Milan Design Week
From A-C
Milan Design Week (MDW), the world’s biggest festival of design, takes place from April 20th to 26th. It is a whirl of new design unveilings, exhibitions, installations and symposiums, which play out beneath the city’s magnificent Duomo. Here’s what to see and the new designs to know.
ACERBIS
The Italian furniture brand is presenting re-editions and new pieces within an installation at the Salone del Mobile fair (Hall 24/Stand C14 D19) curated by its artistic directors Francesco Meda and David Lopez Quincoces. They’ve conjured a 70s vibe with black lacquered walls, setting the scene for the Free System sofa by Claudio Salocchi, which now has new modular corner elements. Other additions include a vertical sideboard version of the stainless steel-clad Parioli system originally designed in 1971 by Lodovico Acerbis. Ebi is a new take on the tub chair designed by Meda-Quincoces, while Sabine Marcelis’ Lokum blown-glass coffee table (2024) is presented in a new petrol green hue. The Le Cupole table is updated in lacquer and there is a new version of the Menhir Mini side tables. Acerbis is also collaborating with Plan C, the Milan-based fashion brand founded by Carolina Castiglioni at their installation The Curated Core – showcasing standout pieces at the store on Via Manzoni.
AESOP
The Factory of Light, designed by Australian architect Rodney Eggleston of March Studio, is an installation staged within the 17th-century courtyard and sacristy of Santa Maria del Carmine. This sets the stage for Aposē, the  luxury skincare brand’s first trio of lighting designs created in-house by Aesop’s Design Studio and produced in Italy in sand-cast brass. Of the three, a table lamp will be produced as a limited edition of 500, available from Aesop’s website later this year.
The installation itself takes the form of a translucent architectural structure guiding visitors through the four artisanal stages used to craft the lamps. This culminates in the sacristy, where the lighting designs appear within a landscape of 10,000 recycled Aesop glass bottles, framed by carved 17th-century wooden walls by master woodcarver Giovanni Quadrio.
ALCOVA
The design platform for explorative, avant-garde design returns at two venues: Villa Pestarini and the vast complex of the Baggio Military Hospital. Villa Pestarini on Via Mogadiscio, is an important example of Italian Rationalism designed by Franco Albini in 1937, which will host Haworth and Cassina’s installation by Patricia Urquiola, reinterpreting the entrance and living areas with Albini pieces produced by Cassina. The vision continues with a project celebrating the work of the architect Luisa Castiglioni, who began her career as Albini’s assistant, before moving to contemporary talent: Kiki Goti presents a marble furniture and lighting collection. Parisian fabric house IssĂ© unveils its first collaboration with architect-designer Sophie Dries exploring raw plant fibre; Japanese studio AtMa Inc transforms surplus materials into a furniture system; and Around the Studio, reinterprets Georgian vernacular materials into design objects.Â
Baggio at Via Giovanni Labus hosts international schools including, for the first time, London’s AA School of Architecture, which will present an experimental pavilion. The space also features a material exploration showcasing the work of international talents such as London-based designer-maker Andrew Pierce Scott, who is presenting furniture, lighting and sculptural objects. The Center for Creativity creates a site-specific installation House of Creatures, bringing together 10 Slovenian design practices. Within the same building, Noritake Design Collection is presenting new porcelain works, including a collection by Faye Toogood (see listing). Shakti Design Residency presents works pairing international designers with Indian ateliers. Older, the Milan-based studio working across fashion and product design has created a new pop-up at the Tempio, and Mutina has designed the food and beverage area featuring a ceramic tile collection designed by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec.
ALLEGRA HICKS
The artist-designer is taking part in the immersive spectacle Nilufar Grand Hotel at the Nilufar Depot gallery (see listing) on Viale Vincenzo Lancetti, where she will unveil her new collection Trame Di Confine: a folding screen, mirror, floor lamp, bed, bench and a pair of wall lights, which are handmade in Naples using Hicks’ crochet technique. Her pieces adorn the bedroom of the “hotel” and feature blue velvet elements symbolising peace and calm.
ALESSI
La Bella Tavola is an installation at the 16th-century Renaissance-style palace Palazzo Stampa di Soncino, which pays homage to Ettore Sottsass and the porcelain table service of the same name he created for the Italian design house in 1993 – which is reissued this year in a white and decorated version. The house is also presenting its first collection with Italian sportswear brand CP Company at an immersive installation Blend: The Kinetic Pulse of Italian Industrial Mastery at the C.P. Company showroom on Via Galvano Fiamma. The collection features Alessi objects reimagined in a black PVD finish, alongside a Nylon B overshirt in three exclusive colours.
AMINIÂ
The purveyor of handmade carpets is presenting Woven Forms II in collaboration with R & Company, the second edition of the group exhibition of artists and designers exploring the rug as a field of research, an expressive language, and a space for creative collaboration. Head to the Amini showroom on Via Borgogna.
APARTAMENTO X MULLER VAN SEVEREN
Belgian design duo Muller Van Severen has created a collection of gigantic aluminium candlesticks, which will be on shown at the exhibition Silhouettes: Celebrating 15 Years, presented by Tim Van Laere Gallery at the Ordet art centre on Via Filippino Lippi. This exhibition is being staged in collaboration with the publishing house Apartamento.
ARCLINEAÂ
The contemporary Italian kitchen furniture brand is introducing its new Kora kitchen designed by Antonio Citterio at its Milan showroom on Via Durini. Kora evolves around a sculptural curved island, and is an exploration of the curved line that extends to organically shaped tables: the Folia, Vesper and Orbita, complemented by the Jens dining chairs and bar stool.
ARMANI CASA
The fashion house will present its new casa collection at its store on Corso Venezia. This includes Borgonuovo, an Art Deco–inspired games table in ebony wood with a taupe leather top and satin-finished light brass edging and details. The piece has a rotating central top revealing a checkerboard playing surface in ebony and natural maple wood, designed for chess or draughts.
ARPERÂ
The Italian design brand has presentations at Salone del Mobile and its Showroom on Via Pantano, both previewing Aom by Jean-Marie Massaud - a low-impact seating system built from just two recyclable components, eliminating polyurethane entirely.
ARTEMEST
L’Appartamento by Artemest, a resplendent palazzo transformed by international designers, is one of the highlights of Design Week, attracting huge queues during the festival. This year, the fourth edition of L’Appartamento at Palazzo Donizetti on Via Gaetano Donizetti is dedicated to “Italian Grandeur” interpreted by five interior design studios – Sasha Adler Design, March and White Design, Rockwell Group, Charlap Hyman & Herrero and Urijowan Interiors – who have created inspirational spaces. During the festival, Artemest, a digital marketplace of Italian design, is also launching a dedicated furniture collection, Artemest Collection by the New York-based design firm Gachot.
ATRAÂ
Founded by Alexander Diaz Andersson, the design and architectural practice based between Mexico City, Los Angeles and New York is taking part in the exhibition The Atelier Editions — a curatorial platform presenting rugs as sculptural forms. Andersson explores stratification and organic rupture through varied pile structures and irregular perimeters in his exploration. Other designers taking part at the Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia, Via Olona 4, are Adam Court (Cape Town), Andrée Cooke (London), Annysa LaMantia (Atlanta / New York), Fernando Mastrangelo (New York), Fernanda Marques (São Paulo), Pietro Franceschini (Milan / New York), Sacha Andraos, Lorenzo Scisciani and Salvatore Morales (Milan / London) and the New York-based architect Suchi Reddy.
BACCARATÂ
Curator, artist, art historian and artistic director Emmanuelle Luciani has created the Crystal Crypt for the fine crystal house – a sci-fi-style art installation on Via Marco Formentini comprising an original film, sound piece, scenography and choreography. The immersive installation explores the potential of crystal across different timelines. Highlights include a collaboration with Luciani, an exclusive lighting collaboration with British designer Bethan Laura Wood named Mille Fleurs, new interpretations of its Harcourt glass, and a selection from the Haute Cristallerie collection.
BAROVIER & TOSOÂ
Having appointed new artistic director Luca Nichetto last year, the historic Venetian murano glass maker is unveiling 2026 Chapter 1. The collection of three designs, shown at its showroom on Via Durini within a wood-lined exhibition space, includes Etime: modular, cubic glass designs that can be combined as desired. The Profilo suspension lamp is made up of discs of opaline spirals of varying diameters, and the Aurora table lamp reinterprets the tradition of oil lamps in delicate ribbed glass.
Other new collections and extensions include new table and floor lamp versions of Agave, designed by GarcĂa Cumini. Its Olori vases by Studio Lani are embellished with collars in a traditional African style. Kado by Keiji Ashizawa is a vase inspired by ikebana articulated with angular surfaces. The Lithos vases, designed by Emmanuel Babled, explore glass as a geological substance and Podio by Claesson Koivisto Rune introduces a modular system of vases composed of container and lid.
BD BARCELONAÂ
The Barcelona-based furniture design company is unveiling two installations in the city. At Zaza Gallery, it is showcasing Rasters, a modular furniture collection developed by Office KGDVS together with Belgian design duo Muller Van Severen. Originally conceived for Bottega Veneta’s headquarters in Milan, the project translates the grid systems commonly used by architects and engineers into a family of cabinets and paravents. At the exhibition and research space Ordet on Via Filippino Lippi, Silhouettes, an exhibition and book launch celebrating 15 years of Muller Van Severen (hosted by Apartamento) also showcases candleholders made by BD Barcelona.
BUCCELLATI
The Italian high-jewellery and silverware house is presenting Aquae Mirabiles, an immersive installation at its headquarters in Piazza Tomasi di Lampedusa. The showcase is curated by Federica Sala and designed by Balich Wonder Studio with the collaboration of the British designer Luke Edward Hall, whose drawings contribute to the visual experience, which celebrates the Caviar silverware collection and its microsphere motif (small, raised silver beads resembling caviar pearls). Together they encapsulate the grandeur and poetic sensitivity of Italian tradition.
