In the run-up to Milan design week, we've compiled a list of must-see happenings around the city, including a mindfulness space by Zaha Hadid Architects and interior designer Kelly Wearstler's first furniture collection for H&M.

Centred as always around the Salone del Mobile furniture fair, this year's Milan design week (MDW) takes place from 20 to 26 April and is set to host hundreds of designers, architects and brands.

To help you prioritise your time, we've rounded up some key highlights to look out for, both at Salone and in town.

For our full list of highlights – plus in-depth features on the evolution of Milan design week and the state of the local design scene – look out for the second edition of our Dezeen Dispatch magazine in design week locations across the city.

Zaha Hadid Architects x Audi

Zaha Hadid Architects is using spatial compression and expansion to encourage design week visitors to slow down and unplug in its installation The Origin.

Designed for German carmaker Audi, it consists of a titanium-coloured fibreglass portal set on top of a reflecting pool in the courtyard of Portrait Hotel Milano.

Portrait Hotel Milano, Corso Venezia 11

Triennale Milano

As always, there is plenty to see at Milan's Triennale museum during design week.

Visitors can attend The Eames Houses, a show anchored by an architectural installation based on the 1949 modernist home of seminal American designers Ray and Charles Eames (above). The installation is a collaboration between the Eames Office and Spanish manufacturer Kettal.

Also at Triennale, Danish heritage brand Frederica is presenting A Chronicle of Danish Design. Charting a century of Danish furniture, the show combines pieces from pioneers such as Hans J Wegner and Nanna Ditzel with the work of contemporary designers, including Cecile Manz.

Alphabet is another exhibition, which explores the 30-year career of British design duo Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby.

And if that isn't enough, visitors can also head to Continuous Present, a show by Japanese Pritzker Prize-winning architect Toyo Ito dedicated to the work of Italian architect and designer Andrea Branzi.

Triennale Milano, Viale Emilio Alemagna 6

Alcova

Each year, design platform Alcova spotlights the work of international creatives within Milanese architectural gems off the beaten track.

This year, the exhibition returns to Baggio Military Hospital, one of its former locations, and also takes place across architect Franco Albini's rationalist Villa Pestarini, which is open to the public for the first time.

Among the many established and emerging exhibitors are leading British designer Faye Toogood and Spanish creative Patricia Urquiola, Greek architect Kiki Goti and as well as the second edition of India's Shakti Design Residency.

Interdisciplinary student projects are also out in full force, with presentations from design schools including Design Academy Eindhoven and a debut from London's AA School of Architecture.

Baggio Military Hospital, Via Giovanni Labus 15 and Villa Pestarini, Via Mogadiscio 2/4

Metamorphosis in Motion by Lina Ghotmeh

Making her Milan design week debut, Lebanese architect Lina Ghotmeh presents a pink-hued labyrinth set within Palazzo Litta's courtyard.

Formed from curved geometric modules, the installation creates shifting perspectives and a sequential path that subtly guides visitors' movements, with each pocket of space offering a different spatial experience.

The installation forms part of the annual MoscaPartners Variations exhibition, which showcases a wider programme of global exhibitors.

Palazzo Litta, Corso Magenta 24

The Romance of Fragility

Glass takes centre stage in Italian design gallery Delvis (Un)Limited's exhibition exploring the creative potential of fragility.

Works by international designers, including Inderjeet Sandhu (top image), Maria Tyakina and Tino Seubert (above), challenge conventional perceptions of the material. From pieces sculpted to echo stone to others melted into liquid-like casts, each one pushes the material's limits and stereotypes.

Delvis (Un)Limited Gallery, Via Fatebenefratelli 9

About Silk by Ai Weiwei

Using silk as a medium for the first time, multidisciplinary Chinese artist Ai Weiwei envelops the Rubelli showroom in lampas fabric woven with intricate motifs illustrating his evolution as an artist.

The choice of silk underscores the material's origins in China while echoing Rubelli's centuries-old craftsmanship in Venice. The installation also includes an accompanying documentary offering an exclusive look into the collaboration.

Rubelli Showroom, Via Fatebenefratelli 9

Disco Aperitivo by Sophie Lou Jacobsen

Glassware designer Sophie Lou Jacobsen is turning an apartment in Loreto into an ode to 1970s and 80s-era Italian glamour.

The takeover marks the launch of her Disco Aperitivo collection, with party-worthy pieces including cocktail glasses, ruffled placemats, an ashtray and a cigarette box. In the spirit of aperitivo, Milanese institution Palinurobar will be serving drinks throughout.

By appointment only via disco@thelast.agency

Convey

Design platform Convey is occupying an entire five-storey building near Torre Velasca with a showcase bringing together work from 20 emerging brands with buzzy international designers.

Among them are East London studio Six Dots Design, Georgian practice Rooms Studio and Marco Campardo, who was recently named one of Apple's Designers of Tomorrow.

Convey Building, Via San Senatore 10

The White House at Dropcity

While Donald Trump spends the larger part of his presidency tearing down parts of the White House, students at the Politecnico di Milano have turned the building into a case study on domestic propaganda.

Exploring the White House as both residence and media symbol, the exhibition at Dropcity unpacks how its design and interiors – from fences and tablecloths to service corridors and ceremonial spaces – have been used to project power and public image across decades of presidencies.

Seven installations dissect the house's spatial and decorative choices, revealing its role as an icon of political performance. While you're at Dropcity, don't miss the exhibition by graduates of Central Saint Martins' MA Material Futures programme, who present transdisciplinary projects ranging from ultra-stretch textiles to lab-grown gemstones made from paint waste.

Dropcity, Via Sammartini 56

Osteria Fiori di Marimekko

Beloved Finnish brand Marimekko blends design and gastronomy with Osteria Fiori di Marimekko, inviting visitors to step into a playful, multisensory celebration of its floral prints.

Alongside textile installations and a shoppable selection of ceramics, highlights include flower-infused drinks and aperitivo bites inspired by the shapes and colours of the brand's floral prints.

Osteria Grand Hotel, Via Ascanio Sforza 75

Over and Over and Over and Over by 6AM

In the vaults of Piscina Romano, Milanese design studio 6AM explores repetition as a creative engine through an exhibition focused on contemporary glass sculptures.

New pieces – including a limited-edition colour of the Paysage lamp and the Float furniture collection in a new finish – sit alongside blown glass cubes first developed for Bottega Veneta's Summer 2026 runway show (above).

Piscina Romano, Via Ampère 24

When Apricots Blossom by Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation

The Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation debuts at Milan design week with When Apricots Blossom, an exhibition celebrating Uzbek craft through a contemporary lens.

Twelve designers, including Bethan Laura Wood, Marcin Rusak, Fernando Laposse and Nifemi Marcus-Bello, present new work created in collaboration with Uzbek artisans to reframe the material traditions of the Aral Sea region and Karakalpakstan.

Highlights include a colourful tapestry draped across the palazzo's facade (above), orchard-inspired floral installations and interpretations of bread trays and stamps to honour the sacred role of bread in Uzbek culture.

Palazzo Citterio, Via Brera 12

Kelly Wearstler for H&M Home

For her Milan design week debut, American interior designer Kelly Wearstler partners with H&M Home to unveil a first look at their upcoming collaboration, marking the brand's first designer partnership to feature large-scale furniture.

Set within the Baroque grandeur of Palazzo Acerbi, the installation unfolds as a playful sequence of rooms inspired by the collection's themes of daily rituals and modularity, where Wearstler's bold forms flirt with soaring columns and opulent frescoed interiors to create a dialogue between past and present.

Palazzo Acerbi, Corso di Porta Romana 3

Deoron

Digital design platform Deoron returns to Milan design week with an exhibition inside a former ball bearings factory. Opening the industrial site to the public for the first time, the showcase brings together over 50 international designers and brands across furniture, homeware, lighting and technology.

Among the highlights: a tactile pink DJ booth by Berlin-based creative studio Yont, stem and twig-inspired vases born from Amsterdam-based design studio Gast's exploration of CGI materiality (above), and a series of translucent soap spheres by Danish designer Matias Møllenbach, each delicately perched on a matching resin dish.

A bar and a programme of listening sessions and daily events round out the event.

Via Padova 11

Shared Matter

Switzerland's Shared Matter sets out to explore what defines modern Swiss design today.

Co-curated by Dezeen's editorial director Max Fraser and Milan-based architect Maddalena Casadei, the exhibition presents six emerging Swiss designers whose works sit at the intersection of research and cross-cultural collaborations.

Standout projects include a sleek aluminium floor lamp by Panter & Tourron (above) and an intuitive musical instrument that translates abstract music theory by Akuto Studio.

Spaziovento, Via Pinamonte da Vimercate 4

Grand Hotel and La Casa Magica by Nilufar

Nilufar Depot sets the stage for a reimagined luxury hotel, unfolding through a series of curated rooms, a penthouse suite and an outdoor area.

The installation, called Grand Hotel Nilufar (above), brings together imagined interiors and standout pieces by various designers, including Bethan Laura Wood and David/Nicolas.

Across the city, Italian studio Studio Caviar has designed the setting for La Casa Magica at Nilufar Gallery, an exhibition that explores the home as a ritual space through objects drawn from diverse geographical and cultural contexts that engage with belief and symbolism.

Nilufar Depot, Viale Lancetti 34. Nilufar Gallery, Via della Spiga 32

Base Milano 

Base Milano, Milan design week's home for emerging and experimental design, is back with an exhibition of works by more than 80 emerging designers from 23 countries.

The programme includes the return of the venue's urban camping project on its terrace. Twenty students from London's Royal College of Art have taken over the terrace for the week, where they are also camping out for the duration of the design festival.

The project explores modes of collective cohabitation and spatial design practice. And be sure to check out the much-hyped installation FOMO by Alessandro Ramundo.

Base Milano, Via Bergognone 34

Food for Thought by IKEA

IKEA is taking over design gallery Spazio Maiocchi with a reimagined Swedish saluhall, a traditional indoor food market hall, including a large working kitchen.

For the main attraction, the furnituremaker has paired five designers with five buzzy young chefs, who will work together to create an immersive room set and a matching menu informed by different home scenarios.

Among the duos, who will be hosting live cooking demonstrations throughout the week, are London designer Charlotte Taylor and chef Ben Lippett.

The event marks the launch of three new product launches from the company's flagship collection, IKEA PS.

Spazio Maiocchi, Via Achille Maiocchi 7

L'Appartmento by Artemest

Back for its fourth edition, commerce platform Artemest's much-loved showcase L'Appartmento returns to Palazzo Donizetti to pay homage to Italian grandeur.

Set against frescoed ceilings and the palazzo's sweeping elliptical staircase, the exhibition invites five interior design studios, including the Rockwell Group and Charlap Hyman & Herrero, to each reimagine an Italian cultural capital – Venice, Florence, Rome, Naples and Palermo – as a room. The exhibition extends outdoors for the first time, bringing the curated selection of Italian furniture and decor to the courtyard.

Palazzo Donizetti, Via Gaetano Donizetti 48

Superstudio Design

Mega design project Superstudio returns to Milan for its 26th edition. Spread over three permanent locations, the event features the work of participants from 16 countries across Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. Among this year's highlights is an exhibition curated by Marcel Wanders celebrating 25 years of Dutch design brand Moooi, which takes place at Superstudio Più.

There is also a photography project on display at Superstudio Maxi. Called Portraits, the project was created to showcase dialogues between Italian brands, including B&B Italia and Kartell, and products by seminal creatives from Gaetano Pesce to Gio Ponti.

Superstudio Piú, Via Tortona 27. Superstudio Maxi, Via Moncucco 35. Superstudio Village, Via Pericle Negrotto 59

Salone del Mobile

The big news at this year's Salone del Mobile is the launch of Salone Raritas, the fair's first dedicated exhibition for collectible design, with a set created by Formafantasma.

Visitors should look out for a special project from Sabine Marcelis, impossibly delicate glass lamps by Draga & Aurel for Salviati (above) and new work from Lewis Kemmenoe for London's Max Radford Gallery.

More than 700 designers under the age of 35 also feature in this year's edition of Salone Satellite, the fair's platform for emerging talent. Among them is a delegation of seven young stars from Design Week Lagos's annual Design and Innovation exhibition.

Looking ahead to 2027, architecture firm OMA is developing an exhibition for contract furniture at the fair. In preparation, this year's edition is hosting a day of talks dedicated to the topic, with a keynote lecture by studio founder Rem Koolhaas and a programme curated by Koolhaas and OMA partner David Gianotten taking place throughout the day on Wednesday 22 April.

Milan design week 2026 takes place from 20 to 26 April 2026 at various locations across Milan, Italy. See Dezeen Events Guide for more architecture and design events around the world.

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Designer Kelly Wearstler has teamed up with Swedish retailer H&M Home on a line of lighting, accessories and modular furniture that will be unveiled with a Milan design week installation in a palazzo.

The collection will comprise 29 pieces in total, with 13 key designs set to be shown in Milan's Palazzo Acerbi, a 17th-century baroque palace in the centre of the Italian city.

It marks the first time that Wearstler has shown in Milan, as well as H&M Home's debut at the design week.

The collection, which features designs made from materials including textiles, wood, metal, ceramics and marble, will be sold in 40 countries from September and see Wearstler's work reach a larger audience than usual.

"I love that I can reach that higher collectible audience, but also now having this partnership with H&M and doing something that's super accessible, I love that dichotomy," the designer told Dezeen.

Wearstler also redesigned the interior of Palazzo Acerbi for the installation, which was produced by Studio Boum, to reflect the collection's focus on "daily rituals and modular synergy", H&M Home said.

The installation will contrast the palazzo's ornate frescoes and historic collonaded architecture with Wearstler's H&M Home designs, which have a more geometric, contemporary aesthetic.

Among the designs on show will be a modular chair that can turn into a sofa, as well as lamps with a "caged" design and a trompe l'oeil vase.

The Wearstler collaboration marks the first time that H&M Home has created larger furniture pieces together with a designer.

"This collection represents many firsts for us," H&M Home head of design and creative Evelina Kravaev-Söderberg said.

"Having a presence at Milan Design Week has long been a dream, and with Kelly, we knew the moment was right," she continued.

"H&M Home has a global presence, but with this milestone, we want to make an impact on customers and the design industry alike in a new way. When we discovered the venue – the Palazzo Acerbi – everything fell into place."

Wearstler, who is best known as an interior designer, has previously created product designs and furniture, including a piano with "sensual curves" and sculptural marble seating.

Also in Milan this year, architect Lina Ghotmeh will unveil a pink labyrinth.

The photography is courtesy of H&M Home.

Kelly Wearstler's H&M Home collection can be seen at Palazzo Acerbi, Corso di Porta Romana 3, between 9am and 6pm from 21 to 26 April. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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Promotion: Lexus will return to Milan design week this year with an exhibition spotlighting its Discover brand vision, which focuses on its future-facing innovation within luxury mobility.

Lexus explained that since its inception, it has charted its own course, challenging convention and redefining the standards of luxury mobility.

Guided by this mindset of innovation, the brand aims to push the boundaries for better products and services, creating new experiences that value every moment shared with its customers.

This includes accommodating freer movement whilst enabling lifestyles to become more adaptable and enriching.

During the Italian design festival, Lexus will present its new creative installation, which intends to show how mobility is changing from simple transportation into a new experience that "reimagines space itself".

The company explained how movement impacts both public and private lives, and by empowering individuals with more adaptable spaces, Lexus intends to enable people to pursue a lifestyle that feels more fulfilling.

"In this future, mobility transforms from simple transportation into a new experience that reimagines space itself," said Lexus.

To express Discover, Lexus will stage an exhibition at the Superstudio Più Daylight gallery in Milan's Tortona district during the festival, which will spotlight the brand's latest creative initiatives.

At the centre of the exhibition will be an installation platforming Lexus' Flagship, LS Concept, a six-wheeled, chauffeur-driven people-carrier with a voluminous and heavily insulated interior.

First unveiled at the Japan Mobility Show 2025 in October, the Flagship LS – with LS standing for "Luxury Space" instead of "Luxury Sedan" – is a people carrier that represents Lexus' vision for luxury lifestyles.

In addition, Lexus' Milan exhibition will unveil four works created through its Discover Together 2026.

An evolution of the Lexus Design Award launched in 2013, the initiative sees Lexus partner with emerging designers and creatives to pioneer new avenues for the brand.

It was launched at last year's Milan design week with artworks riffing on Lexus' Black Butterfly, the brand's next-generation cockpit interface for electric vehicles.

The Discover Together theme for 2026 is "Discover Your Space". Here, participants will reinterpret the rear seat of the LS Concept as an exploration of a car's personal, private interior space, which Lexus said, "is unlike anything experienced before".

Lexus' in-house designers collaborated with Japanese craftspeople on one of the works, while this year's other Discover Together teams are Italian design studio Guardini Ciuffreda Studio, Amsterdam-based experience design studio Random Studio and Japanese filmmaker and art-director duo Kyotaro Hayashi and Yumi Kurotani.

Lexus highlighted the benefit of collaborating with outside creatives as part of its future-forward vision.

It explained that as a brand, it is committed to understanding and implementing different cultural differences as part of its purpose to pioneer industry and lifestyle change.

Milan design week is the world's biggest design festival, taking over the city each April. Lexus has become a mainstay of the event, having participated since 2005.

To learn more about Lexus' Discover brand vision at Milan design week, visit its website.

The Space exhibition will be held at Studio Più Daylight, Via Tortona 27, Milan, from Tuesday 21 April 2026 to Sunday 26 April 2026.

Partnership content

This article was written for Lexus as part of a partnership. Find out more about our partnership content here.

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Promotion: consumer electronics brand Samsung will explore the human side of technology with an exhibition showcasing experimental concepts and its recent products at Milan design week 2026.

Named "Design is an Act of Love", the exhibition at Superstudio Piu was designed as a "laboratory for exploration".

"Milan design week is where global design culture meets – an open stage for creativity and dialogue," Samsung Electronics chief design officer Mauro Porcini told Dezeen.

"It allows us to share our vision beyond products, engaging with the design community and society at large, positioning technology as a cultural force shaped by humanity, to shape the future of humanity."

The event, which will run from 20 to 26 April, will explore how ideas and concepts become reality.

"It's not a static showcase, but a space for exploration," added Porcini. "We present experiments and evolving visions, inviting dialogue and feedback."

"It reflects how innovation happens today: open, iterative, and shaped by continuous exchange with people."

During the exhibition, Samsung and Dezeen will host a Design Talk focused on the relationship between humans and technology.

"Design begins with care"

Samsung hopes to present a glimpse into how the brand is crafting human-centred and expressive design, enabled by technology that is personal and can make an emotional connection with people.

"It comes from a simple belief: design begins with care," explained Porcini. "Historically, humans created to survive, express, and connect."

"At its best, design is a generous act – shaping solutions that improve lives," he continued. "We are exploring how technology can become more expressive and meaningful."

"It reflects a shift from the rigidity of 'form follows function' to 'form and function follow meaning', a new formula where design is no longer fixed, but fluid and flexible, evolving through interfaces and personalisation to reflect human diversity."

Within the exhibition, Samsung will showcase a combination of recently launched products and advanced concepts.

"From wearables to speakers and displays, from intelligent companions to kitchen experiences – all enabled by AI – we bring this vision to life through a series of concepts and experiments, in dialogue with existing commercial products already moving in this direction," added Porcini.

"We hope people leave inspired"

The exhibition will also consider the role that artificial intelligence (AI) will play in future products.

"As AI, automation and robotics become deeply embedded in our lives, technology will shape how we live, feel, and connect more than ever," said Porcini.

"It is critical that companies and leaders focus their design efforts on authentic human value creation – blending meaning, emotion, and quality of life with performance, efficiency, and productivity," he continued.

"AI systems must be guided by humanity as both an ethical responsibility and a business opportunity."

Overall, Porcini hopes that visitors to the exhibition will leave with an understanding of how technology can be more human.

"[I hope people gain] a sense that technology can be more human, supporting well-being, creativity, and identity," he said. "We hope people leave inspired, seeing how design can enrich everyday life, seamlessly blending into our existence, sometimes in a subtle way, sometimes with a strong iconic presence."

Milan design week takes place from 20 to 26 April. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

Partnership content

This article was written for Samsung Electronics as part of a partnership. Find out more about our partnership content here.

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Architect Lina Ghotmeh has unveiled designs for Metamorphosis in Motion, a "playful labyrinth" set to be installed in the courtyard of Milan's Palazzo Litta during the city's upcoming design week.

The installation, which is Ghotmeh's first site-specific solo outdoor work in Italy, was informed by the history of the palace itself and resembles a pink labyrinth.

It was commissioned for the annual MoscaPartners Variations exhibition, which will be held in Milan's baroque-style Palazzo Litta and showcase a number of global exhibitors.

"Metamorphosis emerges through use," Ghotmeh explained. "The courtyard evolves from threshold to commons, from representation to participation, transforming space, memory and experience into a single, dynamic architectural narrative."

Ghotmeh used shifting perspectives, curved geometric shapes and a sequential path to create the installation, which was named Metamorphosis in Motion because of the way it changes the courtyard space.

"We reflected on the courtyard's role as both passage and representation – an intermediate realm designed to guide movement and intensify experience," Ghotmeh said.

"The installation is a playful labyrinth that activates the courtyard without altering its structure, introducing a contemporary layer that offers visitors a silent pause within the intensity of the design week experience," she continued.

Renders of the installation show a labyrinth of screens and seats with a monolithic feel in a bright cerise-pink hue.

Metamorphosis in Motion will take up all of the central courtyard and be the "scenographic and conceptual centrepiece for the exhibition", MoscaPartners said.

"The installations we have commissioned over the years for this highly distinctive venue have never been mere scenic backdrops, but conceptual thresholds capable of setting the rhythm and atmosphere of the entire exhibition, transforming into living spaces where people's participation becomes an integral part of the work," MoscaPartners founder Caterina Mosca said.

"With Metamorphosis in Action, Lina perfectly synthesises the link between our research and that of the exhibitors: an approach that looks beyond the object to focus on regeneration and adaptation," she continued.

According to MoscaPartners, different areas defined by the labyrinthine modules will offer different ways of experiencing the Metamorphosis in Motion installation.

Last year, the courtyard space was filled with red gravel by South Korean architect Byoung Soo Cho, who created the installation as his first project in Europe.

Ghotmeh was named one of the world's 100 most influential rising stars by Time magazine last year. She designed the Bahrain Pavilion for Expo 2025 Osaka and is set to renovate part of the British Museum in London.

The images are courtesy of Lina Ghotmeh Architecture.

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If you're hosting an event during the 2026 iteration of Milan design week, you could be featured in Dezeen Events Guide's digital guide to the festival.

The latest edition of the festival takes place from 20 to 26 April, with hundreds of brands and designers hosting a range of activations throughout the week.

Whether you're presenting at the 64th edition of Salone del Mobile, which runs from 21 to 26 April, or hosting a fringe event, collectively known as Fuorisalone, speak with the Dezeen Events Guide team to find out more about how you could be listed in the guide.

The Fuorisalone events include exhibition, installation, open showroom, talk, workshop, tour and product launch, spanning multiple participating design districts, such as Brera Design District, 5Vie Design Week, Tortona Design Week and Isola Design District.

To accompany the guide, Dezeen Events Guide is curating an interactive map to help visitors navigate Milan during the week.

How to get listed in Dezeen's digital guide to Milan design week

Get in touch with the Dezeen Events Guide team at eventsguide@dezeen.com to book your listing or to discuss a wider partnership with Dezeen. There are three pricing tiers:

Standard listings cost £150 and include the event name, date and location details plus a website link. These listings will also feature up to 50 words of text about the event. Standard listings are included at the discretion of the Dezeen Events Guide team.

Enhanced listings cost £200 and include all of the above plus an image at the top of the listing's page and a preview image on the Dezeen Events Guide homepage. These listings will also feature up to 100 words of text about the event.

Featured listings cost £400 and would include everything as part of an enhanced listing, plus a post on @dezeen Threads channel, inclusion in the featured events carousel on the right-hand side of the homepage for up to two weeks and 150 words of text about the event. This text can include commercial information such as ticket prices and offers, and can feature additional links to website pages such as ticket sales, newsletter signups, etc.

About Dezeen Events Guide

Dezeen Events Guide is our guide to the best architecture and design events taking place across the world each year.

The guide is updated weekly and includes virtual events, conferences, trade fairs, major exhibitions and design weeks.

For more details on inclusion in the Dezeen Events Guide, including in our guide to Milan design week, please email eventsguide@dezeen.com.

The illustration is by Justyna Green.

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Promotion: Fisher & Paykel has unveiled plans for a nature-inspired installation designed with strategic brand partner Alt Group and architecture studio Calvi Brambilla & Partners for EuroCucina 2026 during Milan design week.

Named Nature–Ritual, Fisher & Paykel's installation will explore how nature-informed design can enhance daily home life.

The "forest-like" installation will aim to recreate a serene Antipodean landscape of interconnected spaces and sensory experiences that demonstrate how "design can elevate everyday routines of cooking, food care and hosting into rituals".

"Architecture attuned to the natural environment gives shape to how we live, and design inspired by nature leads to the creation of beautiful, durable and meaningful things," said Fisher & Paykel CEO Daniel Witten-Hannah.

"From the edge of the Pacific to Milan, we are pleased to announce Nature–Ritual for Milan design week."

Designed by Auckland-based Alt Group and Milan-based Calvi Brambilla & Partners, the installation will be created within the biennial EuroCucina fair within Rho Fiera as part of the Salone del Mobile furniture fair.

It will be designed as a space of cultural exchange, connecting the brand's New Zealand heritage with the world's most significant design event.

The immersive, sensory installation will take visitors on a journey through several "forest-cloaked" spaces that play with scale, light and texture, while expressing the low-impact values of Fisher & Paykel.

"Nature's rhythms influence how we live and design, while its realities remind us of our responsibility to reduce carbon impact," said Witten-Hannah.

"We believe sustainability should feel intuitive and rewarding. As people take pleasure from spaces that are beautifully resolved, they take pleasure from objects that are considered and beautiful to use."

The display will build upon the architectural language developed at Fisher & Paykel Experience Centres in Auckland, London, Melbourne, Toronto and New York.

Within the installation, Fisher & Paykel will showcase appliances from its State of the Art Collection.

This collection, with its minimal, integrated aesthetic, along with the wider installation, demonstrates the brand's ideals and wider design direction.

"Through intelligent, seamlessly integrated products, we seek repeated moments and effortless actions that transform routines into rituals," explained Witten-Hannah.

"The evolution continues to support the clarity of expression and design freedom sought by architects and designers," he continued.

"The reality of minimalism done well is that it is full, not empty – full of exacting standards, rigour and an understanding of how people live, cook, shop and care."

Alongside the installation, Fisher & Paykel is set to host a dinner in the Brera Design District to demonstrate the installation's themes.

Fisher & Paykel was founded in New Zealand in 1934. Find out more about the brand and its State of the Art Collection on its website.

Nature–Ritual will take place at Rho Fiera, EuroCucina from 21-25 April 2026 during Milan design week in Milan. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

Partnership content

This article was written by Dezeen for Fisher & Paykel as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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Italian architect Giuseppe Porcelli sought to bend gender norms when transforming this Milanese apartment into an "intimate homoerotic" backdrop for his inaugural furniture collection.

Porcelli's interior scheme was influenced by the history of garçonnières or bachelor pads – traditionally masculine apartments inhabited by single heterosexual men.

As part of Milan design week, the architect temporarily redecorated the Città Studi apartment housing his office to reimagine this gender-normative concept and share his own take on the stereotype.

"The garçonnière is one of those words that's still used to refer to a studio apartment," explained Porcelli.

"I found it interesting that a word to define that space refers to a hideaway where men used to have their secret love affairs with women," he told Dezeen.

"This concept tickled my brain somehow, but I wanted to make it more personal and approach it from a gay perspective. So not only design a place for private, intimate meetings but also decorate it in a personal way, reflecting taste as well as status."

Porcelli's apartment formed a backdrop for his debut capsule furniture collection, designed to loosen the rigidity between typically masculine and feminine tropes.

Concealed behind heavy Venetian drapery, the pieces included a squat faux tortoiseshell plexiglass lamp crowned by a shaggy silk lampshade.

Glossy lacquered wood was paired with uncoated brushed solid brass to form a low-slung console table, while Porcelli applied a mixture of cotton, bamboo and gold-plated metal to an armchair characterised by a distinctly modernist form.

"Like two sides of the same coin, masculinity and femininity create a balance of unexpected juxtapositions," said Porcelli. "Solid-looking volumes are flawed with tassels, ruches and bamboo details, redefining boundaries."

The floor was fitted with an aubergine-hued carpet, serving as a colourful accent to various framed and wall-mounted artworks celebrating the male body.

A petite leopard-print lamp illuminated the wrought iron bed, which was topped with gold-accented cylindrical throw cushions.

Porcelli, who founded his eponymous interior design studio in 2021, debuted the "intimate homoerotic" apartment during last month's Milan design week before dismantling the project.

"Unfortunately, we had to bring it back to what it was before, as developing interiors requires a proper office with printers, ugly but comfortable chairs, laptops and a lot of samples," he reflected.

"But we kept a few improvements, like the carpet, the window curtains with the fringes at the bottom and the new colour on the walls at the entrance – a pleasant memory of that exciting week."

Porcelli's project was among a line-up of apartments that opened their doors for Milan design week. Elsewhere in the Italian city, local design studio Formafantasma staged an alternative three-act play presenting a critical perspective on modernism and its legacy.

The photography is by Silvia Rivoltella.

Milan design week took place from April 7 to 13. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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South Korean architect Byoung Soo Cho has completed his first project in Europe – a simple red gravel floor. In this interview, he says more architecture should be understated and "primitive".

BCHO Architects founder Soo Cho participated in Milan design week with the temporary installation Nobody Owns the Land, created in the 17th-century courtyard of Palazzo Litta as part of the MoscaPartners Variations exhibition.

Visitors were invited to remove their shoes and walk, sit or lie down on a raised platform of red "earth" – a more humble experience than is typical during the world's biggest design event.

In a time of global conflicts and climate challenges, Cho believes architecture should be more modest.

"Many architects work with beautiful undulating shapes and surfaces, but they are not very sustainable," the architect told Dezeen.

"We use too much energy creating beautiful shapes. I am more interested in making things very simple," he said. "I want to bring back humans' primitive senses."

Cho, 59, founded Seoul-based BCHO Architects in 1994. This installation is one of few projects he has built outside his native country in the past 31 years.

The architect said he prefers working closer to home as it allows him to create designs that speak directly to the Korean landscape, history and culture.

With the rapid globalisation of South Korea, he recognises that the country's heritage is at risk of being forgotten.

"Korea has become a little bit too international in the last 10 or 20 years," Cho said.

"Young architects want to create beautiful forms and shapes. But we want to do something more unique, something that comes from what we know very well."

He references his childhood in a rural village in Gyeongsang, living in a traditional Korean "hanok" house and experiencing the sights and smells of the mountain landscape.

"When I talk to young people now, I realise that they never experienced that," he said.

The landscape is a strong presence in many of Cho's buildings.

The most notable is Earth House (2009), a completely underground courtyard home, while others include the partially submerged Concrete Box House (2007), Tilt Roof House (2014) and Jipyoung Guesthouse (2018).

As curator of the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism in 2023, he chose the theme Land Architecture, Land Urbanism, setting out his vision for architecture to be more in tune with nature.

"I have always had a personal interest in land and earth," Cho said.

"I think the experience of being underground is much more powerful than going up in the sky in a beautiful object."

The architect aimed to communicate this power with Earth Pavilion, installed in Songhyeon Green Plaza for the Seoul Biennale and set to remain in place until at least 2026.

It consists of several manmade hills, forming an undulating topography that surrounds a shallow water pool.

Nobody Owns the Land has a more personal edge. As a child, Cho attended the funeral of a friend's parent, where he was one of the coffin bearers. He recalls being struck by the red tone of the clay soil in the grave.

"I thought it was so beautiful; I never forgot it," he said.

When invited to design an intervention for Palazzo Litta, he wanted to recreate this experience. He hoped visitors would feel the contrast between the red soil and the blue sky overhead.

The palazzo has previously hosted structures by the likes of Diébédo Francis Kéré, Asif Khan and Pezo von Ellrichshausen.

Cho's installation served as a stage for dance performances throughout the design week.

"I didn't want to make the place too casual, with people sitting down eating sandwiches; I wanted it to feel more ceremonial," Cho said.

The underlying message, he said, was to promote peace and harmony with the natural world.

"We have conflicts around the world. Instead of fighting or struggling, I'm trying to give a subtle message to live together peacefully on the ground," he said.

"The ground is so beautiful. When you sit down on the ground, you see the beautiful sky and breathe the fresh air. It's a message for peace."

Nobody Owns the Land was on show at Palazzo Litta from 7 to 13 April 2025 for Milan design week. See Dezeen Events Guide for more architecture and design exhibitions and events around the world.

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Designer Nassia Inglessis discusses how she uses wonder in her work, in this exclusive interview produced by Dezeen in collaboration with ASUS.

Dezeen commissioned Studio INI founder Inglessis to create an experiential installation as part of a showcase exploring materiality, craftsmanship and artificial intelligence.

Titled Design You Can Feel, the showcase was hosted with Taiwanese electronics brand ASUS, and took place in the historic art nouveau Galleria Meravigli, located near the Duomo in the heart of Milan.

The showcase ran during Milan design week, following on from ASUS and Dezeen's collaboration at London Design Festival the previous year.

Inglessis told Dezeen about her experience of partnering with ASUS, and her design process.

"It was such a natural collaboration because of their deep thoughtfulness on materiality", she explained.

Inglessis' installation was titled Wilful Wonder, and was formed of a series of moving wing-like panels, organised around a central walkway.

Each wing was made using aluminium honeycomb panels and ASUS's proprietary Ceraluminum material.

Ceraluminum is a material developed by ASUS for its Zenbook laptops, which combines aluminium's lightweight nature with the durability of ceramics.

"The aluminium honeycomb is unique in how structurally strong it is, but also how well it dissipates heat" said Inglessis.

"It's used in aerospace. In spacecraft, it's in the Voyager, still roaming space, but rarely seen in its raw form."

As visitors walked through the centre of the installation, the panels moved around them in response to their steps.

"We're drawing data from the changes in the conductivity of the piece as people walk through it," explained Inglessis

Touch sensors in the panels relayed each step to a generative AI model, which then interpreted each interaction and formed a screen-based 3D visualisation of the installation.

"The material innovation, the sensorial experience, and the AI algorithm, they're all interlinked," Inglessis said.

In addition to the installation, the showcase also feature a behind-the-scenes area which explored ASUS's design thinking through interactive exhibits.

"At the end of the day it comes back to the human," Inglessis said. "It really comes back to creating that moment of wonder".

Design You Can Feel ran from 8 to 13 April at Galleria Meravigli in Milan. See our Milan design week 2025 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

Partnership content

Design You Can Feel is a partnership between Dezeen and ASUS Zenbook. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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Designer Michael Anastassiades unveiled his Cygnet light, made from Japanese washi paper and informed by childhood memories of kite flying, at this year's Milan design week.

An exhibition at the Jacqueline Vodoz and Bruno Danese Foundation in central Milan showcased Cygnet alongside two other new designs by Anastassiades – Frame and Floor Mobile Chandelier.

But it was Cygnet that took centre stage, with the modular lights hung from bamboo poles in one of the foundation's historic rooms. The poles were rotated 45 degrees to create a diamond shape and bound together using an adapted Japanese square lash.

Cables were hidden inside the bamboo stalks, so the lights appeared to be floating and lit by themselves.

The design was informed by Anastassiades' childhood hobby of building kites out of cane, paper and a DIY glue made of flour and water.

"I was absolutely obsessed with flying kites as high as they could possibly fly," Anastassiades told Dezeen.

"And then there was a moment when you could no longer see the kite, you would lose it in the sky," he added. "It's playing with the wind and then the sun hits it and you see it glow. [The Cygnet] is about capturing that moment."

The lighting is made from Japanese washi paper, a material that Anastassiades has worked with previously.

"It was a simple starting point for me to work with this indirect, softer light and work with paper," he said. "I think this is almost a sort of flying object that could become a light."

"We did a lamp last year, called Blue Skies, which is also made with wood and washi paper; again, it's about capturing the light in an indirect way," he added.

The design of the Cygnet light also draws on scientist Alexander Graham Bell's tetrahedral kite. Anastassiades' design is constructed from two equilateral paper triangles, illuminated by a hidden LED light source.

The light comes in two sizes – 60 and 90 centimetres – and in a variety of compositions.

Anastassiades also showed a new light in the Euroluce section of furniture fair Salone del Mobile – a design for lighting brand Flos called Linked that "hangs like jewellery from the ceiling".

This Milan design week also saw a number of brands and designers put on shows in intimate apartment settings.

The photography is by Nicolò Panzeri.

Milan design week took place from April 7 to 13. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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This month's Dezeen In Depth newsletter examines the impact that tariffs could have on the design industry and features an interview with Philippe Starck. Subscribe to Dezeen In Depth today!

Amid ongoing uncertainty over US import tariffs imposed by Donald Trump, design industry leaders fear income cuts and job losses, Dezeen editorial director Max Fraser reported from Milan design week.

The latest edition of Dezeen In Depth also features an interview with French designer Philippe Starck and an Earth Day-themed opinion piece by energy historian Jean-Baptiste Fressoz.

Dezeen In Depth

Dezeen In Depth is sent on the last Friday of every month and delves deeper into the major stories shaping architecture and design. Each edition includes an original feature article on a key topic or trend, an interview with a prominent industry figure and an opinion piece from a leading critic. Read the latest edition of Dezeen In Depth or subscribe here.

You can also subscribe to our other newsletters; Dezeen Agenda is sent every Thursday containing a selection of the most important news highlights from the week, Dezeen Debate is sent every Tuesday featuring a selection of the best reader comments and most talked-about stories and Dezeen Daily is our daily bulletin that contains every story published in the preceding 24 hours on Dezeen.

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Among the more experiential offerings at this year's Milan design week was a three-act play from design studio Formafantasma, presenting a critical perspective on modernism and its legacy.

The show, called Staging Modernity, was presented at Teatro Lirico in collaboration with Italian design brand Cassina to mark 60 years since the tubular steel furniture of Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand was put into mass production for the first time.

Rather than a pure celebration, Formafantasma founders Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin saw the play as an opportunity to reassess our "idealised conception of modernity".

"A lot of the ideas of Le Corbusier have been simplified and turned into a way of standardising everything, of reapplying modernism everywhere in the same way," Farresin told Dezeen at the opening.

"And so we have cities that look the same, everything is standardised. This is also an outcome of modernity."

Design is "stuck" in the past

The play was centred around the 1929 Salon d'Automne expo in Paris, where the pieces by Le Corbusier, Jeanneret and Perriand that would come to epitomise modernist design were introduced to the public for the first time.

Here, the furniture – and by extension the home – were presented as a "machine à habiter", a machine for living, that eschewed existing traditions and was instead perfectly calibrated to meet the needs of humans.

"Corbusier often talked about the machine for living, thinking about the house as a machine: functional, hygienic, perfect, somehow a shell that protected humans from the outdoors," Farresin said.

The idea of humans as separate from nature continues to pervade design today, he argues, despite what the worst excesses of this world view have meant for the planet and its other inhabitants.

"We're not critical of the work of these authors," Farresin explained. "But anything that is this successful is also misread and simplified."

"I love these pieces, they are tremendous objects," he added. "But it's also important to remember they were designed in 1929. They still look modern, which is interesting. The question is, why is that? Maybe we are stuck."

Play offers a species-inclusive version of modernity

Staging Modernity argues instead for a new kind of modernity that uses the same rational, functionalist approach to meet the needs of other species.

To communicate this idea, Formafantasma based the scenography on the layout of the Salon d'Automne but splintered it into separate fragments.

These were presented not just on Teatro Lirico's main stage but also on smaller podiums dotted across the stalls, to create a more porous vision of modernism, with plastic animals posed alongside the furnishings.

"We let what stays outdoors, what stays outside of the machine, the animals and the other species invade the space," Farresin explained.

The play itself, staged by Italian theatre director Fabio Cherstich, was based on three separate texts commissioned by Formafantasma that view modernism from the perspective of other species.

Italian philosopher Emanuele Coccia contributed a scene in which a chorus of animals pleads with the audience: "Open your modernity to us, we will make something even more beautiful out of it", while the Solitary Foxes monologue by TerriStories's Feifei explores how animals exist in the margins of our cities.

Finally, Spanish architect and writer Andrés Jaque looked at the perspective of materials, dramatising how modernist furniture introduced chrome-plated metal, originally developed to coat bullets during world war one, to the general population.

"At one point we were like: fuck, we're really crazy"

Staging Modernity marks the first time the Formafantasma duo – known for their research-heavy deep dives into topics from wood to wool – have turned their hand to theatre production.

"We tend to be much more cerebral," Farresin said. "And this had an element, which was also fun and emotional."

"It's interesting to see something that you started being interpreted by others," he added. "This is the first time, I think, that we let go so much."

"At one point we were like: fuck, we're really crazy."

The idea to stage a play for this Milan design week was born originally from Cassina's choice of Teatro Lirico as the setting and Formafantasma's desire to honour this historic venue, originally constructed in 1779.

But the idea ended up being in line with the cultural zeitgeist. Several other studios presented theatrical experiences at this year's festival, with American theatre director Robert Wilson staging the Object Chairs Opera at La Scala, while Dimorestudio crafted a theatrical set and performance for Loro Piana.

"I think performance and theater are the most relevant thing in this moment," Farresin explained. "I'm completely sure about that."

"There is so much production of visuals with AI and everything," he added. "But what is beautiful about a live gathering of humans and bodies is that it's right here, right now. It cannot be faked. It cannot be replicated."

"It just is what it is, with all the complexities of mistakes and all the rest."

The photography is by Omar Sartor.

Milan design week took place from April 7 to 13. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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Designer Nassia Inglessis discusses how sensory experiences can be used to create wonder in this exclusive talk hosted by Dezeen and ASUS during Milan design week.

Dezeen collaborated with Taiwanese electronics brand ASUS and Studio INI founder Inglessis to create an experiential kinetic installation that was showcased in Milan.

Inglessis was commissioned to create the installation for Design You Can Feel, a showcase curated for ASUS Zenbook exploring the themes of materiality, craftsmanship and artificial intelligence (AI).

Dezeen editorial director Max Fraser sat down with Inglessis and ASUS senior product marketing manager Coraline Lin to discuss the design behind the installation.

"Here in this exhibition, everything is about getting people engaged," Lin explained.

"A lot of the audience come to us and say, 'what I really love about the exhibition is everything in it, I can physically touch.' That's kind of the things we want to celebrate, and the things that we really want to have fun with," she said.

The installation, titled Willful Wonder, was housed in the historic 1920s Galleria Meravigli, located in the heart of Milan.

The interactive installation featured large, semi-transparent panels that opened and closed in response to movement.

Each wing was made up of aluminium honeycomb panels and ASUS's proprietary Ceraluminum material.

Ceraluminum is a material developed by ASUS for its Zenbook laptops, which combines aluminium's lightweight nature with the durability of ceramics.

Inglessis went on to explain how the installation itself connected to the concept of sensory engagement.

"It was to create this element of wonder in how we relate to materials, to form, to structure," she said.

"There's a starting point of the material itself, [with] the Ceraluminum and the aluminium honeycomb that creates a wonder of the senses, both in touch and in vision."

Speaking on how Ceraluminum was developed by ASUS, Lin said "It's always about making the end user feel good, and really make good use of it."

"We spent so many years exploring the colours, the porosity, and the textures we were looking for," she added.

As visitors walked through the centre of the installation, each of the Ceraluminum-tipped panels shifted around them to create an undulating rhythmic effect.

"There is the wonder of a structural space, an architectural scale that can actually respond to your movement," Inglessis told Fraser.

Fraser noted how the movement of Willful Wonder evokes an unfurling leaf.

"The piece itself is never static," responded Inglessis. "It comes alive with the human presence. It takes form from it, and it's constantly in response to its environment, as you have in plants and in nature – they close up or open up in response to the sun."

"That is that dynamic impermanence we see in nature a lot, yet we don't always get to feel in our built environment. And that's something that I wanted to bring here," she said.

As users moved through the structure, touch sensors in the panels relayed information to a generative AI model.

The AI model then interpreted visitor interactions and formed a screen-based visualisation of the installation.

Fraser concluded the discussion by asking Lin about the importance of exhibiting at Milan design week.

"This is the city of design. We want to be here," Lin said. "We want to showcase, and tell the world the design capabilities, the design thinking [of ASUS]."

"All the staff in this exhibition are actually the designers of ASUS," she added.

"We want each of the designers to really get to know what people think, and what our end user is really looking for, and they could engage and improve, and perhaps dig out something more inspirational for the coming generation," she concluded.

The showcase marks the second year that Dezeen and ASUS Zenbook have partnered up, building on the success of last year's Design You Can Feel exhibition during London Design Festival.

Design You Can Feel ran from 8 to 13 April at Galleria Meravigli in Milan. 

Partnership content

Design You Can Feel is a partnership between Dezeen and ASUS Zenbook. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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French studio Warm Weekend teamed up with designers Mathias Palazzi and Robinson Guillermet to create a demountable steam room that was presented at the Alcova design event during Milan design week.

Called 18 Drops of Sweat, the self-initiated project was originally developed by Guillermet, Palazzi and Warm Weekend to highlight the benefits of collective hygiene practices.

Marlon Bagnou Beido of Warm Weekend told Dezeen that the installation's main objective was to provide a space for conversation around public hygiene, bathing and water use in a shared setting.

"The question of resources has been a recurring theme in our work, both in our individual practices and as a collective," he explained.

"In this case, we aimed to explore water consumption and rituals by creating a small-scale space that could question or reframe this concept through different uses."

Its creators described 18 Drops of Sweat as "a collective and spontaneously built hammam". The main element developed for the project is an inflatable steam room that responds to the need for a versatile object with the potential to be used in different scenarios.

The designers worked with specialist inflatables manufacturer JC Keller to develop a solution that Bagnou Beido said "combines softness with a strong spatial presence."

The hammam can accommodate up to four people seated or up to eight people standing at one time. A steam generator connected to a water supply releases steam through a copper pipe into the centre of the structure, creating a comfortable, humid environment.

The internal temperature is capped at 55 degrees Celsius to avoid damaging the plastic material, and an opening at the top of the dome allows air to circulate.

The hammam is positioned on a platform made from a demountable galvanised-steel structure that makes the installation easy to transport and reassemble in various locations.

A shower is positioned on a simple tiled wall, with a curtain made from a technical textile sourced from deadstock extening around the platform’s perimeter.

This allows for different levels of privacy depending on whether the space is being used for bathing, relaxing or socialising.

Four low tables arranged around the platform feature curved internal shapes that combine to create a hollow circle. These surfaces provide places for the hammam's users to sit and chat or drink tea, reinforcing the project's social and communal aspects.

At the Alcova installation, the hammam was presented alongside stools designed by Palazzi, Bagnou Beido and Simon Chaouat during a one-month residency in a German metal folding factory.

The stackable and demountable stools reference the industrial objects produced in the factory and feature three identical parts, with legs that each also form part of the seat.

The exhibition also included a lounge chair and screen created by Palazzi and Bagnou Beido as part of a collectible furniture series that complements the hammam installation's use of found industrial materials.

Made from heat exchangers salvaged from a metal scrapyard, the designers aimed to celebrate the character of the found objects by minimising their interventions.

The Boketto Paris gallery supported the Milan presentation and provided vintage furniture for a lounge area that complemented the installation's themes of relaxation and communal experiences.

18 Drops of Sweat was originally funded by Agir In Seine-Saint-Denis, a public programme supporting social initiatives related to water in the 93rd department of France.

This Paris suburb lacks public facilities for water-related activities such as swimming pools, so the designers set out to create a public bathing space that was built simply, using mostly repurposed materials.

It was first installed in the summer of 2024 at the La Station – Gare des Mines arts centre and music space.

The installation served as a shower station and water point for refugees during the day, and at night was used by partygoers as a place for socialising and relaxation.

"What we envision is a form of communal luxury – a space where the experience of water becomes playful, generous and collective," said Bagnou Beido.

"The installation's power lies in its ability to surprise, to create moments of joy, and to propose that reconnecting with collective hygiene practices is not about returning to the past, but about envisioning a more sustainable and pleasurable future," he added.

The hammam was informed by the work of Hans Walter Muller, an architect who experimented with inflatable structures in the 1970s, as well as by the participatory environments created by Austrian architect Anna Paul.

Other projects on show during Milan design week included a modular house filled with "hacked" Muji products and an exhibition exploring the hidden violence of prison furniture.

18 Drops of Sweat was on show at Alcova during Milan design week from April 7 to 13. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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This year's Milan design week was a noisy assault on the mind that often felt light on substance and heavy on commercial opportunism, writes Max Fraser.

For as long as I've been attending Milan design week, I've contended with two conflicting emotions: that which gets a buzz from the influx of creative novelty, and that which struggles with the unapologetic onslaught of new stuff.

Usually I've managed to inhibit that latter feeling. This year I struggled.

The annual gathering of the international design community in Milan is truly a phenomenon unseen elsewhere, and one of the most concentrated moments of publicly accessible creative expression. The sheer amount of time and effort that goes into delivering the many design presentations is impressive. And the fear of missing the best of them is real.

It has become one of the most exploited, noisy and over-subscribed moments in the calendar

By virtue of this, it has also become one of the most exploited, noisy and over-subscribed moments in the calendar. It would seem everyone wants a piece of the action. Perhaps that was always inevitable – what company wouldn't want to boost its brand perception in front of a potential audience of hundreds of thousands of local and international design enthusiasts?

The mass influx of visitors is generously absorbed by the host city of Milan each year; due to the vast economic boost it brings, it's a disruption the municipality embraces, the citizens tolerate and others exploit.

Notably, the price of mediocre accommodation is inflated for the week, often to absurd levels. For those considering attending on their own dime, I'm sure many have been pushed out by the costs.

But the expense isn't a new phenomenon. What is new is the arrival of a vastly different demographic of both exhibitors and visitors.

The week was once a key moment for mostly European producers of furniture and interior products to showcase their objects in a trade fair environment. More experimental design found its forum in unusual settings around the city. The avant garde of objects has always attracted the cool and the discerning, marking Milan as the key setting for the trends of the year ahead.

Understandably others want a slice of that cool cake. For many years now, the week has been commandeered by a broad swathe of related industries, including fashion, art, beauty, technology and automotive. Big consumer brands are great at identifying and hooking onto key hotspots to "activate". Milan design week has definitively become the hottest target for those looking to broaden their market penetration.

I met one executive who was thrilled that people had to wait two hours to get into their show

As more big-budget presentations have arrived, all participants have had to shout louder to be noticed. Every form of media has been steadily amplified and ballooned into an unwieldy citywide marketing frenzy.

The stakes are high. Significant investment is required to commission big-name designers, implement high production values, pump out marketing campaigns, hire impressive venues and also staff them. Success seems to be marked by popularity and amplification, rather than a tangible boost to the bottom line.

Indeed, there is nothing more visceral than a queue of punters snaking around the block to represent success. Marketing directors are able to report that their multi-million euro presentation of brand ideology had huge influence. I met one such executive who was thrilled that people had to wait two hours to get into their show. But for the rest of us, the experience is frustrating and boring, to say the least.

As a member of the press, a perk of my job is being able to jump those queues via a dedicated media lane. This privilege affords me a quick zip around any of the over-subscribed events. For the most part, my reaction to said event would vary between indifferent to positive, depending how interesting/beautiful/well-crafted/fun it was, even if I may have departed somewhat puzzled by the core intent.

However, with every minute that one waits in a queue, one's expectations increase. Had I waited two hours for entry, I'd likely have departed agitated, perhaps even angry at the unfulfilling consumption of my time, feeling duped by the hype.

This year, those eager to bypass the queues had often made the effort to pre-register for specific timeslots, only to find out that everyone else had done too, and they still had to wait.

Surface-level designs were aplenty, of the "just because you can doesn't mean you should" variety

All of this leaves me wondering what spell has been cast on us that we so willingly expend our valuable time dedicated to what is, as design strategist Kuan Chi Hau put it in a LinkedIn post, a form of "brand tourism".

Fashion brands in particular seem to have perfected the recipe: dangle the carrot of some kind of free gift to eek out an audience, make them wait, give them a selfie moment and then insult them with a free perfume sample as they leave. Fuelling it are Instagram accounts such as Milano da Scrocco, dedicated to the venues where you can find free stuff during the week.

But the days of dressing up superfluous stuff and placing it amid vapid installations in exceptionally beautiful spaces surely need to stop. It feels like a trick and it's an assault for it to saturate our brains. The never-ending iterations of gregarious, materially intense, hyper-luxurious furniture dressed up in nonsensical marketing language is exhausting.

The noise – visual, audible, mental – puts great strain on one's propensity to delve deeper than the superficial. And surface-level designs were aplenty, of the "just because you can doesn't mean you should" variety.

I found myself craving unfussy, simple, well made, functional commercial designs. The kind that you can imagine real, honest, everyday people wanting to own. These sorts of products can still be found at Salone del Mobile, Milan's trade fair. But yes, many of the mega-brand fortresses there also have queues.

For all my misgivings about Milan design week in 2025, it should never be forgotten that there are still so many carefully considered, materially sensitive, socially and environmentally relevant creations to admire and learn from. There are still quiet, nuanced, delicate presentations in unexpected locations to seek out.

So much of the important stuff is getting drowned out, pushed aside by the prevailing hype machine

There are still hundreds of cross-cultural conversations to enjoy with some of the most imaginative talents in the business and there is still business to be done. There are still opportunities to knock heads together and put the world to rights over cappuccinos, gelato or negronis.

There are still everyday Milanese eager to engage in some spectacle, have a fun day out and broaden their understanding of design. And as much as I've come to dislike the word "immersive", there is still the occasional immersive experience that can tickle the imagination.

The problem is that so much of the important stuff is getting drowned out, pushed aside by the prevailing hype machine. I doubt this noise will dwindle much next year.

Meanwhile, the same roster of big-name designers and big-name brands continue to dominate. Any hope of reaching those lofty heights must feel unattainable to young and emerging designers today.

Beyond the selfies, the posturing, the queues, the fancy stuff and a fair amount of chatter about US tariffs, one thing jarringly missing from the conversation was design's responsibility to reduce its environmental impact. Sure, the word "sustainability" continues to be thrown around the place but any substantive change, or rallying calls to action, were few and far between.

Towards the end of the week, I chanced upon a symbolic sight: only metres from yet another enormous queue was a largely neglected mural proclaiming "There is no planet B". It had been brandished with a flyposter for a nearby pop-up perfume giveaway from a luxury fashion label.

Smart guerilla marketing or opportunistic vandalism? Or perhaps a sour reminder of just how little attention we're paying to the most pressing existential issue of our time?

Max Fraser is editorial director of Dezeen.

The photo is by Max Fraser.

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Promotion: US work furniture brand Humanscale premiered its comfort-focused Humanscale Living collection at Salone del Mobile last week.

At the Milan design week trade fair – the world's largest of its kind – Humanscale presented its Living collection, including six products, incorporating a preview of the soon-to-be-released Diffrient Lounge chair.

The curated selection was chosen to highlight Humanscale's growing work-from-home offering.

Designed by industrial designer Niels Diffrient, the Diffrient Lounge is Humanscale's first lounge chair in over 40 years of trading.

Featuring a small integrated work surface and articulating back and headrest, it facilitates working away from a desk.

The preview in Milan precedes the Diffrient Lounge's official launch at Fulton Market Design Days in Chicago this June.

Also on show at the Salone was the soon-to-be-released eFloat Quattro, an electric sit/stand table.

An addition to the Float family, the Quattro's four rounded legs afford a light profile that helps it fit more naturally into a home environment.

As well as these new designs, the Humanscale Living display also featured more established products in the brand's seating portfolio.

Among them was the ergonomic Sedeo stool. Created by industrial designer Don Chadwick, the Sedeo's contoured seat shell encourages good posture and spine health, and is available in both bar and counter height.

The Freedom chair, designed by Diffrient, is a Humanscale product well-known for its self-adjusting recline and dynamic support system, which uses the sitter's weight and movement to adjust without the need for knobs and levers.

The luxurious Summa – which doubles as a task chair or an occasional chair – has a weight-compensating recline mechanism and integrated armrests.

Finally, the customisable and certified climate-positive Trea Task Lite was designed by Todd Bracher to mimic the body's natural recline. It combines a supportive shell back with a waterfall edge to soften pressure on the back of the knees.

To find out more about Humanscale, visit its website.

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This article was written by Dezeen for Humanscale as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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Design practice Studio TOOJ's illusory Duk furniture series features hard, unmoving forms that look like draped cloth but are made of wood and mycelium.

The Duk – the Swedish word for 'tablecloth' – series was created in collaboration with biotech company MycoWorks, whose Reishi material puts the finishing touch on the furniture pieces.

The pieces were sculpted from wood and then upholstered with the leather-like living material, grown from the root structure of mushrooms.

Studio TOOJ created and showed the first piece in the collection, a floating corner table, in December 2024, and went on to launch a side table and pedestal in the same style at this year's Milan design week.

Ashley Wilén-Jong, who founded Studio TOOJ with her partner Johan Wilén-Jong, explained that the series was born out of a fascination with illusion.

"I remember being captivated by surrealism as a teenager – especially the way Salvador Dalí could make familiar objects appear strange and dreamlike," said Ashley Wilén-Jong. "That stayed with me."

"Years later, the Duk series emerged from that same curiosity: How can we make something solid feel fluid? How can we create an object that makes people do a double-take?" she continued.

The duo didn't have the Reishi material in mind when they designed the first piece, but once they started working with it, they found it became an essential part of the project.

"The illusion comes from the form itself — it's carefully sculpted to mimic the folds and tension you'd see in real draping cloth," said Johan Wilén-Jong. "That's the core of the visual ambiguity we're exploring."

"Reishi then adds another layer of illusion," he continued. "Its natural textures and matt softness make it feel almost textile-like, even though it's a completely different kind of material. It blurs the boundary between soft and solid in a way that's both playful and disorienting."

Reishi is the flagship product of MycoWorks, which calls it "the best biomaterial on the planet".

The company says that the material offers designers a high degree of control, since it is lab-grown using a process that allows the company to tailor its strength, feel and appearance.

"Unlike traditional leather, which requires the designer to adapt to the inherent limitations of animal hide – such as shape, thickness or surface imperfections – Reishi offers consistent quality and performance, enabling new possibilities for creativity and design," said MycoWorks.

The Duk x Reishi collection was shown at the Milan store of perfumer Le Labo from 6 to 11 April. Alongside the series was another piece made from Reishi, a folding screen called the Mycelium Paravent by Fanny Perrier.

Studio TOOJ made its international debut at last year's Milan design week at the annual Alcova group exhibition, where it showed a bright blue 3D-printed sand table.

The photography is by Felix Speller.

The Studio TOOJ x MycoWorks exhibition was on during Milan design week from 6 to 11 April 2025. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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Paris studio 5.5 has repurposed classic products from Japanese brand Muji to create the fixtures and furniture for a modular "manifesto house" unveiled during Milan design week.

The Muji Muji 5.5 house features six interchangeable modules, filled with objects made from Muji products, including storage boxes, baskets, hooks and kitchenware.

These objects include chairs from sets of drawers, a screen door glazed with box lids, shelves made from wooden trays and a kitchen sink formed of a plastic tub.

Claire Renard and Jean-Sébastien Blanc, founders of 5.5, created step-by-step instruction diagrams for 12 of the objects they designed, showing visitors how to easily make their own. These are available on Muji's website.

"This ensures that no unnecessary production takes place," said the designers.

"It is up to you to create your object locally, using already manufactured, pre-existing products – and only if you truly need it."

This series, called the Muji Muji Ready-Made Collection, also includes a magazine trolley made from a pair of file organisers, a birdbox made from an upturned drawer, shelves made from wooden trays and a lamp housed in a storage tub.

An upturned bowl and spoon come together to provide a gong, while a pair of pump bottles connect to a bin lid to create a coat rack.

The Muji Muji 5.5 house was on show in a courtyard garden in Brera throughout Milan design week.

The building's six modules were connected in a linear sequence, with each one sized to suit its contents.

The first was a bathroom containing a Japanese-style wooden bath tub, while the second was an entrance porch featuring seats with integrated shoe storage and hanging space for hats and coats.

A kitchen and a workshop-cum-dining space formed the middle two modules, with details including a space-efficient larder filled with stacking jars and wall-mounted metal grids for hanging pots, pans and utensils.

Next up was a sleeping space featuring tatami mat flooring and additional cushions, while the end module was lined with shelves for growing edible plants and herbs.

The designers' drawings show how the house could also be made smaller, consisting of just three or four modules.

Whatever the arrangement, the house is designed to function with minimal environmental impact.

The structure is raised off the ground to protect it from ground moisture, and the walls are insulated with textile blocks made from recycled clothing. The sloping white roof was designed to reflect light and collect rainwater.

"This creative, modular and minimalist home embraces modesty and frugality while addressing the need for serenity amid the city's bustling energy and spatial constraints," said Muji.

"This adaptable house is built from a catalogue of prefabricated modules that can be added or removed as needed. Its size and interior layout adjust to your preferences, allowing you to create a home that truly suits your lifestyle."

The design could become available to customers in the future, a Muji representative told Dezeen.

It would continue Muji's ongoing series of prefabricated houses, which include the indoor-outdoor Yō no Ie launched in 2020 and the Muji Hut launched in 2017, which is still on sale in Japan.

The Japanese brand previously also unveiled a concept for future housing in the House Vision 2016 exhibition in Tokyo, a collaboration with Atelier Bow-Wow designed for paddy field areas.

Muji was keen to work with 5.5 on this project after admiring the studio's talent for upcycling in previous designs.

A selection of past 5.5 designs was on show in Milan alongside the Muji Muji 5.5 house. Examples included a coat stand made from standard coathangers and a chair with a replacement leg.

Muji Muji 5.5 was on show from 8 to 13 April 2025 as part of Milan design week. See Dezeen Events Guide for more architecture and design events around the world.

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Dutch designer Arno Hoogland has developed a technique for transforming MDF panels into walls and furniture with hypnotic 3D textures.

In a solo exhibition for Milan design week, Hoogland showed how he uses a robot to carve intricate patterns into the surface of MDF, the engineered wood also known as medium-density fibreboard.

The show, titled Deus Ex Machina, saw the Amsterdam-based designer construct a "temple of the future" out of these digitally crafted panels.

Hoogland also presented chairs, tables and tiles made from the material, including some with a silver metallic finish.

"It's a tribute to MDF," Hoogland told Dezeen during a tour of the show.

"MDF is not the most elegant material – no one is proud of using it. But I wanted to show that MDF can be beautiful."

Hoogland developed the technique after discovering a software program that could turn his 2D drawings into 3D textures.  He uses this to program his CNC milling machine, which carves the textures into the MDF panels.

The CNC robot was in operation throughout Milan design week, allowing Hoogland to gradually build up the walls of his MDF temple.

Some of the textures had a geometric logic, formed of organised lines and repeating patterns. Others were more like graphic artworks, with abstract forms and overlapping motifs.

The designer hoped to show a different side to a material often seen as cheap and ugly.

Having trained as a carpenter before becoming a designer, he wanted to be proud rather than ashamed of using MDF.

"I never used to show the machine and, when people asked me what the material was, I would say pressed wood. I never said the word MDF," he said.

"This exhibition is me coming out of the closet," he continued.

"I wanted to show everyone what we can do with this material. It would take a long time to do all this by hand with a chisel, but we make it easy."

MDF is made by pressing a mixture of waste wood fibres and glue at a high temperature. Some MDFs are more eco-friendly than others, depending on the choice of binding agent.

Hoogland used an MDF made with plant-based glue, billed as "the world's first biobased MDF". Provided by material supplier Blok Plaatmateriaal, it is the Fibralux Biobased from Belgian manufacturer Unilin.

"This is the MDF future," Hoogland said.

Deus Ex Machina formed part of the Isola Design District, a subsection of Milan design week that spotlights young and emerging designers and studios.

The exhibition title is a Latin term that translates as "god from the machine". To reinforce the idea of the robot as a creator of new worlds, Hoogland put it under a spotlight in the middle of the exhibition.

His robotically carved MDF chairs and tables were displayed around the temple, surrounded by piles of sawdust created from the carving process.

These included the silver objects, which were created by adding a chrome finish to the carved MDF.

The exhibition walls were covered in tiles, which were offered on sale to visitors. Every piece sold was accompanied by a letter claiming to be written by the MDF itself.

It read: "Many say I drifted too far from my wooden roots and hate me for my dusty reputation. But I am very loveable. Embrace the dust. For we are all dust, and to dust we shall return."

Studio photography is by Bram Spaan.

Deus Ex Machina was on show from 7 to 13 April 2025 as part of Milan design week. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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Bangladeshi design brand Fico presented its debut furniture collection at Milan design week, featuring sculptural statement pieces that combine contemporary influences with traditional craftsmanship.

The collection includes a side table, sofa, chairs and room dividers, with design overseen by Fico founder and entrepreneur Rayana Hossain.

Hossain previously set up another company called ISHO that produces affordable, functional furniture catering to modern lifestyles. But with Fico, she aimed to target a younger, design-savvy audience attracted to high-end pieces.

"I wanted to create a brand that feels like an escape, where old-world charm, global cultures and Mediterranean ease meet to inspire a new kind of casual luxury," she told Dezeen.

These diverse inspirations, combined with a focus on quality materials and manufacturing, bring a sense of richness and refinement to the products, according to Hossain.

"Fico is guided by the idea of being playful yet poised," she said. "There's a lightness in spirit, but always with depth and intention. Materials and textures play a huge role; I'm drawn to old-world textiles, rich surfaces and details that carry a sense of history."

The collection's highlights include the Barbara console and side table, defined by their use of spherical forms and asymmetric legs that aim to balance structure with fluidity.

The Ondine ottoman is a statement piece with an organic form intended to embody movement and interaction while allowing for a range of different uses.

Exemplifying Fico's dedication to supporting artisanal traditions, the Woven Air room dividers incorporate intricately woven Jamdani textiles within their geometric wooden frames.

Developed in collaboration with master Jamdani weavers using centuries-old techniques, the designs celebrate the delicate transparency of these textiles by placing them in a surprising new context.

The collection was developed in-house. But in the future, Hossain hopes to collaborate with artisans and international designers to expand the brand's offering.

"The goal is to bring in unique perspectives, techniques and materials while staying true to our spirit," she explained. "We're especially interested in partnering with brands that share a similar lifestyle and audience, where we can complement each other in meaningful, creative ways."

The collection was presented as part of the MoscaPartners Variations exhibition at Palazzo Litta, which brings together international architects, designers and artists to create a space for experimentation and dialogue between different cultures.

Alongside her work as a businesswoman, Hossain is dedicated to policy reform and is a strong advocate for Bangladesh's design and manufacturing industries.

Her family owns one of the country's largest conglomerates, which specialises in apparel and fashion. Fico's products are manufactured at one of the group's factories, which also produces pieces for ISHO and other large companies.

Hossain suggested that her aim with both brands is to showcase the best of Bangladeshi design and manufacturing by bringing it to an international audience.

"Bangladesh has an extraordinary legacy of craftsmanship and a growing appetite for design," Hossain explained. "There's a raw creativity and cultural richness here that's often overlooked."

"The challenge is infrastructure and access – design often remains on the periphery rather than at the core of industry and education," she added. "That's slowly changing, and we are ensuring that we are part of that shift as a company."

Among the other highlights from this year's Milan design week was a display of pleated lighting in the city's flagship Issey Miyake store and a show exploring prison furniture curated by the Dropcity centre for architecture and design.

The photography is courtesy of Fico.

Milan design week took place from 7 to 13 April 2025. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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Dezeen Showroom: following Milan design week 2025, we've detailed six more furnishings, lights and tiles that launched during the event and were published on Dezeen Showroom.

Milan design week took place from 7 to 13 April this year and platformed the release of a wide variety of products by various international brands.

From industrial-looking metal chairs to a glowing lamp made from bioplastic and wool, the items released over the week were diverse in form, function and origin.

As well as product launches, the city-wide event hosted parties, installations, open showrooms and other activities.

Visit Dezeen's dedicated digital guide for a full run-down list of the events that occurred over the course of the design week's 2025 edition.

Read on to see our pick of pieces on Dezeen Showroom that debuted during Milan design week.

Strut chair by Yağmur Köylü for Yet Design Studio

Istanbul and London-based practice Yet Design Studio looked to aluminium construction materials to inform the design of its aptly-named Strut chair.

The stackable seat is composed of angular lengths of metal, which look like structural angle profiles. The overall effect is softened by the circular padded seat cushion.

Find out more about Strut ›

Loja lighting collection by Sebastian Herkner for Midgard

A sweeping, hat-like shade made from paper that can be tilted and rotated by hand sets German lighting brand Midgard Licht's Loja lighting collection apart from others on the market.

A pendant light is included in the range alongside standing floor and table iterations, which share a cylindrical, pedestal-style base made from hand-blown glass.

Find out more about Loja ›

Beosound Balance Natura speaker by Antolini

Italian natural stone company Antolini worked with audio brand Bang & Olufsen to create a statuesque speaker that comprises a speaker fixture crowning a cylindrical stone pedestal base.

The Beosound Balance Natura speaker combines various types of stone and petrified wood with sleek aluminium detailing to create an object that is both sculptural and functional.

Find out more about Beosound Balance Natura ›

Tabacco Terrae tiles by Casalgrande Padana

One of the colourways in Italian brand Casalgrande Padana's Terrae tile collection is a smoky grey hue aptly named Tabacco.

All tiles in the range can be specified in a number of sizes, shapes and surface finishes options. The collection also includes versions for both indoors and outdoors.

Find out more about Tabacco Terrae ›

Big Glow lighting by Woolmark and Studio Truly Truly for Rakumba

Wool meets bioplastic in this glowing, globular pendant lamp designed by Dutch design firm Studio Truly Truly in collaboration with Woolmark for Australian lighting brand Rakumba.

Big Glow lighting celebrates Australian materials as well as the country's design heritage, manifested in a series of round lights that can be composted at the end of their lifespan.

Find out more about Big Glow ›

SensiTerre tile collection by Matteo Thun & Partners for Florim

The texturising techniques used in Renaissance-era clay workshops have been replicated in the SensiTerre tile collection, created for ceramics company Florim by Italian architect Matteo Thun.

Tiles in the range come in six colourways, four textural finishes and multiple shapes, allowing users to create bespoke surfaces.

Find out more about SensiTerre ›

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The latest edition of our weekly Dezeen Agenda newsletter features an interview with Philippe Starck at Milan design week. Subscribe to Dezeen Agenda now.

In an interview at this year's Milan Design Week, Dezeen asked Philippe Starck whether design is becoming increasingly associated with luxury, given the strong presence of luxury brands.

"There is a very, very dangerous slip to luxe, a lack of ethics, a lack of culture, definitely, and too-fast rotation in the consuming of design because it's trendy", Starck said.

This week's newsletter also features Foster + Partners' design for the Saudi Arabia pavilion at Expo 2025, a look at three new structures unveiled at this year's Coachella and a series of colourful children's sculptures by Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa.

Dezeen Agenda

Dezeen Agenda is a curated newsletter sent every Thursday containing the most important news highlights from Dezeen. Read the latest edition of Dezeen Agenda or subscribe here.

You can also subscribe to our other newsletters; Dezeen Debate is sent every Thursday and features the hottest reader comments and most-debated stories, Dezeen Daily is our daily bulletin that contains every story published in the preceding 24 hours and Dezeen In Depth is sent on the last Friday of every month and delves deeper into the major stories shaping architecture and design.

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Rather than being a threat to designers, artificial intelligence will enable them to design "faster and better" say Blond founder James Melia and Harry's head of design Ryan Dougherty in this video Dezeen produced about their Double Vision exhibition in Milan.

The exhibition was set up as an experiment, pitting traditional industrial design methods against artificial intelligence tools.

"I feel really positive about the outcome," said Melia in the video interview, which was shot by Dezeen in the exhibition space during Milan design week.

"AI is not going to take your job - AI will enhance it, enable you to design faster, perhaps better, as long as you use the right tools and in the right way," he said.

"I think that is going to accelerate a lot of our process, and I think it can be used in a way that we can retain as designers, our craftsmanship and creativity."

Dougherty also downplayed the threat that artificial intelligence poses to designers.

"We are going to continue to need humans in order to make products successful," said Dougherty. "Without having that perspective, we are missing out on what makes us all different and what makes brands and design teams different."

For the exhibition, industrial design practice Blond teamed up with grooming brand Harry's to put artificial intelligence to the test, each setting out to separately design a face steamer.

While the Harry's team followed established industrial design processes to arrive at their final product, the Blond team used artificial intelligence tools as much as possible.

The two processes were compared and contrasted in the Double Vision exhibition, with each team's efforts displayed along either side of a concourse in a historic carpentry workshop in the Brera district of Milan.

A series of screens on either side of the room exhibited key aspects of each team's process, culminating in a physical prototype model.

Finally, visitors were presented with a large-scale diagram displayed on a stage at the end of the room, setting out the results of the experiment.

Blond and Harry's collaborated to create a methodology map containing a detailed recommendation for using artificial intelligence in industrial design, including indications of the usefulness of varying tools at different stages of the process.

As well as establishing artificial intelligence's current usefulness in different areas, the methodology map also displays its anticipated future utility.

Melia describes the project as an experiment in the video, which was filmed by Dezeen in the exhibition space during Milan design week.

"We have laid out this experimental testing ground, almost like a laboratory, to determine where AI can be integrated sensitively to retain design craftsmanship," he said.

According to Melia and Dougherty, the findings of the exhibition neither condemn nor glorify the use of artificial intelligence in the design process.

"We are just at the very beginning stages of understanding how AI might integrate into our design process," said Ryan. "The conclusion for both teams is that there are aspects of both styles of work that are necessary and beneficial, and having some kind of thoughtful blend of the two is probably the most ideal."

Double Vision took place during Milan design week from 7 to 13 April 2025. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

Partnership content
This video was produced by Dezeen as part of a partnership with Blond and Harry's. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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Design industry leaders fear slashed income and job losses amid volatile conditions caused by ongoing uncertainty about US import tariffs imposed by president Donald Trump. Dezeen editorial director Max Fraser reports from Milan design week.

"I think everybody is sort of braced for trouble," British designer Jasper Morrison told Dezeen. "It's already been a tough time for a lot of companies in the business, so this on top is going to be very difficult. I'm not an expert on trade, but it feels bad."

Morrison's sentiment captured the mood as the design world came together for Milan design week last week – the biggest event in the industry calendar – against a backdrop of rapidly changing announcements from the Trump administration.

"It could collapse the industry"

"Our industry is potentially absolutely fucked," said Tom Lloyd of London design studio Pearson Lloyd as huge levies appeared imminent early last week. "There's talk of redundancies. He's shorting the whole world."

"It could collapse the industry," echoed architect and designer Keiji Ashizawa, who is also one of the lead designers for Japanese furniture producer Karimoku. "We can't adapt to such a sudden price shock."

Non-US designers were not the only ones feeling the pressure. "Things were strained already; this is going to exacerbate things," said Anand Gandesha, global brand and marketing director of New York-based office-furniture brand Humanscale. "It's going to be brutal."

Financial markets were sent into a tailspin on 2 April when Trump announced variable duties on goods imported to the US from many different nations, including up to 50 per cent levies on China, Taiwan and Vietnam, with European countries facing 20 per cent and the UK at 10 per cent.

The tariffs took effect during Milan design week on 9 April – but later that day, Trump suddenly announced the variable tariffs would be delayed for 90 days, with a universal 10 per cent rate coming into effect in the interim. The major exception was China, which is now subject to a 145 per cent tariff.

Governments are now scrambling to negotiate favourable rates before the 90-day pause is up, with the eventual outcome still highly uncertain.

"It's going to knock confidence"

Amid the turbulence, brands exporting their products to the US are now considering how they will cope if the full tariffs do come into effect in July.

Japan is facing a 24 per cent tariff – a worrying prospect for leading Japanese furniture producer Maruni, for which North America is its second-biggest international market after Europe.

"We need to make a decision whether we charge this 24 per cent to our customers or whether we absorb the 24 per cent by ourselves," said Maruni CEO Koda Munetoshi. "That's a huge amount of our profit. We cannot absorb all of it."

The delayed tariff rate for European countries was set at 20 per cent. For Spanish outdoor furniture and rugs brand Gandía Blasco, the US accounts for about 30 per cent of its sales.

"Our strategy is to increase prices by 10 per cent and then lose 10 per cent of our margin," company CEO Alvaro Gandía-Blasco told Dezeen. "The idea is to balance the impact."

Dutch brand Moooi, which makes its products in Europe with about 30 per cent of sales going to the US, also expects price increases.

"Imagine you are a company operating on a certain margin and then 20 per cent of that you will lose," said Moooi West Coast sales manager Laszlo Perlaki. "Companies will have to raise their prices, they can't just swallow the cost."

But like many furniture brands, Moooi makes its products to order – meaning it could still lose money even with price rises.

"We have six-month lead times," he said. "So what about those orders that are now in production? It's hard to go back to the customer and say they owe more money."

Whatever happens after the 90 days is up, Humanscale is concerned about how the ongoing uncertainty will affect its business.

"It's going to knock confidence," said Gandesha. "It's not just how it affects us but how it affects all of our customers and their projects. Any level of uncertainty and they may delay, they may reconsider or downgrade. So the latter may be the more worrying part."

"We need to keep our craftsmanship"

Trump has indicated he wants tariffs to encourage manufacturing within the US, and New York-based designer Kickie Chudikova told Dezeen that one of her US clients has already stipulated that her forthcoming design must be produced in the country.

But this may be harder said than done for most brands and designers, with many products reliant on parts produced around the world.

"We're in a slightly privileged position that we manufacture in New Jersey but we're still affected because components come from everywhere," said Gandesha.

"There's an assumption that production can just shift, but there's a reason products are made in a country like Italy – for the craftsmanship."

And most overseas brands Dezeen spoke to were against the idea of moving their production as a way of avoiding the tariffs.

"Made in Japan is one of our important values," said Munetoshi. "We need to keep our craftsmanship."

Even for brands already producing large amounts in the US, such as furniture manufacturer Haworth, the tariffs present a challenge.

"For us, tariffs have a very meaningful and obviously negative impact, but that comes from not only the tariff itself," said Haworth group president and CEO Franco Bianchi.

Knock-on effects arising from US-imposed levies will increase business costs in other ways, he explained – chiefly wider inflation, as well as retaliatory tariffs from countries where Haworth exports its products.

As a result, Haworth is among those actively considering how to limit the impact of tariffs.

"We have multiple mitigating actions going on," he said. "But we have also implemented a surcharge – some level of a partial offsetting surcharge – to try to calibrate a portion of those cost increases."

"We're going to wait for when everything settles to truly define our definitive approach."

"I'm not worried at all"

Businesses will likely be considering other ways of reducing costs to absorb potential tariff rates without drastically hiking prices – and options could include switching suppliers, substituting materials, cutting staff numbers or promotional budgets.

But some design brands are refusing to panic amid the uncertainty and waiting to see how the situation pans out.

"It is disruptive because nobody knows what to do," said Randy Bishop, CEO of Canadian lighting brand Bocci, speaking after tariffs were postponed. "I think it's going to be disruptive for a while but in the end, it's all going to be temporary. I'm not worried at all."

"It's just going to be a wild ride for a while, then [Trump] will celebrate some wins and then everything will more or less go back to normal, with some exceptions."

Laura Anzani, US CEO and president of Italian furniture brand Poliform, took a similarly steadfast attitude in a statement issued to Dezeen at the end of last week.

"As the current trade policies continue to unfold, we are closely monitoring developments and remain in active dialogue with our global partners," she said. "We are confident in our ability to adapt and respond with the integrity that our community has come to expect."

But for Lloyd, the episode exposes the design industry's vulnerability to the caprices of the global trade system.

"Our industry is a case study on the fragility of globalisation – a perfect storm of brands hunting supply chains, markets, relationships, sales channels and alliances," he said.

"Brands are traded as commodities by venture capital funds to access new markets, product lines or sales networks, chasing trends to find margins built on sand."

If Trump's full tariffs are imposed, Morrison believes the US will ultimately lose out as business shift their attention elsewhere.

"I think it's a bit of an own goal really," he said. "If it's America against the rest of the world, the rest of the world will get on without America."

The main photo is by Giulia Copercini.

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A number of smaller group shows popped up during this year's Milan design week, showcasing a combination of emerging and established designers' work in intimate venues.

Organised by curators, galleries or the designers themselves, small group exhibitions can offer some respite from the sometimes "overwhelming" environment of the larger collectible design shows hosted in Milan.

According to organisers from the Deoron, Comune and Good Selection exhibitions, small group shows can offer a more dynamic experience for visitors, as well as the opportunity to meet the makers behind the objects.

For the designers themselves, it creates an opportunity to blend their work and their personal audiences, who may be attracted to similar aesthetics.

"We don't want to be cattle designers"

In some cases, they also make it possible for emerging designers to display their work during such traffic-heavy design weeks, with some noting costs associated with larger fairs can reach upwards of tens of thousands of dollars.

For Good Selection, its "for us by us" group show format also aimed to address larger issues that plague the design industry, such as exploitative practices from galleries or curators that "milk" designers to produce product.

"We don't want to be cattle designers," Good Selection co-founder and designer Lucas Zito told Dezeen. "We don't want to be like a herd of talents which are essentially milked to produce quick product."

"We are basically what constitutes the new generation of designers, we've all graduated together. So, [if] we are the next front, we thought instead of everybody going in all directions, let's unite and also show curators what we can do."

The Theater of Things

Curator Delvis(Un)Limited presented The Theater of Things at Via Fatebenefratelli 9. The exhibition mimicked a domestic apartment, including a central bed by Brussels design group Espace Aygo, a tiled bookshelf and mirror by Austrian designer Laurids Gallée and rubber and resin furniture by New York designers Rich Aybar and Objects of Common Interest.

As part of the domestic theme, the seven participating designers each took a turn sleeping overnight in the bed over the duration of the show, with the option to leave the curtains open or closed to passersby.

Comune

Polish design exhibitor Comune presented its second group show in Milan at local architecture office Superspatial, which included furniture and objects by designers such as Jacob Steinberg, Maria Gil, and Jorge Suárez-Kilzi.

"When you are a designer, you can talk about your work," Comune co-founder Jakub Szkaradek told Dezeen on the benefits of smaller group shows.

"When you don't talk about your design, it's a flat experience [for visitors]. When they don't have any connection with designers or makers, it's stupid. It's stupid when you don't talk about the design with the designer."

Convey

Curated by Simple Flair, the third edition of design show Convey was held in a series of galleries in Porta Venezia. The show focuses on presenting established and emerging design brands in a market-like set-up, with both "a cultural and commercial purpose," said Simple Flair co-founder Riccardo Crenna.

Among international brands such as Acerbis, Under, and IPA Porcellane, this year's iteration also presented a "guest designer" concept, which was a room styled with tables and stools among mustard yellow curtains by New York design studio Sunfish.

Deoron

Digital collectible design platform Deoron presented its first in-person design show in a subterranean parking garage at Via Paolo Frisi, where works by radiator designers Tubes, smoking brand Weed'd and design studio Studio Booboon sat on metal display units in front of a large speaker unit by Matéo Garcia Audio.

"If you have the curation and you trust the curation, or the platform that puts everything together, you get a synergy between all [the designers]," said Deoron organiser Fabio Colturri.

"Each designer invites their own audiences, and if the products are aligned, it's better for everyone."

Good Selection

Founders and designers Lucas Zito and Marika Caputo presented their first Milan iteration of group show Good Selection in a former furniture factory building tucked away in an alley in Varedo.

Created in reaction to a negative experience with a Parisian gallery, Zito and Caputo brought together pieces by their community from school years at Central Saint Martins, Design Academy Eindhoven and others, organising the show largely by themselves in the hopes of making it more accessible for emerging designers to showcase their work.

This included the ability to exchange creative services, such as photography, and organising group shipping to reduce overseas costs, for instance.

Boon Editions and A-N-D

Parisian gallery Boon Editions and Vancouver-based lighting design studio A-N-D presented a show of collectible design throughout two levels of a former bank at Via San Vittore al Teatro, including in the defunct vaults.

"Alcova almost guarantees traffic and exposure, but it can feel a bit overwhelming sometimes," designer Jialun Xiong told Dezeen, who presented furniture alongside designers including Tom Hancocks and Cal Summers.

"When I received the special invitation from Boon Room and saw the venue – an old bank building with a hidden vault – I almost immediately said yes. The space had such a distinct voice and character that I knew the concept would become something unique."

Strata

Belgian designers Middernacht & Alexander, Linde Freya Tangelder and Tim Vranken came together for Strata, a group show located in the Fondazione Prada district in a renovated 1949 industrial building.

Placed between semi-transparent dividers, the exhibition showcased the "overlaps and differences" between the designers' works, which included blue-toned stools made from recycled steel by Middernacht & Alexander and a wooden daybed by Vranken.

Milan design week took place from 7 to 13 April 2025. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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This video highlights the design stories behind the latest ASUS products, which were exhibited at Dezeen and technology brand ASUS's Design You Can Feel showcase at Milan design week.

The event, which took place in the historic 1920s Galleria Meravigli in Milan, explored themes of materiality, craftsmanship and artificial intelligence (AI).

The event featured a selection of interactive exhibits by ASUS that demonstrated the innovative design processes behind its products, showcasing how the brand aims to merge technology, mechanical engineering and material exploration to create intuitive and tactile products.

The exhibition was on show during Milan design week

"At ASUS, design thinking is ingrained in our DNA, prioritising human needs and experiences in every product we create," ASUS said.

"Empathy sits at our core, starting with a deep understanding of how people live, work and interact with technology."

Included in the showcase were a wide range of ASUS laptops and playful exhibits. Visitors were able to interact with the ASUS Zenbook laptops – known for their lightweight and slim profile, each weighing under one kilogram – and experience the tactile, durable chassis made from ASUS's proprietary Ceraluminum material.

Ceraluminum is a material developed by ASUS that fuses the lightness of aluminium with the strength of ceramics.

Also on display was the ASUS Zenbook DUO, which was designed to combine the functionality of a traditional laptop with the flexibility of a dual-screen setup, while offering portability and high performance. ​

As part of the showcase, the ProArt laptop series was presented through a series of stress tests, such as metal ball strikes and drops, designed to highlight its durability.

The series was engineered for challenging conditions, including extreme weather and dust tolerance. It features an anti-fingerprint coating that repels smudges and causes water to bead on the surface.

The event also showcased other ASUS models, including Adol, one of the first laptops to include an integrated aroma diffuser.

It also featured the ROG ACRONYM laptop, a portable gaming laptop with intricate CNC-milled patterns that vary in depth and texture, creating dynamic surfaces that catch light differently.

On show for the first time, ASUS also revealed four exclusive limited editions of its Zenbook laptop, each finished in the brand's signature Ceraluminum material.

Each device in the Ceraluminum Signature Edition series features a unique Ceraluminum finish that draws inspiration from natural landscapes around the world.

The four editions draw from the volcanic terrain of Iceland; the mineral-rich thermal waters of Pamukkale, Turkey; the sandstone cliffs and dunes of Wadi Rum, Jordan; and the bioluminescent shores of the Maldives.

The Design You Can Feel showcase marks the second collaboration between Dezeen and ASUS Zenbook, building on the success of last year's Design You Can Feel installation during London Design Festival.

Design You Can Feel ran from 8 to 13 April at Galleria Meravigli. Find out more information at: dezeen.com/designyoucanfeel.

The photography is by Mark Cocksedge.

Partnership content

Design You Can Feel is a partnership between Dezeen and ASUS Zenbook. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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Contemporary art and furniture filled the ornate interiors of a 19th-century palazzo in the third edition of L'Appartamento by Artemest, which was on show for Milan design week.

E-commerce platform Artemest invited six interior designers to each transform a room inside Palazzo Donizetti, a historic residence that is not usually open to the public.

Simone Haag, Nebras Aljoaib, Romanek Design Studio, Meyer Davis, Champalimaud Design and 1508 London were given full access to Artemest's network of Italian artisans and brands to deliver their schemes.

Their designs paired the palazzo's decorative floors, mouldings and frescoes with colourful chandeliers, sculptural objects, squishy sofas and tactile textiles.

Visitors ascended a striking elliptical staircase to reach the first room, a foyer by Australian stylist Simone Haag centred around a flower-inspired Murano glass chandelier.

Haag created a series of zones to allow natural flows through the space. A sofa was paired with a gridded red glass coffee table, while a pale leather console and green aluminium bar created additional focal points.

Saudi designer Nebras Aljoaib put her spin on the reading room, a space defined by yellow and gold tones.

Her additions included a contemporary chaise longue, an onyx chair, a teal glass chandelier and an asymmetric desk in bronze and eucalyptus wood.

In the grand salon, New York office Meyer Davies picked up on the curved geometries of the wall niches and oval ceiling fresco.

A curved sofa and marble table organised the interior, while other elements included an armchair-pouffe with long black tassels, hourglass-shaped floor lamps and round bronze mirrors.

Los Angeles-based Brigette Romanek designed a decadent dining room featuring tableware decorated with images of suns, stars and snakes, while British studio 1508 London created an after-dinner entertainment room filled with art.

Against a backdrop of heavy green curtains, key pieces here include an architecture-inspired bookcase, a golden bar trolley and a retro-style radiograph.

The largest contribution came from New York-based Champalimaud Design, which had the task of turning a pair of adjoining rooms into a bedroom suite.

Designed to reference "the glamour of 1960s Italian cinema", the suite included a vanity room featuring a wall of mirrors and an ostrich-shaped bar cabinet, a bedroom with hand-painted floral wallpaper and a plant-filled balcony that doubles as a study.

Artemest first launched the L'Appartamento series in 2023 when it took over an apartment in Milan's 5Vie district.

The takeovers have become more ambitious each time, with Palazzo Donizetti the grandest yet.

This year, the retail platform also added a seventh room, designed by its in-house team.

One floor up, a dark and cosy lounge framed by red velvet curtains offered visitors a moment to pause and reflect.

The exhibition marks the 10th anniversary of Artemest, which was founded by Marco Credendino and Ippolita Rostagno in 2015.

The platform now offers over 50,000 products across furniture, lighting, homeware and art, from a network of 1,000 Italian artisans and brands.

The photography is by Tomaso Lisca and Luca Argenton.

L'Appartamento by Artemest was on show from 8 to 13 April as part of Milan design week 2025. See Dezeen Events Guide for more architecture and design events around the world.

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Curated apartments have become a staple of Milan design week. From "an intimate homoerotic" pied-à-terre to a home decorated with real green beans, we have rounded up 10 apartments that opened their doors during the city-wide event.

Romantic Brutalism by the Visteria Foundation

Set across 10 rooms and two corridors of a historic apartment in the Zona Magenta, the Romantic Brutalism exhibition charted some of the most exciting Polish designers working today alongside their historical influences.

The exhibition design by Zuza Paradowska of buzzy interiors firm Paradowski Studio was focused on contrasting different styles throughout the home to show the richness of Poland's design culture.

"I wanted to confront the viewer with a kind of reimagining of tradition and a clash of different temperaments," Paradowska said. "To shake the viewer out of the sense that everything is harmonious, that they've seen it all before."

Garçonnière by Giuseppe Porcelli

Architect and designer Giuseppe Porcelli transformed a Milanese pied-à-terre into "an intimate homoerotic" backdrop for his inaugural furniture collection.

Located in the city's Città Studi district, the restored apartment featured pieces ranging from Venetian drapery and bamboo accented seating to a distinctively shaggy lampshade on a boxy tortoiseshell base.

Porcelli sought to invert the traditional notion of the garçonnière, or bachelor's pad, typically considered a hideaway for heterosexual men. The designer filled the apartment with pieces that were conceived to challenge masculine and feminine stereotypes, reimagining the garçonnière through a queer lens.

Apertura 01 by Tutto Bene

Design studio Tutto Bene opened the doors to its scenic office as part of Milan design week. Together with design gallery Béton Brut, the studio showed pieces by sculptor Salvino Marsura, juxtaposed with its own lighting collection Legato.

Set in an apartment in Milan's Zona Magenta, the space with its wistera-entwined terrace provided a perfect backdrop to the sculptural lights, which were informed by architectural forms.

L'Appartamento by Artemest

Design shop Artemest celebrated its 10th anniversary and the third edition of L'Appartamento with an exhibition set in a 19th-century apartment in Palazzo Donizetti.

Among the curated spaces was a sleek white bedroom by New York studio Champalimaud Design, characterised by rounded boucle sofas, decorative mirrors and an unusual ostrich-shaped drinks cabinet.

Open to the public for the first time, the apartment also featured interiors by 1508 London, Meyer Davis, Nebras Aljoaib, Romanek Design Studio and Simone Haag. The studios were informed by Renaissance, Baroque and Liberty-style architecture for the design.

The Ap-art-ment by Andrea Villa

Conceived by architect Andrea Villa, the Ap-art-ment is a Porta Venezia Airbnb filled with eclectic interiors ranging from vintage to contemporary pieces positioned to replicate the look and feel of an art gallery.

In the living space, a weathered 1970s Maralunga Cassina sofa was paired with suspended terracotta modular sculptures by emerging artist Marina Annoni.

Among the furniture are works by Villa himself, including a low-slung coffee table finished in blocks of amber-yellow plexiglass and polished steel that move on a central axis.

"Every piece within The Ap-art-ent is designed to evoke emotion and inspire thought," said Villa.

Brera Design Apartment by Zanellato/Bortotto

Celebrating its 16th edition as a mainstay of Milan design week, the Brera Design Apartment inhabits the third floor of an early 1900s building on Via Palermo.

This year, the space was designed by Italian studio Zanellato/Bortotto and named Orizzonti, meaning horizons. Each room was characterised by different colour and material palettes ranging from smooth onyx to soft wool.

Sunset hues featured in the bedroom, which was informed by the colours of Namibia's landscape and included a wrought iron bed and a wooden rug by CC-Tapis.

Muuto Milan Apartment by Muuto

Muuto took over the third floor of Via Solferino 11 in Milan's Brera neighbourhood, marking the third time the Copenhagen design brand has made over the dwelling.

This year, Muuto transformed each room with a different colour informed by the changing of the seasons. Green hues featured in the kitchen, which included lime drapes and uniform apple-toned tiles.

"Each room offers a distinct experience, from energetic warmth to quiet introspection, to a sense of refreshing renewal," said the brand ahead of the presentation.

Osanna Visconti's Atelier by Dimore Studio

Dimore Studio transformed the apartment-cum-atelier of designer Osanna Visctoni, reupholstering furniture in a collection of fabrics the Italian firm created for textiles company Hosoo.

The studio stripped the walls as part of the makeover, revealing traces of worn-out frescoes.

"In this refined Milanese house, history and craftsmanship intertwine, creating an atmosphere, where past and present engage in a theatrical dialogue," said Dimore Studio.

Apartment by Gohar World

Artists Laila and Nadia Gohar decorated the home of Michela Pelizzari, founder of creative agency PS, with their playful Gohar World designs.

A pile of green fava beans by artist Mary Lennox sat next to Gohar World's delicate glassware and shell designs, while ornate bonbonnieres decorated a sideboard. Pieces from both the Forever Gohar and the upcoming Table VII collection were enhanced by Pelizzari's elegant home in a traditional Milanese apartment building.

The Bocci Apartment by David Alhadeff

This year's Milan design week coincided with the 20th anniversary of Canadian lighting brand Bocci. To mark the occasion, Bocci transformed the interiors of its 20th-century apartment in the city's leafy Zona Vincenzo Monti, acquired by the brand in 2023 to serve as its European hub.

Curated by David Alhadeff, founder of the New York gallery The Future Perfect, the apartment was furnished with geometric chandeliers, handmade rugs and a solid wood drinks cabinet with hair-on-hide doors and hand-formed bronze handles.

"The project was a dream for me," reflected Alhadeff, whose curation will remain at the Bocci Apartment for a full year.

Milan design week took place from 7 to 13 April 2025. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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Pastel-toned, suicide-proofed chairs are among the penitentiary furniture revealed to the public as part of Prison Times, the debut exhibition curated by the Dropcity centre for architecture and design in Milan.

The show, which opened in time for Milan design week, was born from a year-long research project investigating the role of design in the growing prison crisis.

"Tough on crime" policies have led to overcrowding and deteriorating living conditions in many countries – from Italy to the UK and the US – resulting in record numbers of inmates taking their own lives.

To bring this overlooked issue to public scrutiny, Prison Times collates a selection of the everyday objects designed to structure life in custody, sourced directly from prison furniture contractors and presented completely unaltered.

"We wanted to understand: who are the designers that are part of this shadow system of furniture production?" said Giada Zuan, who led the investigation.

"It was complex to relate to these people, because it's part of an industry, but it's not really public," she told Dezeen. "They don't sign their names. There are no designers listed. They are just manufacturers."

With very little public oversight, these companies produce products for a global incarcerated population that is nearing 11 million people, equivalent to an entire country with a population larger than Sweden.

Prison Times brings these mass-produced products into the limelight of one of Milan's buzziest galleries, accompanied by a series of commissioned artworks that provide context through real-life footage, audio and data.

The exhibition's name is based on the idea that prison furniture is carefully designed to control what inmates do at any given time, as objects are bolted on, weighed down or stripped back so they can be only used for their intended purpose.

"Some of the manufacturers don't even conceive these objects as design objects," Zuan said. "They conceive them as products because they are part of an industry."

"And part of what we want to do is make them understand that these objects have a design cause and consequence in relation to the body and the psychology of whoever is using them," she added.

"Some of these objects are really kind of violent. They incorporate a lot of restrictive mechanisms."

In line with this idea, the show is broken down into five sections – Sleeping Time, Cleaning Time, Monitoring Time, Eating Time and Entering Time – each occupying one of Dropcity's converted railway tunnels behind Milan Central Station.

The first tunnel deals with Sleeping Time and explores the anatomy of the cell, as rows of floor-mounted metal cots are lined up next to plastic wardrobes with rounded tops that are impossible to climb.

Even mattresses are sealed using high-frequency welds to prevent tearing, and separated into three parts so they can't be used to obscure the view through the cell's peephole.

An accompanying documentary film by architect Sofia Albrigo provides a glimpse into what life is like in these cells through found footage from inside Italy's prisons.

The next section, dedicated to Cleaning Time, displays clinical stainless steel sinks and urinals alongside lidless toilets filled with sound-deadening insulation foam to discourage kicking or hitting the metal.

Nearby, a mixed-media installation by Altreconomia reporter Luca Rondi explores other ways prisoners' bodies are controlled by visualising data on the use of psychotropic drugs – normally prescribed for serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia – to sedate inmates.

The Monitoring Time section explores both the obvious video surveillance that inmates are subjected to and how furniture serves a similar purpose.

A selection of technical drawings breaks down the various ways these everyday objects were designed to control the behaviour of inmates.

With their de-escalating pastel colours and rounded corners, many of the furniture pieces almost look made for toddlers, especially in the Eating Time section with its monobloc plastic meal trays and chairs.

But in reality, the seats are produced by Pineapple Contracts – a UK manufacturer of so-called "anti-ligature" furniture, designed to prevent inmates from harming themselves or others by removing all elements that could be turned into ropes or cords.

In the final tunnel, Entering Time chronicles the different types of high-security doors, walls and windows that are used not just to divide and contain but also to hide prisoners and their living conditions from public view.

"We wanted to bring visibility to this urgent matter and question the responsibility that architecture and design have in this situation," Zuan said.

"We are really questioning: how can these objects help the current situation? Can they actually help? Or should we really revisit the existential purpose of prisons in general?"

Zuan and her team also created an accompanying book for the exhibition and curated a series of debates about the topic during Milan design week.

Previous editions of the festival have seen Dropcity host furniture and photography shows. But Prison Times marks the first exhibition entirely curated by the team at Milan's new urban centre for design and architecture.

"This marks the beginning of what Dropcity wants to achieve, which is opening public debates on underreported issues," Zuan explained.

The photography is by Piercarlo Quecchia unless otherwise stated.

Prison Times is on show at Dropcity from 3 April to 31 May. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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In the wake of Milan design week, Dezeen's editorial team has selected 14 standout launches from the event, including a sculptural radiator and a reversible ice cream coupe.

Optô table by Vincent Van Duysen for WonderGlass
chosen by Jennifer Hahn, design and environment editor

"Belgian architect Vincent Van Duysen managed to scale up fused glass, often reserved for purely decorative applications, to create mesmerising tables (top and above) that look more like melting sheets of ice than shards of glass melted together in a giant furnace.

"Their air of fragility is enhanced by the many perforations dotting the top and base, which are actually 'baked in' rather than cut out by placing small piles of a noncombustible powder among the glass shards as they are fired.

"To prevent spillages, the cups and vases balanced on top feature Lego-style grips in their base that slot into these perforations – essential for a seasoned klutz such as myself."

Artisan ice cream coupe by Georg Jensen
chosen by Cajsa Carlson, deputy editor

"One of my favourite things at Milan design week is when brands or designers create one-off venues that look like existing spaces in the city.

"This year, Danish brand Georg Jensen designed its own Gelateria Danese, a nod to Milan's many stylish old ice cream shops, where it showed off its Artisan series.

"Best in show was a geometrically shaped silver coupe, which could be turned upside-down to serve ice cream from either end. It came with a quirky silver version of a disposable plastic ice cream spoon that I'm sure the brand had to stop many visitors from pocketing!"

Milano/totalcolour by Tubes
chosen by Ellen Eberhardt, US reporter

"As part of its first physical exhibition, digital design platform Deoron showcased glassware, furniture and other objects in a small subterranean parking garage in Porta Venezia.

"A series of rippled ceramic radiators by Italian brand Tubes stood at the centre. The brand has been creating sculptural radiators that come in electric, hydraulic or 'plug and play' options since 1992, but they only recently released the monochrome Milano.

"I think it's genius to make heating so stylish."

Frame Structured Armchair by Ryuichi Kozeki
chosen by Clara Finnigan, social editor

"Tokyo-based designer Ryuichi Kozeki was inspired by the sharpness of Donald Judd's forms and the De Stijl movement when creating the Frame Structured Armchair. Constructed using walnut wood and finished with cashew-blended oil, the chair was presented as part of a collection of furniture and lighting at Alcova's Villa Borsani.

"The exhibition, titled Deconstructed Minimalism, presented two chairs, a stool and two lighting pieces. Taking inspiration from the idea of deconstruction, the works aim to create a shift in the forms commonly interpreted as minimalist.

"Kozeki describes the chair as 'minimal, simple and solid', perfectly summarising its appeal for me. Understated and classic, this chair could slot into any home and be loved for a lifetime."

Luce Sferica light by Ronan Bouroullec for Flos
chosen by Max Fraser, editorial director

"In this modular suspension lamp, French designer Ronan Bouroullec sought to mimic the delicacy of raindrops clinging to a thread or a soap bubble blown by a child. Available in three lengths, the lamp offers gentle diffused illumination above a table.

"The highly technical horizontal body, made from polished extruded aluminium, houses two LED strips: one emitting light upwards, the other downwards. This body element is encased in a series of thin, transparent, hand-blown glass spheres.

"Displayed without visual distraction on the Flos stand at Euroluce (more highlights here), the lamp caught my eye due to the elegant juxtaposition between the fragility of the glass and the sophistication of the inner workings.

"Indeed, Bouroullec describes the lamp as 'an object of great technical precision that expresses delicate beauty and poetry', a sentiment I would share."

Heavy Duties benches by Klemens Schillinger
chosen by Jane Englefield, design and interiors reporter

"An undeniable highlight from this year's Milan was the debut of ABI, a new brand of collectible design based in Cairo and Milan that uses traditional Egyptian stone, with creative direction led by local stars NM3.

"The result is a lineup of extremely heavy but soft-to-the-touch pieces that balance the attractive familiarity of modernist shapes with the mind-bending mystery that comes with tapping Egypt's precious Aswan quarries, where granite was once extracted to build the pyramids.

"A trio of veiny benches by Austrian designer Klemens Schillinger provides the perfect example. Although simple in form, each granite bench features a unique pattern that runs across its body and down its legs, giving the impression of a meandering river seen from space.

"Wandering through the exhibition at gallery BKV Fine Art, you couldn't help but feel humbled and genuinely inspired by the centuries of craft and collaboration that led to an exhibition like this – not least the many pitfalls involved in lugging hundreds of kilograms worth of stone up a narrow flight of Milanese stairs."

Flora Cabinet 190 by Marcin Rusak Studio
chosen by Jennifer Hahn, design and environment editor

"Dried flowers are suspended in time like flies in amber to form this treasure chest from designer Marcin Rusak – one of very few pieces I saw last week that actually made me feel something.

"The cabinet's translucent resin shell reveals a vague outline of the objects contained within, creating a real sense of intrigue that pairs beautifully with the tragic fragility of the blooms.

"I ended up spending way too much time at the Romantic Brutalism exhibition, which features work by some of the hottest names in Polish design, just watching the ghostly shadows of people passing by behind."

Cygnet lights by Michael Anastassiades
chosen by Cajsa Carlson, deputy editor

"The translucent, sculptural shapes of designer Michael Anastassiades' modular Cygnet lights seemed to dance in the air at the Jacqueline Vodoz and Bruno Danese Foundation in Milan.

"Hanging from bamboo stalks that hid the electric cables – making the lamps look like they were floating – it wasn't hard to see how the washi-paper Cygnet light was inspired by the kites that Anastassiades played with as a child.

"'I was absolutely obsessed with flying kites as high as they could possibly fly,' Anastassiades told me.

"'And then there was a moment when you could no longer see the kite, you would lose it in the sky; it's playing with the wind and then the sun hits it and you see it glow,' he added. '[The Cygnet] is about capturing that moment.'"

Bent Aluminium table by Philippe Malouin
chosen by Amy Frearson, editor-at-large

"London-based designer Philippe Malouin was my star of the show this year, with designs including his sculpturally curved Trench chairs for Acerbis and ultra-relaxed Great Sofa for Hem. However, the standout was a collection of expertly crafted aluminium tables, consoles and shelves.

"Developed with New York gallery Salon 94 Design and produced by Swiss furniture manufacturer Lehni, the Bent Aluminium collection reveals Malouin's love of industrial materials and technical precision.

"Drawers slot perfectly below the surfaces, while the legs are playfully raised on nylon blocks or castors. Bold colour choices give the designs an extra edge, with neon red and yellow alongside chocolate brown."

Motta chair by Jasper Morrison for Magis
chosen by Max Fraser, editorial director

"The sprawling halls of Salone del Mobile were packed with thousands of new products screaming for our attention. In amongst that noise, I found myself craving a simple and practical product. This chair by Jasper Morrison hit the mark, displayed quietly yet confidently on the Magis stand.

"When coming up with this design, Morrison cited the 1979 Spaghetti Chair by Giandomenico Belotti, with the motivation to create 'a lightweight chair with vertical legs and reduced bulk'.

"Motta's construction is clear to see, made up of a steel tube frame to which a seat and back in plastic, upholstery or wood is attached. These components can easily be switched out or replaced.

"So many designs I look at today lean into excessive materials and unnecessary details. True to form, Morrison cut away the superfluous to deliver a design that one could probably live with for many years to come."

TYPE-XIII lights by A-Poc Able Issey Miyake and Atelier Oï
chosen by Clara Finnigan, social editor

"Clothing brand A-Poc Able Issey Miyake and design studio Atelier Oï debuted two lighting collections named the O series and the A series.

"Unveiled at Issey Miyake's Milan's flagship store, the series of lamps are constructed using a single piece of off-white cloth and are informed by 'the beauty and delicacy' of petals.

"The lamps have a weightless ethereal quality, staring at them, you feel as if they might lift off into the air. A fashionable UFO proclaiming to come in beauty and peace.

"The fashion house's first foray into lighting offers the perfect opportunity for Pleats Please obsessives to expand the Miyake look into their home."

Cosimo de Medici outdoor furniture by Muller Van Severen for Tectona
chosen by Amy Frearson, editor-at-large

"The Covid-19 pandemic prompted a whole host of brands to branch into outdoor furniture. This collection of metal chairs, tables and loungers by Belgian duo Muller Van Severen has bags more character than all the rest combined.

"First developed as a private commission for the 16th-century Villa Medici in Rome, the designs feature a distinct triangular detail that references the geometry of the house's historic lemon garden.

"French outdoor furniture brand Tectona has released the design in calming shades of white, mint green and dark blue."

Adrilla teapot by Patricia Urquiola for Loewe
chosen by Jane Englefield, design and interiors reporter

"As the ever-growing luxury-brandification of Milan rages on, fashion house Loewe's steady commitment to craft-led exhibitions continues to feel justified and joyful. This year, Loewe invited 25 architects and designers to create their interpretation of a teapot.

"I was particularly drawn to the unusual piece by Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola. Crafted from lumps of textured lilac ceramic with a puddle-like base, the teapot made me think of blocks of melting ice – possibly the residue of an alarmingly colourful slush puppie drink.

"I later learned that Urquiola was informed by the silhouette of a squirrel when designing her abstract vessel, which features an extended handle that nods to the animal's bushy tail.

"My visual reference was way off, but swapping weird notes on the unconfirmed inspiration behind design objects is an eternally simple yet enjoyable task."

Crash Baggage by Francesco Pavia
chosen by Ellen Eberhardt, US reporter

"The group show Convey displayed a number of emerging and established homeware brands, but a dimpled suitcase by Crash Baggage stood out to me.

"The brand has fully embraced the idea that baggage is guaranteed to get damaged and wraps its suitcases and other cases in a polycarbonate shell that's been pre-distressed.

"Founded by Francesco Pavia in Venice, Italy, its motto is 'handle without care'."

Milan design week 2025 took place from 7 to 14 April. See our Milan design week 2025 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks that took place during the week.

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The Designed in CH Made in JP exhibition at Milan design week showed chairs designed by students at Swiss design school ECAL for the country's national pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka.

Ten chairs were designed by the master students on the product design course at University of Art and Design Lausanne (ECAL) as part of a competition to create seating for the Switzerland Pavilion at the world exhibition.

Students Min Xiyao and Jacob Kouthoofd Mårtensson took home first prize with their HUG chair, a curvy design with an encompassing shape that has been produced by Japanese furniture brand Karimoku in a run of 60 chairs.

"We designed the HUG chair with a simple yet thoughtful principle: three curves – one for stackability, one for comfort, and one for aesthetics," the designers said.

All of the ten chairs, which were exhibited at the House of Switzerland space during Milan design week, were designed to be stackable and made from wood.

"The aim was to design a stackable and versatile chair that could meet the various needs of visitors and pavilion staff," head of master product design at ECAL Camille Blin told Dezeen.

"To avoid the environmental impact of shipping the chairs to Japan, we collaborated with Karimoku New Standard to produce them locally."

The winning chair, shown in special red and white versions at House of Switzerland, is able to stack frontally in pairs and was chosen because of the way it represents collaboration.

"In addition to being comfortable, stackable and allowing for different sitting positions, the HUG chair has a beautiful metaphorical narrative," Blin said.

"Like characters, the chairs, stacked upside down, imitate an embrace, symbolising the friendship and collaboration between Switzerland and Japan."

The two countries "share many values", he added.

"In the field of design, this translates into a mutual appreciation of excellence in craftsmanship, an emphasis on the essentiality of the concept, and a humility in expression," Blin explained.

Other designs that were made for the competition include a stool with a star pattern and a chair with a T-shaped backrest.

The HUG chairs are now in use at the Switzerland Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka, which was featured in Dezeen architecture editor Lizzie Crook's roundup of the expo's ten standout pavilions. Designed by Manuel Herz Architects, it features lightweight spherical structures clad in plastic that decorate its facade.

Other pavilions at Expo 2025 Osaka include the France Pavilion designed by Coldefy and Carlo Ratti Associati and the gateway-like USA Pavilion by Trahan Architects.

The photography is courtesy of House of Switzerland.

Designed in CH Made in JP was on show from 7 to 13 April at House of Switzerland. See Dezeen Events Guide for more architecture and design events around the world.

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Promotion: flooring brand Forbo presented its Furniture Linoleum collection in a brand new colour palette at Milan's Rosanna Orlandi Gallery during the city's design week.

Furniture Linoleum is a surface finish that can be used on a range of objects, such as tables, desks, stools, kitchens, cabinets and doors.

Forbo explained that the material comprises mostly natural ingredients, including limestone, linseed oil, wood flour and pine rosin, culminating in a high-performance but sustainable alternative to synthetic components.

For Milan design week, the brand unveiled the collection in a fresh colour palette. Presented at the city's Rosanna Orlandi Gallery from 7 to 13 April, the collection featured a range of hues from "timeless neutrals to rich, contemporary shades".

Among the new collection are the colours brick, espresso and denim, in addition to soft lilac, macadamia and pistachio.

"Each colour is thoughtfully selected to blend seamlessly with modern interiors, offering versatile options for designers and architects to enhance any style," said Forbo.

The exhibition featured a series of delicately crafted products featuring Furniture Linoleum that highlight the myriad ways to apply the surfacing material – which, over time, acquires patinas subtly without looking worn or degraded.

Characterised by a matte finish and soft texture, the material is described as "climate positive, cradle-to-gate". This means that the product's partial life cycle is assessed from resource extraction to leaving the factory gate to minimise its environmental impact.

According to Forbo, Furniture Linoleum is also naturally anti-static and resistant to fingerprints, making the material durable and easy to clean.

"Its ability to conform to curves and corners gives designers the creative freedom to craft sophisticated, functional furniture that stands the test of time," said the brand.

To find out more about Forbo's Furniture Linoleum, visit the company's website.

The photography is by Forbo Flooring Systems.

Milan design week took place from 7 to 13 April 2025. See our Milan design week 2025 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks that took place throughout the week.

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Design is being taken over by "toxic" luxury trends, French designer Philippe Starck told Dezeen in an interview at Milan design week.

Starck is arguably the most famous living designer, responsible for iconic pieces such as the Masters Chair, Louis Ghost Chair and Juicy Salif citrus-squeezer, as well as several landmark vehicles and buildings.

During a conversation in Milan last week, Dezeen asked Starck if he feels that design is increasingly becoming associated with luxury, based on the fact that luxury brands had a strong presence at this edition of the world's biggest design festival.

"There is a very dangerous slip to luxe"

"I absolutely agree and I'm very happy you speak about that," Starck replied. "I was shocked this year at the shift from something [that] at the beginning was really democratic, it was really good design for everybody."

"And now I see the big danger, which is the fashionable trends, which is ridiculous," he added.

"There is a very, very dangerous slip to luxe, a lack of ethics, a lack of culture, definitely, and too-fast rotation in the consuming of design because it's trendy."

Starck is known for championing the concept of democratic design – which seeks to ensure that well-designed products are affordable for a broad range of people.

He argued that the wider apparent move away from this ideal is associated with an increasing focus on interior design, rather than design itself.

"You have to see that today design is less and less made by designers, but more and more by interior designers," he said. "It's not the same thing, because it's not the same way to think and it's not the same market."

"Because design – everybody, theoretically, can buy good design. Interior design – it's people with money," he added. "It's luxurious."

"It's very rare I make something luxurious"

Starck also expressed concern about the sustainability implications of design trends, drawing a comparison between furniture and fashion.

"When somebody buys a skirt, it's fashionable during three months, six months [and] after she puts it in the garbage – it's ridiculous, but it's not a big problem, it's 300 grams of fabric," he said.

"But when you make a sofa of four metres in the trendy colours today, it's more than ridiculous – it's toxic, because ecologically, four metres of steel and fabric and foam, it's a disaster. It's terrible, and that is happening now, it's growing in design."

Starck himself has not totally avoided working on luxury projects – notably designing multiple superyachts and high-end hotels, including the surreal Maison Heler in Metz unveiled last month.

"Me, I don't like luxe, I hate luxe," he said. "It's very rare I make something luxurious except if it's in the concept."

"If you make a five-star hotel quite clearly it's luxe, but me I always change the concept. Everybody makes what he loves, what he can. But definitively we know the right way is ecology, democracy, economy, and fantasy."

"Less than 50" well-off designers

Starck predicted that designers will increasingly be divided into two camps – "the luxurious, fancy tribe" and "hopefully young designers who are very ecologically concerned, politically concerned".

However, he acknowledged the difficulty of making a living from design, which he suggested is not properly discussed as an issue.

"We have to remember that there is a sort of fake idea about design and that is quite dangerous for young people," he said.

"Very few people eat with design, very few. Designers which have a comfortable life with design in the world, I'd say it's less than 50. Stars of design today, there is less than 10."

"That's why I cannot say today it's a good job for young people."

The challenges are only likely to become harder as artificial intelligence (AI) precipitates the "Uberisation" of design, he warned.

"Now with AI and things like that, everybody cannot become a designer, but everybody can believe he is a designer. And because he believes he's a designer, he will have customers, he will have clients."

"And if we make a joke, we can say now there is so many designers everybody will have his owner, because we will have the same quantity of designers and of clients."

Solid-wood furniture "not ecological"

Dezeen was speaking to Starck at the Milan showroom of Spanish furniture brand Andreu World with which he is a long-time collaborator, having produced 12 collections.

His pieces for the brand have focused on plywood, with the most recent collection constructed without glue or screws to make them easier to recycle.

It was the result of a nearly three-year project to curve plywood into the right shape. He argued that while a single large solid-wood table may use a whole tree, plywood manufacturing can produce up to 100 pieces from the same raw material.

"I think people will think solid wood is ecological – it's not, it's fake," said Starck. "We don't want to cut trees."

"The problem was that originally furniture in plywood is a little boring, because plywood's flat. That's why I have worked with Andreu World, because they are very good in moulding plywood."

Another Starck project on display at Milan was War Flags, an installation that saw the designer imagine a future global conflict in which neighbour turns on neighbour.

In collaboration with newly founded creative studio Babinet & Co, his studio created 20 flags produced by the imaginary Hate Unlimited Korporation that would allow the fragmented warring factions to distinguish friend from foe and erected them in Brera botanical garden.

"I want people to arrive and be shocked to see something very violent from the army in this paradise," explained Starck.

"I want them to realise that today it's a political metaphor, but tomorrow perhaps it will be not fake flags but real flags, with a tank, with a bomb and a dead body on the floor."

It is a grim message that reflects Starck's anxiety about current political shifts, especially in the US.

"What's happening today, it's a war against culture and intelligence in anything," he said. "It's a war against science, it's a war against creative people, artists – that's why design is in the problem, also. It's not especially against us, it's against any type of intelligence, any type of honesty."

The main photo is courtesy of Andreu World.

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Google has worked with artist Lachlan Turczan at Milan design week to present an immersive installation of mist and lasers that allows visitors to move light as though sweeping back curtains.

Turczan's artwork Lucida (I–IV) was the main drawcard of Google's Making the Invisible Visible installation, where the tech giant also displayed some of its products and design work.

Google's intention with the installation was to explore art and design "as acts of alchemy that bring ideas to life", said the company, which previously worked with Turczan on its 2023 installation in Milan with giant speakers that made water dance.

For this year's design week, which ended on Sunday, the artist turned his attention to how water and light can combine to make something appear solid even when it isn't.

In Lucida (I–IV), six-foot wide fixtures were suspended from the ceiling in a dark room, consisting of lasers and a concave parabolic mirror, helping to project their light below.

The room itself was filled with mist, so the light glinting off the mirror didn't just fall onto the floor but also onto the miniscule water particles hanging in the air, creating the impression of a curtain.

The curtains were still until the moment that sensors detected a person walking underneath or waving their hand through the light, at which point they wobbled and moved as if made of solid material.

The effect was achieved using proprietary software and heightened through the use of sound that was also triggered by the motion detection. Google described it as blurring "the boundaries between the tangible and intangible".

The installation brought out the gleeful side of visitors to Milan design week, some of whom danced below the light to see how it would respond.

Turczan told Dezeen that Lucida (I–IV) was based on outdoor artworks of his that could be enjoyed only at twilight, giving an ephemeral experience. For this installation, the goal was to create the same feeling indoors.

"It took about a year of engineering and prototyping and iterating over and over again," said Turczan. "We actually also never saw more than just one of them at a time, because my studio is only big enough to put one in."

"So seeing three of them overlap or all six of them in the space is like a dream come true," he continued.

"Sending the pictures, they just look like columns," added Google chief design officer of consumer devices Ivy Ross. "The beauty is when you push and pull and you hear sounds, and the shape changes."

Ross worked with Turczan to help realise his vision, and her design team created the rest of the Making the Invisible Visible installation, which highlights the stories behind Google's hardware.

"I've come to the Milan design show my whole career," said Ross. "We're committed to always giving people an experience, not just showing our things. And the idea is to let them see a little bit of Google thought leadership."

"The combination of giving you an experience, a person and showing you how it relates to how we think, that's always the objective," she continued.

Google explored a similar theme with its installation last year at Milan, titled Making Sense of Color. Developed with the studio Chromasonic, it sought to make light audible and sound visible, simulating the experience of synesthesia.

All photography courtesy of Google unless otherwise stated.

See our Milan design week 2025 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks that took place throughout the week.

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Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa and playground brand Jakuets have unveiled a series of sculptural objects for children to climb on, slide down or play with in any way they like, at Milan design week.

Named Yuugu, the collection represents the first collaboration between Fukasawa and Jakuets, a century-old Japanese firm that supplies nursery schools and day care centres with educational materials and play equipment.

At Milan design week, the pieces were presented in an installation called Playful Sculptures in the gardens of the Triennale di Milano museum. It contained the brand's Piccola outdoor furniture and Fukasawa's five colourful objects.

The designer's aim was to create "things that not only attract children, but which children find impossible not to play with".

To this end, he designed the products' various shapes, surfaces and openings to allow for a range of interactive possibilities that are left open to interpretation.

"Children find predictability boring," he explained. "A designer's role should be no more than laying out sticks and stones."

The form of the red Omochi design echoes the shape of traditional Japanese rice cakes called mochi. A set of steps and a slide are positioned at the centre of the bulbous object, while children can also attempt to clamber over the rounded outer edges.

"How charming and pleasant to watch children as they try to avoid sliding," said Fukasawa, "their fingers stretched across the polished surfaces like suckers on the tips of tree frogs."

Cube is a structure comprising intersecting geometric shapes that children can climb up and slide down, while the sloping inner ring of the Banri object encourages different ways to balance and play.

Children can congregate and play together in the circular Donut, which incorporates a table-like surface at its centre, or they can seek shelter and hide out within the recognisable profile of the House object.

"This project is quite a departure from my previous work, at least on the surface," said Fukasawa, who is known for his more minimalist work. "But at its core, the approach remains the same."

"I've always been interested in how objects relate to people – how form, material, and subtle cues can invite use without instruction," he continued.

"It was also a way to return to a more instinctive kind of design, to forget categories, forget purpose, and just make forms that quietly call out: come touch me, come climb me, come be curious."

The Playful Sculptures installation overlooking Milan's Parco Sempione provided an opportunity for the general public to experience the products in an urban outdoor setting.

The presentation was part of the annual design week, which also featured an exhibition of imaginative clocks and a collection of pleated cloth lighting by Japanese fashion brand Issey Miyake and Swiss studio Atelier Oï.

Fukasawa is a designer, author and educator known for his considered, user-focused approach to design, as well as his dedication to promoting ethical solutions to everyday problems.

Some of his past projects include furniture with tentacle-like legs for Japanese brand Maruni and a pared-back side table for Italian firm Plank that is assembled from three simple shapes.

Earlier this year, The Philadelphia Museum of Art presented a major retrospective called Things in Themselves, which featured the outcomes of Fuksawa's collaborations with firms including Muji, Alessi, Magis, Hay, Herman Miller and B&B Italia.

In an interview with Dezeen, Fukasawa said that designers today have an obligation to create responsible products that will be loved for a long time and don't contribute to harming the natural environment.

Jakuets was founded in 1916 to support the local community in Fukui as it sought to establish nursery schools and workspaces for women. The company uses design to develop stimulating environments that support education.

The photography is by Sohei Oya.

Playful Sculptures is on display at Triennale di Milano museum from 7 to 13 April 2025 as part of Milan design week. See our Milan design week 2025 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

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Car brands have become a mainstay of Milan design week. Here, we round up the key automotive moments from 2025's event, featuring Range Rover, Audi and Lexus among others.

The car industry is increasingly seeking to align itself with design, and it's now the norm for marque brands to commission installations, run events and even launch cars during Milan design week.

More than a dozen motoring brands were active during the world's biggest design week this year, including some notable newcomers.

Below, we select the nine to know about:

Range Rover

This year saw luxury SUV brand Range Rover present its first Milan design week installation.

Created in collaboration with California-based, experience-specialising design studio NUOVA, it placed a monolithic, 25-metre-long building in the historic Palazzo Belgioioso.

Within the building, visitors were handed a "time travel boarding pass" before entering a room styled as a car dealership from the early 1970s, complete with walnut-clad walls and space-age-style light fittings.

Actors wearing oversized 1970s suits – also designed specially for the installation, in collaboration with LA luxury atelier L'Equip – pretended to be salesmen. They delivering a pitch about the significance of the first ever Range Rover, built in 1970, which dominates the room.

In the next room Range Rover's newest Autobiography model was placed in the middle of a futuristic all-white space. It was brightly lit by an illuminated ceiling, with a white gravel floor and the car encircled by a ring of mirrored columns.

Cupra

Cupra, a high-performance subsidiary of Spanish automaker SEAT, sought to make a splash this year with the unveiling of a design brand – Cupra Design House – following in the footsteps of Porsche and BMW.

Debut items from Cupra Design House were on display at an installation outside its garage on Corso Como, including trainers developed in collaboration with 3D-printed-shoe company Zellerfeld and a concept lounge chair.

At a press conference on Tuesday, a collection of suitcases made from used fishing nets in collaboration with Harper Collective was also unveiled.

The installation also introduced the Cupra Capsule (pictured) – a wheelless, life-sized model of the middle portion of a car that illuminates and adjusts its proportions as a narrator explains the brand's design priorities.

Audi

To help premiere its new A6 Avant model, German carmaker Audi commissioned an installation from Dutch artist duo Drift in the courtyard of the Portrait Milano Hotel.

Called Drift Us, it took the form of a glass-walled room occupied by 22 illuminated, bulbous objects designed to sway gently back and forth by visitors passing through them.

The concept was intended to invoke a grassy field being ruffled by the wind – "a natural element capable of adapting, flowing and generating movement, just like progress according to Audi".

Lexus

Lexus is a regular fixture at Milan design week, and this year the brand presented two interactive installations drawing on its Black Butterfly technology – a dual-interface cockpit-control system developed for the LF-ZC concept car.

Visitors were invited to engage with the installations through a series of interfaces that mimic the winged form of the Black Butterfly design.

Denza

Multiple car brands used this year's Milan design week to launch new models – including Brabus, Škoda and Lamborghini – but Chinese electric-vehicle company BYD went one further and launched an entire brand.

An event on Wednesday was the European unveiling of its premium sub-division Denza, initially founded as a joint venture between BYD and Mercedes-Benz in 2010 to marry Chinese technology with European design. Its design director is Wolfgang Egger (pictured), who formerly led design at Alfa Romeo, Audi and Lamborghini.

Denza has introduced two cars to the European market – the powerful Z9GT and the seven-seater D9.

Fiat

Visitors to the stand of furniture brand Kartell at the Salone del Mobile trade fair this week may have be surprised to be find a car on a pedestal front-and-centre.

Kartell teamed up with fellow Italian household name and long-time collaborator Fiat to produce and premiere the Fiat Grande Panda Kartell. A pathfinder project, it is intended to help the two brands cross-pollinate design and material ideas.

The car was finished in a bright red livery but has blue-tinted interiors. It bears the Kartell logo in several places, including the wheels and seats.

Fiat's press release also said it aimed to introduce the recently launched Grande Panda to a new audience through the partnership.

Maserati

Fiat and Kartell was not the only car/furniture collaboration organised for this year's Milan design week. Two other heritage Italian brands came together in Maserati and Giorgetti.

Giorgetti presented an interiors collection including sofas, armchairs, rugs, coffee and side tables and a pouffe that can be inverted to double up as a table or container.

The pieces nod to Maserati with streamlining, the introduction of materials found in its sports-car interiors and subtle inclusions of the marque's trident motif.

Additionally, Maserati showcased a special one-off version of its Grecale Folgore electric SUV, with finishes and interiors intended to capture the design philosophies of the two companies.

Bentley

British luxury car brand Bentley moved into interiors more than a decade a go with the launch of its Bentley Home furniture collection, created in collaboration with Luxury Living Group.

It used this year's Milan design week to unveil the first Bentley Home picnic collection at its showroom on Corso Venezia.

Flying Flea

Although not quite a car brand – India-based Royal Enfield recently launched the Flying Flea brand of electric bikes, its name a reference to the famous motorbikes parachuted behind enemy lines by British forces during world war two.

This week at Salone del Mobile it unveiled Motototem, an art piece by LA-based Mattia Biagi that incorporated natural materials into the Flying Flea debut model, the C6.

Hand-blown glass sculptures replace the standard LED headlights, travertine forms the fuel tank, hand-moulded clay encases the forks, leaves cast in clear resin make up the fenders and the seat is made from solid walnut.

See our Milan design week 2025 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

The post What car brands are doing at Milan design week 2025 appeared first on Dezeen.

This week on Dezeen, we reported from Milan design week, revealing the best furniture, products and installations.

To showcase the highlights of the biggest event in the design calendar, we published a series of roundups including standout installations, highlights from the Alcova exhibition, and funky chairs by emerging designers.

UK studio Foster + Partners Industrial Design was among those launching new designs at the fair – unveiling its Ori bird feeder that is designed to reduce the spread of disease.

We also looked ahead to the Expo 2025 Osaka, which is set to open this weekend in the Japan.

Held within the wooden Grand Ring designed by Sou Fujimoto, the national pavilions on show will include the "grand yet minimalistic" USA Pavilion centred around a translucent cube and the wooden Uzbekistan Pavilion that nods to ancient Silk Road shelters.

Ahead of the official opening, Japanese sportswear company Mizuno launched a pair of official trainers informed by the event's blue and red mascot.

This week also saw the UK's most under threat buildings revealed by conservation group Twentieth Century Society.

Of the 10 buildings featured on the 2025 Risk List of UK buildings, three are millennium-era buildings, which according to the group is the first time buildings from this period have appeared on the list.

In other architecture news, British architect Peter Cook unveiled his colourful design for the Play Pavilion, which will be built beside the Serpentine gallery in London.

Set to open on 11 June, the pavilion will have a geodesic dome roof and be wrapped with rounded walls decorated with Lego murals.

Popular projects on Dezeen this week included a home in Hyderabad cantilevered above a stone-clad plinth, a bat-friendly watchtower in the Netherlands and a concrete ruin transformed into a modern home overlooking Lake Como.

Our latest lookbooks featured designer bathrooms with freestanding baths, unfitted kitchens with freestanding units and living areas with exposed rammed-earth walls.

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Dezeen Showroom: several recently launched furniture and lighting pieces have been listed on Dezeen Showroom during this year's Milan design week.

Eminent makers and design brands have marked Milan design week's 2025 edition by releasing a number of products, including a modular lighting system connected by tape and a sit-stand desk for home office use.

Milan design week took place from 7 to 13 April this year and remains the world's largest design event. Visit Dezeen's dedicated digital guide for a comprehensive list of the activities that occurred over the course of the design week's 2025 iteration.

Read on to see our selection of bathroom fittings, lighting and furniture on Dezeen Showroom that were debuted during the week.

Passage tables and chairs by Ronan Bouroullec for Kettal

Slimline aluminium frames define this table and chair collection designed for Spanish furniture brand Kettal by designer Ronan Bouroullec.

Passage tables and chairs are made out of recycled and recyclable aluminium and are available in a selection of colourways and seat finishes.

Find out more about Passage ›

Map modular lighting by Geckeler Michels for Lodes

Strips of conductive tape visually and electrically connect the LED modules of this lighting system designed for Italian brand Lodes by studio Geckeler Michels.

Map modular lighting comes in three neutral tones and can be configured in a limitless array of patterns and layouts to create bespoke lighting arrangements across ceilings.

Find out more about Map ›

eFloat Quattro desk by Humanscale

Workplace furniture brand Humanscale has reimagined its eFloat sit/stand desk with a softer, more domestic aesthetic allowing it to blend seamlessly into home environments.

The eFloat Quattro desk has four slender telescopic legs rather than the more functionalist two-legged structure of its forbearer, but retains its easy-to-adjust functionality.

Find out more about eFloat Quattro ›

Serenity Sky shower by Dornbracht

Five flow modes are facilitated by German brand Dornbracht's Serenity Sky shower, which aims to harness the wellbeing benefits of water and bathing.

The square panel comes in multiple metallic finishes and sits flush into the ceiling when installed, giving it a streamlined aesthetic.

Find out more about Serenity Sky ›

Aeris chandelier by Ross Gardam

Melbourne studio Ross Gardam has developed a collection of cloud-like chandeliers named Aeris.

Each piece is comprised of mouth-blown glass shades arranged around a metal frame, grouped in either straight lines or clusters.

Find out more about Aeris ›

Tablo table by Piero Lissoni for Porro

Architect Pierro Lissoni has created a table for Italian furniture maker Porro based on the appearance of workbenches utilised in metal workshops.

The Tablo table is available as a coffee table as well as a larger version designed for meeting and dining purposes. Both feature a sturdy metal frame topped by either a marble or glass top.

Find out more about Tablo ›

Titanio material by Gessi

Italian bathroom brand Gessi has developed a new material for its bathroom hardware named Titanio, which is based on the properties of titanium.

The material shares its namesake's strength, lightness and durability, and aims to contribute to the creation of timeless and distinctive metallic tapware.

Find out more about Titanio ›

Nami table by E-ggs for Miniforms

Steam bending methods were used to create the crimped base of this wooden table created by Italian studio E-ggs for design brand Miniforms.

The Nami table is available in three natural timber finishes – flamed oak, canaletto walnut or black ash – and users can also choose between three tabletop shapes.

Find out more about Nami ›

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Fashion brand Loewe has unveiled Loewe Teapots, an exhibition of 25 teapots including vessels by David Chipperfield, Patricia Urquiola and Wang Shu, at Milan design week.

On show at Milan's Palazzo Citterio, the playful teapots ranged from animal-shaped vessels and pots with faces to Chipperfield's streamlined cobalt-blue design.

To the architect, the exhibition was a chance to explore his fascination for everyday objects. His glazed teapot, which has a traditionally rounded shape, was decorated with a copper handle.

"My interest in simple everyday objects, their familiarity and our fondness of them, informed the approach to my teapot," Chipperfield told Dezeen.

"There's often a pressure in design to create the spectacular, but I think everyone has become too fascinated with novelty and formal innovation without meaning," he continued.

"I like the discipline of design: 'What should a teapot look like?' is an interesting question when everything is possible and my teapot makes references to precedent and typology."

Chipperfield worked with Galician craftspeople Paula Ojea, who created the body of the pot, and Antonio Ibáñez and Josefa Castro, who made the handle, to realise his design.

"My teapot was created using blue cobalt, which is a material commonly used in the region and the result is a balance between Spanish craftsmanship and the refined aesthetic of my own practice," he said.

Many of the designers who took part in the exhibition played around with the traditional teapot shape, with Rosemarie Trockel creating a communal teapot with three spouts and Wang Shu designing a square pot.

Designers Naoto Fukasawa, Jane Yang-D'Haene and Minsuk Cho all designed teapots with unusually bumpy or uneven surfaces, while ceramic artists Lu Bin and Madoda Fani left their pots unglazed.

A number of the vessels featured were given their own personality by the inclusion of faces or familiar shapes. Artist Dan McCarthy's had happy faces, while Urquiola's is shaped like a small animal.

"My design is inspired by the squirrel or Ardilla in Spanish; a symbol of both playfulness and purpose and my teapot evokes the silhouette of this agile creature," she told Dezeen.

"I wanted my teapot to capture this duality – the agility of a squirrel's movement as well as the tenderness and devotion in which they gather and store food."

Made from textured ceramic, her teapot was designed to play with tactile elements and "organic curves".

"The teapot's handle evokes the characteristic curve of the squirrel's tail, combining sculptural detail with functionality," Urquiola said.

Spanish artist Laia Arqueros Claramunt's tea pot looks like two people standing back to back and was made from refractory clay using the coil-building technique.

Its design draws on her current research, which focuses on the political significance of the uterus.

"When I was given the task of creating my teapot, I wanted to explore the inherent design possibilities in such a specific object, while also intertwining it with symbolic imagery connected to my current artistic research," she told Dezeen.

"My project La Gynopia y el espasmo delves into the political and symbolic genealogy of the uterus and examines the structural invisibility of the female body through a critical transfeminist lens," she continued.

"Addressing themes including hysterectomy, obstetric violence, and the grief surrounding the absence of the uterus, my research reflects on the uterus' political and social significance within a patriarchal society."

The remaining designers who took part in Loewe Teapots were Akio Niisato, Edmund de Waal, Inchin Lee, Masaomi Yasunaga, Master Deng, Chen Min, Rose Wylie, Sam Bakewell, Shozo Michikawa, Simone Fattal, Suna Fujita, Takayuki Sakiyama, Tommaso Corvi Mora and Walter Price.

Loewe also showed tea cosies made by the brand that resemble fluffy soft toys and are part of a wider homeware collection.

It also created a number of teapots together with Spanish artisans, as well as other tea-related products, for this year's Milan design week.

Other exhibitions on show during Milan design week include the Euroluce lighting exhibitions and fashion brand Hermès' annual homewares installation.

The photography is courtesy of Loewe.

Loewe Teapots is on show at Palazzo Citterio from 7 to 13 April. See our Milan design week 2025 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

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Dezeen Showroom: lighting brand Preciosa referenced glowing nighttime cityscapes in its customisable Crystal Link lighting range, which launched during Milan design week.

On display at Salone del Mobile's lighting exhibition Euroluce, Crystal Links forms part of Preciosa's Signature Designs collection of customisable lighting.

The lights are formed of metal tubes plugged with glass shades, which can be adapted into various compositions depending on the space.

According to the brand, they take visual cues from both modern architecture and urban landscapes, with the tubes intended to evoke roads and the shades emulating glowing windows.

"Crystal Links is about embracing the energy and rhythm of the city," said co-creative director Michael Vasku. "It captures the nocturnal symphony of urban life, reflecting the beauty of connectivity and the dance of light in a world that never sleeps."

As part of Preciosa's exhibit of Crystal Link at Milan design week, the brand is showcasing Preciosa Signature Design Generator – a visualisation tool to showcase Preciosa's Signature Designs in different architectural setups.

Product details:

Product: Crystal Links
Brand: Preciosa
Contact: sales@preciosalighting.com

Materials: Crystal bicones and metal tubes
Colours/finishes: stainless steel, gold, champagne, copper, metallic blue and black metal finishes
Dimensions: metal tube diameter 18 millimetres, crystal component diameter 110 millimetres

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Appliance brand V-Zug is hosting a multi-sensory installation at Milan design week, shown in this video made for the brand by Dezeen.

Titled Banquet Echoes, the installation brings together food, design and performance in an immersive experience.

The installation spotlights the brand's kitchen appliances 

Named Banquet Echoes, the installation by Italian designer Elisa Ossino was held at the V-Zug Studio in Brera.

It consists of a sculptural dining space, designed by Ossino, where gastronomic tastings, presented by V-Zug's Gourmet Academy, take place throughout the event.

Each tasting is different, with food concepts informed by different colours and textures, corresponding to the different times of the day.

Visitors can also preview V-Zug's latest kitchen appliances, with new releases such as the Supreme Line cooling range, and CombiSteamer Grand on display and showcased in cooking demonstrations.

At night, the studio was transformed into a performance venue with acts by Milanese theatre group Teatro delle Moire.

Banquet Echoes runs until 12 April 2025, at V-Zug Studio Milan, Piazza San Marco 4. See our Milan design week 2025 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

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Designers including Patricia Urquiola, Faye Toogood and Misha Kahn looked to rolling hills and slabs of butter when creating these chubby seating projects, revealing a trend for the lumpy and chunky at this year's Milan design week.

Bread and Butter by Faye Toogood for Tacchini

British designer Faye Toogood was influenced by a slab of butter and a fat loaf of bread when designing her squishy sofa and accompanying console table for Italian brand Tacchini.

The sofa's shape was developed by sculpting pats of butter into maquettes, but ultimately crafted out of modular components upholstered in soft velvety fabric.

Similarly, the silhouette of the console table – finished in stained ash wood with maple inlays – was originally conceived by arranging real sourdough bread in thick-sliced piles.

Toogood crowned the ingredients "the building blocks of domestic happiness and health", and named the pieces in their honour.

Mole Eats Worm by Misha Kahn

A puzzle of amorphous forms makes up Mole Eats Worm, a sofa by American designer Misha Kahn composed of interlocking shapes he developed using virtual reality.

Kahn used large blocks of foam to create the shapes, which are supported by a steel structure and clad with blue, red and brown mohair. As Kahn's first sofa project, Mole Eats Worm follows the designer's various experimentations with the materials.

"As you unlock levels, at some point you get to start making soft seating," said Kahn.

Anima by Lara Bohinc

British designer Lara Bohinc looked to rolling hills and curvy lake shores when creating Anima, a handmade furniture collection that brings together a sofa and two chairs. Their curved silhouettes were conceived to echo undulating natural landscapes.

Designed in collaboration with French upholstery house Maison Phelippeau, the pieces are made from natural materials including horsehair and alpaca wool and bound together with Vanadium steel coils.

Bohinc is showing the works as part of Milan design week's annual Alcova exhibition, founded in 2018 by Joseph Grima and Valentina Ciuffi.

Stockholm sofa by Ola Wihlborg for IKEA

Released as part of the 2025 edition of IKEA's longstanding Stockholm collection, this modular sofa was created by Swedish designer Ola Wihlborg after initially testing over 30 prototypes.

Born from Wihlborg's frustration with sofas that need consistent cushion-fluffing maintenance, the seating was designed to have generous proportions and "prioritises comfort without needing extra pillows".

"I wanted to create a high-quality sofa that maintains its shape and looks the same even after you stand up from sitting in it," he explained.

Lisse by Sabine Marcelis for La Cividina

Dutch designer Sabine Marcelis designed the Lisse seating collection to "capture fluidity and ergonomics in one continuous form".

Clad in recycled polyester with no visible seams, Lisse is characterised by oversized oval forms and marks the designer's first foray into sofas.

Lisse, named after the French word for "smooth", can be accompanied by various poufs to allow for flexible seating arrangements without the need for modules.

Gruuve by Patricia Urquiola for Moroso

Spanish designer and longtime Moroso collaborator Patricia Urquiola aimed to capture the "free-spirited essence of the 1970s" with Gruuve – a sofa defined by sinuous forms on display at the Salone Del Mobile furniture fair.

Finished in a retro-style colour palette, Gruuve is characterised by lumps and bumps that, according to Moroso, work together to "redefine the dialogue between body and object".

See our Milan design week 2025 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

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A series of interactive installations exploring the connection between humans and technology have opened at car brand Lexus' latest showcase during Milan design week.

For this year's exhibition, Lexus created a pair of installations based on its Black Butterfly concept – a dual-interface cockpit control system developed for the LF-ZC concept car.

Exhibited at the Superstudio Più, the immersive installations were designed to explore "how future technologies will bring man, machine and mobility closer together".

Creative agency Six Inc and design firm Studeo teamed up with Lexus to create A-Un.

Drawing on the Japanese concept of breathing in harmony, known as Aun no kokyo, the installation synchronised visitors' heartbeats with a digital interface to create a "connection between people, society and the world".

A large screen mimics the winged form of Lexus' Black Butterfly interface, displaying moving images.

In front of this, visitors were invited to stand on particular spots where their heartbeat could be measured before being depicted through moving elements on the screen.

"What we wanted to express through this installation is the multitude of ways people can connect with other people for society," the studios told Dezeen.

"The very important concept behind this project is Aun no kokyo, or instantaneous connection and breathing."

"This is something that is very much present in Japanese traditional arts, and it's something that connects individual to individual or society to individual although it is invisible," they added.

Alongside this installation, the second piece named Discover Together was completed by creative studio Bascule Inc and a team of designers from the Northeastern University alongside members of the in-house Lexus design team.

The installation was divided into three sections, which were each composed of a digital screen fronted by a row of interactive Black Butterfly interfaces.

Drawing on the Black Butterfly concept, Bascule Inc sought to establish a new relationship between car and driver in the installation's first section.

This led to the concept of an expanded Earth perspective – or Earthspective – where visitors view themselves on the screen as if "watching down from space" on a digital live stream captured by the International Space Station.

"Normally when you drive a car, you are just focused on the fact that you want to drive to your goal," the studio said. "So we wanted to provide another goal or another motive to sit in the carriage by adding this new perspective."

Designers from the Northeastern University created the second section named Our Energy Nexus. Here, visitors were able to contribute to a map that measures air pollution levels in real time.

For the third section, the in-house Lexus designers created Discover Your Butterfly, which is informed by the butterfly-effect and encouraged visitors to create their own digital butterfly through the interface.

According to Lexus, the exhibition builds on the legacy of the Lexus Design Award – an annual international competition established by the brand to support the next generation of creatives.

Dezeen recently rounded up the best new lighting designs and funky chairs designed by emerging designers on show during Milan design week.

The photography is courtesy of Lexus.

The A-Un and Discover Together installations run from 8 to 13 April 2025 during Milan design week. See our Milan design week 2025 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

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Promotion: Swedish design brand Bolon promoted its flooring through an immersive sculptural exhibition as part of Milan Design week 2025.

Named Exodus, the exhibition took the form of an installation within a historic ballroom in the centre of Milan, which is also a former textile factory.

It was the result of the first collaboration between installation artist JoAnn Tan and industrial designer Luca Nichetto.

The installation was divided into two parts, arranged on either side of a straight walkway spanning between a main entrance and exit leading to an inner courtyard.

Creatures and vegetation made out of Bolon flooring populated both parallel worlds that made up the installation.

One side featured flooring of dark green, chevron-shaped tiles, populated by undulating vegetation-like forms that recalled scenes in a primeval forest.

"[On this side] the depths of a primordial forest unfold, an ancient universe where the material seems to rise organically from the ground, pulsating with energy and strength," said Bolon.

"Surfaces take the form of creatures – robust, powerful as if they were an extension of the landscape itself."

The opposite side was underpinned by scalloped flooring tiles in powder pink and apricot shades and was home to bird- and bug-like organisms.

"The atmosphere becomes ethereal, colours soften into delicate, luminous hues," the brand continued. "The landscape appears weightless, like a dream suspended in midair, and the creatures inhabiting this space move with lightness, almost floating."

The beings on both sides were placed towards the rear of the space, where windows and a central door gave way to a courtyard garden that contained a seating area and where visitors came face-to-face with a final sculptural creature.

It was positioned above a pond and combined elements from both sides of the interior – both the earthiness of the forest and the lightness of the dreamy world opposite.

"At the heart of the installation, the encounter finally takes place," said the brand. "A mythical creature is born – an entity that belongs to no world yet contains them both."

"Exodus is more than an installation," said Bolon. "It is a parallel world, a fantastical ecosystem where Bolon's textile flooring comes to life, morphing into mysterious creatures."

Visitors can view Exodus for free between 10am and 8pm between 8 and 12 April, and between 10am and 5pm on 13 April.

To find out more about Bolon, visit its website.

Bolon's exhibition runs from 8 to 13 April 2025 during Milan design week. See our Milan design week 2025 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

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The biennial Euroluce lighting exhibition is a highlight of this year's Milan design week. Dezeen editor-at-large Amy Frearson picks 12 of the best lighting launches on show here and elsewhere in the city.

Euroluce is part of the Salone del Mobile, the furniture fair that underpins Milan's annual design week.

Exhibitors include many of the world's most progressive and influential lighting companies, including Italian brands Flos, Foscarini dezeen and Artemide along with Canadian companies A-N-D and Lambert & Fils.

Read on for our pick of the best new lighting launches on show:

Glass bubbles form Luce Sferica lights by Ronan Bouroullec for Flos

French designer Ronan Bouroullec describes this modular suspension lamp for Flos as a mix of "softness, magic and technical sophistication".

It is formed of mouth-blown glass spheres, linked by a horizontal body of polished extruded aluminium.

"Luce Sferica is a lamp that seeks delicacy and the beauty of simplicity, like raindrops clinging to a thread or a soap bubble blown by a child," said Bouroullec.

Michael Anastassiades creates illuminated rope in Linked lights for Flos

Another new launch from Flos, this design by London-based designer Michael Anastassiades is formed of linear glass links.

The glass-encased rope elements hook over one another, creating vertical line of lines that can extend from the ceiling all the way down the floor.

"The chains hang like jewellery from the ceiling and can be combined to divide a space,"  said Anastassiades.

Herzog & de Meuron designs three-legged Trois Rois lamps for Artemide

Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron originally designed this table lamp as part of the interior design of a room in the Les Trois Rois hotel in Basel.

Available in colourful felt or die-cast aluminium finishes, this portable, rechargeable and dimmable lamp is characterised by its curvy shade and animal-like feet.

"I wanted a lightweight object with delicate feet, almost like a cat's paws," said studio co-founder Jacques Herzog.

"The result was this three-legged piece, more like a small creature with a cloak than a traditional lamp."

Patrick Jouin imprints tree bark into Vera pendant for Lasvit

This vertical glass pendant is produced by pouring molten glass over a tree trunk, resulting in a texture that is instantly recognisable.

French designer Patrick Jouin came up with the concept after observing "the quiet presence of the forest" at Lasvit's production facility in Novy Bor, Czech Republic.

"The forest is a mystery," said Jouin. "You enter without knowing where it might lead. It's a place of endless thoughts, like a slideshow of ideas."

Kwangho Lee pairs aluminium with enamel in Bolda pendant for Lambert & Fils

South Korean designer Kwangho Lee has been exploring the possibilities of copper enamelling across several projects, inspired by a traditional Korean decorative art called chilbo.

This collaboration with Montreal-based Lambert & Fils sees it applied to sheets of polished aluminium.

"This project was a unique opportunity to push the boundaries of our practice and create a light fixture that reflects the soul of our two creative worlds," said Samuel Lambert, founder of Lambert & Fils.

Tier is a multi-level linear light by A-N-D's Lukas Peet

Vancouver-based A-N-D has unveiled a range of new lights both at the fair and at a show in a former Milanese bank.

This design, by brand co-founder Lukas Peet, provides a solution for above linear surfaces such as kitchen counters, dining tables or shared desks.

Extruded aluminum provides linear elements that hang either singularly or in stacked vertical compositions. The scalloped form allows light to evenly reflect off the metal surfaces.

Foscarini launches asymmetric Allumette chandelier by Francesca Lanzavecchia

The showpiece of Foscarini's new collection is a contemporary chandelier where arms of different lengths connect the central body with a series of transparent tubes.

Italian designer Francesca Lanzavecchia wanted to "soften the formal rigour" of the traditional chandelier by introducing assymetry.

"I have worked on the technological elements, triangulations and irregular balances, attempting to transform a complex object into a structure that would play with the contrast between tension and lightness," Lanzavecchia said.

Miami lights by Aqua Creations take inspiration from art deco

The Metropolitan Collection from lighting company Aqua Creations is a series where lights are placed behind translucent materials including silk, handmade paper and wood veneer.

The highlight of the art-deco-informed collection are the Miami wall lights, which bring together different colours and shapes in artful compositions.

"These are functional artworks, designed to hang like paintings on the wall and stay true to our identity, where light becomes art," said designer and company co-founder Albi Serfaty.

Alessandro Zambelli designs geometric Dansì wall lights for Luceplan

Dansì is a family of four geometric wall lights developed by Italian designer Alessandro Zambelli. They can be arranged together in different ways to create the suggestion of a thread weaving in and out of a wall.

Produced by Milanese company Luceplan, the die-cast aluminium elements are available in matt white or polished finishes.

"In daylight, the geometric forms emerge in their sculptural essence, revealing essential lines and clear volumes," said Zambelli.

"As the night falls, they emanate an unexpected brightness that adds a new, almost surreal dimension."

Cork gives texture to Samuel Wilkinson's Corka pendants for Zero

Granulated cork was pressed into a mould to produce these conical pendant lamps, launched by Swedish company Zero.

British designer Samuel Wilkinson wanted to create a design that would be made primarily from a single sustainable material, with minimal electric components.

"Cork, sourced from the regenerating bark of the Quercus suber, is one of the most sustainable materials available," said Wilkinson. "It biodegrades naturally, releases no toxins and its byproducts are fully utilised."

Marset offers playful colour combinations in Gambosa lamp by Mathias Hahn

German designer Mathias Hahn has brought a sculptural quality to the classic table lamp form in this design for Spanish company Marset.

The design combines a smoothly curved steel base with a matching shade. Both are available in a range of colours, offering scope for either contrasting or matching tones.

Form Us With Love designs modular Catena desk lighting for Blond

This workplace lighting system was developed by Swedish design studio Form Us With Love to allow for a wide range of different sizes and configurations.

Launched by Swedish brand Blond at Stockholm Design Week earlier this year, the system comprises glass tube lights connected by aluminium frames. The tubes can be left exposed or encased inside aluminium mesh shades.

See our Milan design week 2025 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

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With Milan design week underway, we've rounded up the key installations from the event, including BIG's undulating fountain, a rotating library and a giant inflatable nightclub gremlin courtesy of Nike.

This year has seen big brands splash out for an overwhelming amount of interventions across the city, created by some of the world's best-known designers and architects.

The Dezeen team has managed to see most of them and compiled 10 of the best for your viewing pleasure below.

Library of Light by Es Devlin

British set designer Es Devlin created a rotating library for furniture fair Salone del Mobile, which is located in the courtyard of the historic Pinacoteca di Brera gallery.

Devlin's literary installation takes visitors on a literal spin around the 17th-century courtyard. The revolving platform lets readers see its sculptures from a different angle, while perusing the over 3,000 books on display.

The books were chosen to fit with Salone del Mobile's theme, Thought for Humans, and include works by authors like Toni Morrison and Adrienne Rich. Called Library of Light for its angled mirrors that reflect the sun, the installation is illuminating in more ways than one.

The Suspended Hour by Nike and PAN

Berlin record label Pan collaborated with Nike on a textural Air Max 180 sneaker and an installation located at Capsule Plaza to launch the shoe.

Under the creative direction of Pan founder Bill Kouligas and designer Niklas Bildstein Zaar, the installation "explores club culture as a sacred space". It features a giant sculpture that resembles a lounging version of the Greek god Pan as well as tacky surfaces that pay homage to sticky club floors.

Making the Invisible Visible by Lachlan Turczan and Google

Following his 2023 debut, which saw him visualise sound, Lachlan Turczan has returned to Milan with Google and another installation themed around synesthesia.

This time, the American artist has made light tangible with the help of a laser, a parabolic mirror, some water-vapour and an algorithm.

The result are six luminous veils in a blackened room that ripple in response to touch as if they were made from actual fabric. Each veil also makes a different sound as it moves, turning the installation into a kind of giant windchime.

Design You Can Feel by Studio INI for Dezeen and ASUS

Kinetic wings open and close as visitors walk along the central axis of this installation created by design firm Studio INI for Dezeen and ASUS.

Their unique glittering texture was created by treating aluminium honeycomb with ASUS's proprietary Ceraluminum process, creating an oxidized ceramic layer that grows out of the metal as it is submerged in an electrolytic bath.

Hermès

French fashion house Hermès chose stark white minimalism for its annual Milan design week installation, which is once again on display at La Pelota – a former 1940s sports court.

Longtime collaborators Charlotte Macaux Perelman and Alexis Fabry designed the installation, composed of suspended white boxes surrounded by bright white walls and flooring. Colourful spotlights project from the bottom of the boxes, providing vibrant accents for the otherwise sparse space.

The Hermès artistic director duo wanted to elevate the pieces on display and provide "nearly colourless" altar-like vessels to allow the multicoloured collection to take centre stage.

La Prima Notte Di Quiete by Dimorestudio and Loro Piana

Shattered porcelain lies on a dining table and real water spills over the rim of the sunken tub in La Prima Notte Di Quiete, a theatrical installation by design firm Dimore Studio that has taken over the courtyard of the Loro Piana headquarters.

Visitors enter through a foyer styled to look like a vintage cinema, complete with deep red velvet curtains, and are ushered into a dark room to see a theatrical stage resembling an apartment from the 1970s or 80s.

Fully furnished with pieces created by Dimore Studio for Loro Piana Interiors, the stage is illuminated piece by piece, while a soundtrack playing over the speakers suggests a story playing out across the different rooms.

A Beat of Water by BIG for Roca

Architecture firm BIG has combined 300 galvanised steel pipes into an undulating fountain that rains water down onto passersby and recycles it in a closed-loop system.

Four interactive buttons allow visitors to pause the flow of water, visualising how much of this precious resource could be saved through small, conscious choices.

All the things we do in bed by Laila Gohar and Marimekko

A total of 18 individual beds dressed in plush stripy sheets have been combined in the foyer of Teatro Litta, Milan's oldest theatre still in operation, to form one giant bed.

Finnish lifestyle brand Marimekko joined forces with New York-based designer and Milan design week regular Laila Gohar to create the installation. Its colourful bedding was conceived alongside pyjamas and eyemasks that will launch this September.

The distinctive pink colour of the Teatro Litta ceiling is echoed in the salmon-hued bed sheets, while crystal-like drinks stirrers that accompany coffees served throughout the week nod to the decadent chandelier suspended above the installation.

Diade by Kapwani Kiwanga for Kvadrat

Kvadrat originally stated working with Canadian artist Kapwani Kiwanga when supplying fabrics for her large-scale art pieces, exploring colonialism and its ripple effects.

Now, the artist has developed her own cloth for the Danish textile company, which uses different coloured threads to create the illusion of one colour, plus a dedicated installation in its Corso Monforte showroom.

A series of monumental interventions are spaced throughout the store at different angles to show how our perception of the textiles' colour changes depending on the lighting and the vantage point.

Checkered Future by Vans and Willo Perron

Visitors are asked to recline on a metal grid and remain still for roughly four minutes in the Checkered Future installation by designer Willo Perron – who is best known for creating fashion show sets for Chanel and Rihanna's Savage x Fenty.

A grid of mirrors alternately closes in on the viewer and zooms out to an ominous soundtrack by composer Tim Hecker, visualising its different frequencies and vibrations.

Growing Matter(s) by Henning Larsen

In collaboration with the Material Balance Research Lab of the Politecnico di Milano, Danish studio Henning Larsen has created a pavilion that will disappear entirely when design week is over.

Its 80 suspended mycelium spheres will decompose, while the rented scaffolding structure underneath will be returned back to a construction site to be used again.

See our Milan design week 2025 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

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Fitness brand Technogym have opened an exhibition on the history of wellness design at this year's Milan design week, as shown in this video created for the brand by Dezeen.

Named The Art of Wellness, the show guides visitors through a timeline of wellness and sports tools, stretching from ancient civilisations through to the present day.

The exhibition takes a retrospective look at wellness design

One such item on display is a cavallina – an ancient Roman fitness tool similar to a modern day vaulting horse, which was used to practice mounting a horse.

The exhibition traces how the cavallina evolved, from it's use during military training in the middle ages, through to it's re-design into the vaulting horse we recognise today in the 19th century.

The exhibition also delves into Technogym's 40 year history from its founding in 1983 by Nerio Alessandri.

Visitors can learn about Technogym's work across fields such a biomechanics and artificial intelligence, including the brand's Healthness programme, a preventative medicine system that aims to use user data and AI to anticipate health issues before they arise.

The exhibition also celebrates the launch of a photobook that celebrates the brand's design ethos, drawing from Italian culture and design history.

The photobook is a collaboration with publishing house Assoluline, known for their colourful travel-focused coffee table books.

The Technogym installation runs from 7 to 13 April 2025 during Milan design week. See our Milan design week 2025 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

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Promotion: as part of Milan design week, Febal Casa in collaboration with Zaha Hadid Architects have launched the ONDA furniture collection that aims to "recreate the subtle beauty of nature".

Febal Casa's ONDA comprises a sculptural sideboard and kitchen island equipped with back-painted fused glass doors featuring a metal effect crafted to appear as if the sea's waves have rippled across their surface.

The collection intends to be a "groundbreaking expression of fluid forms" and reinterpret interiors with a fresh architectural style.

The ONDA kitchen island has a depth of 1,218 millimetres and its lengths range from 1,800 to 3,600 millimetres, allowing it to adapt to different kitchen configurations.

Zaha Hadid Architects crafted its door as an "architectural element" that is designed to interact with light.

Its back-painted fused glass surface with a metal effect comes in a range of metallic colourways, including Metal Onda, Metal Bronze Onda, Metal Champagne Onda, and Metal Iridium Onda, while its frame is available in black or champagne aluminium.

The door intends to be a striking design statement and redefine an entire interior "moving beyond the concept of a mere front panel to become an architectural element".

The island's worktop, side panels and base can be customised in Febal Casa's materials and finishes from the workshop range to ensure aesthetic and material continuity.

The ONDA sideboard has a back-painted fused glass door with a metal effect, a lacquered top and casing, and an aluminium frame that also comes in black or champagne finishes. It aims to be a focal point of an interior and has dimensions of 2,125 by 745 by 500 millimetres.

The sideboard is a versatile piece that can be situated in a variety of living spaces and intends to strike the balance between having a sophisticated aesthetic whilst also being functional.

According to Febal Casa, both designs were influenced by how the waves of the Adriatic Riviera continuously reshape the surrounding landscape.

"Our approach echoes the timeless coherence of nature but also celebrates Febal Casa's heritage; marrying the fluid forms evident in the natural world with detailed craftmanship in a collection that embodies both contemporary innovation and historic tradition," said project director of Zaha Hadid Architects Maurizio Meossi.

Febal Casa and Zaha Hadid Architects also used many elements from architecture when designing the collection, which merges "aesthetic research with cutting-edge production expertise".

"What we love about this project is realising the dream which designers and artists had for a long time: to recreate the subtle beauty of nature," said Zaha Hadid Architects principal Patrik Schumacher.

The collection showcases the signature architectural style of Zaha Hadid Architects, yet is rooted in Febal Casa's visual identity.

"ONDA, born from the collaboration between Febal Casa and Zaha Hadid Architects, represents a strategic evolution for the brand, strengthening our path of growth and internationalization," said the CEO of Colombini Group, Giovanni Battista Vacchi.

"The collaborations with big names in architecture confirm our commitment to innovate the design offer, expanding market opportunities and consolidating our presence in increasingly competitive contexts."

Febal Casa said the collaboration also represents how its brand has established itself on the global design stage in the production of elegant yet innovative furniture.

"ONDA is the perfect expression of what it means to innovate in design: taking an element of nature and translating it into a universal architectural language," said Emanuel Colombini, president and chief design officer of Colombini Group.

"With this collaboration between Febal Casa and Zaha Hadid Architects, inspiration from the Adriatic merges with craftsmanship, giving life to a project that combines form, function and emotion."

To learn more about Febal Casa visit its website.

ONDA– Zaha Hadid Architects x Febal Casa takes place from 8 to 13 April 2025 at Febal Casa's Brera showroom, located at Via Fatebenefratelli 18, Milan, Italy as part of Milan design week. See our Milan design week 2025 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks that are taking place throughout the week.

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This article was written by Dezeen for Febal Casa as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here. 

The post Febal Casa and Zaha Hadid Architects launch the ONDA furniture collection bringing "the continuous motion of the sea" into the home appeared first on Dezeen.

Milan-based design studio 6AM has installed Murano glass lamps, sconces and other objects among unfinished shower stalls located in the basement of the Piscina Cozzi pool house in Milan for the city's design week.

The Two Fold Silence exhibition displays new and existing work by 6AM, as well as prototypes, such as unfinished chandeliers and a towel rail made of glass murrini rods and stainless steel brackets.

The 41 pieces were installed on the walls and floors of a long series of unfinished shower stalls in the basement of the 1930s Piscina Cozzi building, designed by engineer Luigi Secchi.

Although the upper floor contains an expansive, working swimming pool, hydrotherapy facilities originally planned for the basement were never finished due to worsening circumstances under Italy's fascist regime during the building's completion.

6AM reflects this "incompleteness" with its works in a variety of stages.

"This is not about the creation of discrete works, but rather the orchestration of moments and gaps," said the studio in a statement. "Each object is both a declaration and an omission, a presence haunted by its own incompleteness."

"The venue defined the installation," the studio continued.

"We didn't want to impose a structure on the space but rather respond to it. Its raw, untouched state guided how we positioned the works – some aligned with the existing architecture, others interrupting it."

"The contrast between the rationalist structure and the more instinctive, experimental nature of some pieces created the tension we were aiming for"

A chandelier designed in collaboration with architectural designer Hannes Peer marks each entrance to the long rows of shower corridors that fill the basement.

Visitors snake through each row, which contain 14 stalls each, with lamps, sconces or other objects designed by 6AM installed periodically.

The pieces include the Quadarto wall lamp. Part of the studio's newest works informed by industrial lamps from the 1920s, it is composed of six lattimo handblown glass cubes that each feature a different finish, including small, blue letters spelling "6:AM" scrawled across a corner.

Another single Quadarto cube was screen-printed with "Exit" across its surfaces, and in a neighboring stall, the studio displayed a modular shelving unit made of industrial glass found at construction sites.

6AM was founded in 2018 by designers Edoardo Pandolfo and Francesco Palù. The brand is based in Milan but works extensively in Murano to create its glassworks.

Other exhibitions and installations on display during Milan design week 2025 include a minimalist installation by Hermès at the former 1940s sports court La Pelota and a waterfall installation by Samuel Ross.

The photography is by Melania Dalle Grave.

Two-Fold Silence is on display at Piscina Cozzi from 6 to 12 April 2025 as part of Milan design week. See our Milan design week 2025 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.

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