow a central theme. It follows a logic of encounter, placing practices in dialogue with each other and with the architecture that surrounds them.

Now in its 13th edition, 5Vie Design Week returns to Milan's historic center between Corso Magenta, Sant'Ambrogio, and the Colonne di San Lorenzo with the theme QoT, Qualia of Things. A direct counter to the Internet of Things, the district shifts focus from device connectivity to the irreducible sensory experience of objects: the way a color feels, the texture of a fabric, the weight of a vessel in the hand. The main hub is the Cavallerizze del Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci, with installations, collectible design, craftsmanship, and gallery presentations unfolding across historic courtyards, ateliers, and galleries throughout the neighborhood. Among the confirmed highlights: ALMA WATER by Sara Ricciardi Studio, a sonic and tactile environment inspired by the sea with large suspended fabrics and participatory sound instruments. Jōmon: An Anthem for Mothers by Noe Kuremoto, sculptural stoneware vessels reinterpreting ancient Japanese ceramics. Nokori, The Light That Remains by Giopato & Coombes. Byredo at Chiostro del Cappuccio presenting limited-edition sculptural wooden seating. Humberto Campana presenting the textile collection Floralis for Art de Vivre at Teatro Arsenale.

Interni MATERIAE is the most visited exhibition event of the entire Milano Design Week, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors across its five locations. F1 Experiences Co-produced with Audi, the Exhibition spreads across five historic Milan landmarks, activating a dialogue between architecture, design, industry, and research. Each location hosts site-specific installations by internationally renowned architects and studios alongside emerging practices. At the Orto Botanico di Brera, Annabel Karim Kassar presents an installation for ANNAKA with Rubner Haus and ABS, exploring the threshold between nature and construction. At Eataly Milano Smeraldo, Giotto Calendoli interprets MATERIAE for Eataly, uniting design, food, and culture. The official opening takes place Monday April 20 at the Aula Magna of Università degli Studi di Milano in the presence of international architects and exhibition partners.

Every year during Milano Design Week, BASE Milano transforms into a living laboratory of prototypes, radical visions, and emerging practices. The 2026 edition is titled HELLO, DARKNESS, an invitation to embrace darkness as a field of possibilities: a porous infrastructure that welcomes invisible gestures, marginalized knowledge, and luminous forms of resistance. The program opens with a ground floor installation by Studio Smarin, IDIORYTHMIA, which transforms BASE's main hall across multiple configurations: screening room, social hub, performance stage, and rest space with dedicated capsules. Beyond the main installation, 4,000 square meters of exhibition space host projects by academies, universities, design studios, and emerging designers from around the world. Five designer residencies take over casaBASE, the on-site hostel, for the duration of the week. The BASE Terrace Camp runs as a collective experiment in communal living, design, and research. A public program weaving visual arts, architecture, poetry, and science runs throughout. Nights of electronic music, clubbing, and art close each day.

Triennale Milano is the essential institutional stop of Milano Design Week. The permanent collection includes two unmissable highlights. The Museo del Design Italiano, directed and curated by Marco Sammicheli with Marilia Pederbelli, traces Italian design from the 1920s to the 2000s through approximately 400 objects, presented across a chronological path with five thematic installations conceived as dynamic and interactive deep dives. The second permanent highlight is Casa Lana, the reconstructed core of the private Milan residence designed by Ettore Sottsass in the mid-1960s, installed in Sala Sottsass on the first floor. Conceived by Sottsass as a small piazza where people move and meet, the reconstruction is the result of years of archival research and restoration work, with installation by Luca Cipelletti and art direction by Christoph Radl, in collaboration with Studio Sottsass. Note: Casa Lana is closed to the public until March 31, 2026, and will reopen in time for Design Week.

Tortona Design Week 2026 transforms the district into a time laboratory, where design rekindles memory and transforms it into vision. The streets fill with objects that tell two stories at once: the tradition that endures and the future that insists. F1 Miami The historic heart of Fuorisalone, Tortona draws around 400,000 visitors each year across its network of showrooms, courtyards, and large industrial venues. The anchor event is Tortona Rocks, the district's flagship program, joined by Superdesign Show at Superstudio Più and a constellation of brand activations, installations, and open houses spread across Via Tortona, Via Bergognone, and the surrounding streets.

The most attended and internationally recognized district of Fuorisalone returns for its 17th edition under the theme Be the Project. 217 permanent showrooms including 9 new openings, over 190 temporary exhibitors, and more than 300 initiatives spread across historic courtyards, galleries, and flagship stores. Among the key protagonists confirmed for 2026: Patricia Urquiola, Piero Lissoni, Konstantin Grcic, Jaime Hayon, Vincent Van Duysen, and David Chipperfield. Molteni&C unveils its 2026 indoor collection coordinated by Van Duysen across its Via Solferino flagship and Palazzo Molteni. Veuve Clicquot collaborates with Yinka Ilori on Chasing the Sun. Grand Seiko presents The Nature of Time with Atsushi Shindo, Shingo Abe, and Takakuni Kawahara. New this year: Fuorisalone Passport, a digital platform allowing visitors to access a selection of events with a single QR code registration. The district's visual identity is by Milanese illustrator Chiara Ghigliazza.

Porta Venezia Design District returns for 2026 under the theme Design is Act, activating Corso Venezia and its surrounding Liberty architecture across open houses, installations, and temporary exhibitions. The major new development this edition is the launch of Città Studi Design Hub, a new hub extending the district route toward Milan's university area, creating connections between design, research, and education in a neighborhood historically linked to scientific and academic innovation. The debut of Città Studi Design Hub is marked by OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER, a large-scale site-specific installation by 6:AM hosted inside the historic Piscina Romano, transforming the design gesture into a spatial device capable of generating experience. The district also hosts one of the five Interni MATERIAE locations: Zaha Hadid Architects presents a project for Audi at Portrait Milano, Corso Venezia 11.

Molteni&C unveils its 2026 indoor collection coordinated by Creative Director Vincent Van Duysen across two addresses: the Via Solferino flagship and Palazzo Molteni in Via Manzoni. The new outdoor collection presents in a large-scale installation on Via Senato.

The 64th edition of Salone del Mobile.Milano returns to Fiera Milano Rho with over 1,900 exhibitors from 32 countries. This edition's campaign "A Matter of Salone" frames material as the origin and meaning of design: stone, petal, wood, and sponge as the four principles running through the entire edition.In A Luxury Way (Halls 13 to 15), Maison Numéro 20 presents Aurea, an Architectural Fiction, an immersive spatial narrative moving from a Hall of Dreams to a Midnight Bar, combining Art Deco, surrealist, and cinematic references. The Salone Contract project, with its Masterplan entrusted to Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten of OMA, previews through a public lecture by Koolhaas and a day of international forums.

The debut edition of Salone Raritas brings collectible design inside Fiera Milano for the first time. 25 international galleries present curated icons, unique objects, limited editions, design antiques, and high-end creative manufacturing. Among the first confirmed names: Nilufar, COLLECTIONAL, Salviati x Draga & Aurel, Herzog & de Meuron x Marta Sala Éditions, Mouromtsev Design Editions with Job Smeets, and Paradisoterrestre. Curated by Annalisa Rosso with exhibition design by Formafantasma, who conceived the space as a large architectural lantern: modular, porous, and designed to let each gallery express its own identity within a collective narrative. Sabine Marcelis presents a special project condensing light, matter, and perception into a single precise gesture.

The biennial return of EuroCucina, the world's most important kitchen design exhibition, founded in 1974. 106 brands from 17 countries present the next two years of kitchen design, with this edition focused on AI integration, biophilic design, sustainability, and the kitchen as a fully adaptive living ecosystem. FTK, Technology For the Kitchen, running alongside with around 50 exhibitors, presents the latest in built-in technology, smart appliances, ventilation systems, and energy-efficient solutions.

The biennial International Bathroom Exhibition returns with 163 brands from 14 countries. This edition is anchored in the idea of longevity: home spa visions, smart sanitary ware, calibrated lighting systems, water efficiency, and a materiality that prioritizes the senses. The keyword is designed wellness and solutions built for durability, ergonomics, and quality of daily life.

Now in its 27th edition, SaloneSatellite remains the most important platform for emerging design talent in the world. 700 designers under 35 from 43 countries and 23 international schools and universities present work under the theme Maestria Artigiana + Innovazione, a dialogue between traditional craftsmanship and contemporary innovation. Curated by Marva Griffin Wilshire. The SaloneSatellite Award ceremony takes place on Wednesday April 22.

S.Project showcases the infinite possibilities of turnkey interior design, where technical elements, furnishings, and decor coexist in perfect harmony. The exhibition covers a vast range of proposals spanning interior and outdoor furnishing, coverings, lighting, acoustic solutions, wellness products, and textiles. The focus is on the hybridisation of contexts and the transition from the design of single pieces to that of the complete environment: totally coordinated, welcoming spaces conceived as indissoluble wholes. Decorative interior schemes are presented with equal attention to ecological responsibility and aesthetic value.

takes over Spazio Maiocchi with an immersive installation built around the daily rituals of cooking and sharing. Developed with international Designers and Chefs, the project explores how design transforms the way we eat, gather and live at home, with sustainability and food culture running through every environment.

“Design is an Act of Love,” curated by Mauro Porcini, Global Chief Design Officer of Samsung Electronics, is Samsung’s presentation for Milan Design Week 2026. The project is developed as an installation exploring “The Human Side of Tech,” presenting a dialogue between experimental concepts and commercial products. The exhibition focuses on how human-centered design approaches can shape the relationship between technology and everyday life, placing emphasis on emotional and functional design development within Samsung’s ecosystem.

Maisons du Monde celebrates its 30th anniversary with a public experience at Officine Savona, combining staged interiors, artistic interventions, and live creative activations. The installation unfolds across five environments and includes participatory artistic moments such as wine painting and floral composition. The presentation also introduces the Spring–Summer 2026 collection.

Furla presents “Bubble Up,” an installation for Furla Casa exploring light, transparency, and suspended form within interior space. The project extends across two locations, combining furniture pieces such as the “Iride Armchair,” “Fiore Bed,” and “Moonstone Sofa,” with a broader presentation of Furla Casa’s expansion strategy, including future openings in Shanghai and Dubai.

Annabel Karim Kassar restores and transforms a classic Milanese apartment into a 21st-century library-home housing 10,000 books, with grass instead of carpets. An exhibition space for new furnishings, a café-bar, and daily lunchtime gatherings and conversations. One of the most singular concepts of Milano Design Week 2026.

Seven international studios explore marble as a research medium. Kengo Kuma, MK27, Khoury, Claudio Silvestrin, Cacciatori, AAU Anastas, Librizzi, and Robustini create works that blend sculpture, architecture, and design. One of the most architecturally rigorous exhibitions of the week.

MV Line presents Sundrive at Palazzo Litta, the new outdoor covering designed by Giulio Iacchetti: a mobile architectural device that transforms solar protection into an active element, combining climate comfort, technology, and formal research. The setting is Palazzo Litta itself, one of Milan's most extraordinary baroque interiors and the home of MoscaPartners Variations during Milano Design Week 2026.

Crafting Forward explores the intersection of industrial innovation and advanced craftsmanship at Valcucine: the kitchen as a design ecosystem, combining material research, authentic titanium finishes, and new possibilities for bespoke customization.

GROHE transforms Piccolo Teatro Studio Melato into GROHE SPA Aqua Sanctuary, an immersive environment exploring water, wellness, and the future of the bathroom experience.