There is no single way to be a Black designer, and that thought sits at the heart of ‘The Nue Black Aesthetic’, a major exhibition opening at London’s Design Museum in November 2026. Guest-curated by author and journalist Charlene Prempeh and project curator Tiya Dahyabhai, the exhibition brings together more than 100 objects by 16 contemporary designers, spanning furniture, architecture, tailoring, product design and sculpture.

At its core is the idea that ‘Black design is not a monolith’. The exhibition opens with the question: ‘What does it mean to be a Black designer working today?’ For Prempeh, founder of creative studio and art consultancy A Vibe Called Tech and author of Now You See Me: An Introduction to 100 Years of Black Design, the answer has become more complicated over the years she has spent developing the exhibition.

The designers and their intentions may not have significantly changed, she tells Wallpaper*, though the world in which they are working has. ‘There’s been an erosion of diversity programmes. There’s been a kind of acceptance of, if not racism, then there’s been an acceptance of division. And the practice takes place within that context. And so that’s quite different.’

The exhibition’s title reaches back into history through its references to the Black Aesthetic of the 1960s and the New Black Aesthetic of the 1980s. Prempeh’s ‘Nue’ introduces nuance into the conversation around this particular generation, drawing attention to the individual histories, geographies and ideas behind the work. For Prempeh, the diaspora is central to that thinking.

‘I think the diasporic voice has become stronger and stronger and stronger as part of the Black community over the past ten, 20 years,’ she says. ‘That is an important focus and an important detail because the different countries across Africa, and across the Caribbean have very, very different stories to tell. That’s what’s different about the show. It’s not that these Black designers are different to that generation. It’s that I’m looking at a different type of Black designer.’

The exhibition unfolds across six sections, beginning with the history of Black design before moving through individual practice, community and the wider systems around design. Towards a Nue Black Aesthetic begins with seven decades of Black design and the practitioners and scholarship that have shaped the present, before Identity as Inspiration considers how personal histories and cultural references enter a designer’s work. Among the objects on display is Bianca Saunders’ suit for Usher at the 2023 Met Gala.

Community Building considers design as a means of creating belonging, with Labrum’s Arsenal 2024/25 away kit among the works featured, while Rethinking the System looks at designers challenging established ideas of value, hierarchy and the canon. The final two sections become more personal and contemplative. Black by Design, a new film directed by Samona Olanipekun, follows the featured designers through interviews and studio visits, before Finale, a site-specific commission by Ini Archibong, which brings the exhibition to a close.

Within that wider journey, individual practices reveal the different ways these questions are being approached. Among them is Simone Brewster, whose first museum show, ‘Platform: Simone Brewster’, is also at the Design Museum. For ‘The Nue Black Aesthetic’, she will present new work, placing her practice in conversation with the other designers in the exhibition.

Architect and artist Giles Tettey Nartey will show ‘Strange Notes’, his contemporary take on the balafon, a gourd-resonated xylophone originating in West Africa. The work addresses something Nartey has long been interested in: the way the Western design canon has often treated traditional West African design as though it belongs to the past. ‘Strange Notes’ appears in Rethinking the System, where questions around how design is valued, understood and carried forward come into focus.

The wider group includes Tejumola Adenuga, Taiba Akhuetie, Ini Archibong, Mac Collins, Phoebe Collings-James, Foday Dumbuya, Feben, Nifemi Marcus-Bello, Andu Masebo, Saul Nash, Tosin Oshinowo, Rachel Scott and Samuel Ross. Work by more than 20 additional designers, including Althea McNish and Yinka Ilori, expands the exhibition’s history across the 20th and 21st centuries.

Meet the creatives

Deciding who belonged within that conversation was not straightforward. The exhibition focuses primarily on UK designers, or those with a significant connection to the UK, with shared themes helping Prempeh determine its final shape.

‘At its core, I suppose curation is an act of selecting and organising,’ she says. ‘There are tens and tens of other Black designers whose work I both respect and enjoy who aren’t in this exhibition and that’s because I was looking for shared themes.

‘Making those decisions was difficult, but it came down to asking: what are the key themes that these designers can fall under, themes that make sense to visitors and that can help tell a compelling story about Black design today.’

One assumption Prempeh particularly wanted to address was the idea of Black design as ‘crafty’. ‘I’ve always found that quite difficult to swallow,’ she says. ‘So I wanted to show, I suppose, the level of intellectual rigour and complexity in the making that takes place in Black design. I hope this exhibition achieves that.’

It brings the exhibition to a more difficult question around how Black designers are understood once their work is visible. The designers may be brought together through a shared racial identity, but Prempeh is wary of Blackness becoming the endpoint for how their work is read.

‘It’s possible and useful to recognise shared themes within a community, because I think it allows a framework for deeper analysis,’ she says. ‘And the important part is the deeper analysis.

‘What we’re trying to do with the show is understand the details, systems and thinking that have informed individual designers. In the past, it’s been fairly typical to stop at the Black, and that’s very much not what we’re doing here.’

That analysis inevitably raises another question: who has historically been afforded the authority to decide what enters the design canon?

‘When we’re talking about the canon, we’re really discussing museum collections and established literature,’ Prempeh says. ‘It’s obvious who decides what enters those canons, it’s the directors of the museums and it’s the publishing houses. And so as much as I would like to say that all of the work that is done independently on the fringes is enough, I think it’s equally important to make sure that those often marginalised stories become part of these institutions.’

For Prempeh, challenging those structures can happen from inside established institutions or beyond them.

‘They’re gaining entry into these existing spaces and once they’re there, they’re shaping or they’re reshaping what those spaces are or what they can be,’ she says. ‘They’re also moving out of them completely and forming their own structures. I think both are equally important.’

That freedom also applies to the stories Black designers choose to tell about themselves.

‘Black designers now, I hope and feel, can decide when they want to tell stories about their Blackness and they can decide what part of their Blackness they want to talk about and when. And that’s the kind of freedom I think not just Black designers, but all designers deserve.’

She also questions why the responsibility for understanding those practices should continually fall on the designers themselves. When I ask what happens when Black designers no longer have to make themselves legible to predominantly white institutions, Prempeh turns the question around. ‘I think very much the onus is on the institutions to meet Black designers where they are and to make an effort to research and understand the integrity and intention of the Black designers. Because the only people missing out when that doesn’t happen are the institutions and their audiences.

‘Black design and the Black designers, not just in the show but globally, deserve to be seen and presented and understood fully.’

The exhibition closes with a new site-specific commission by Nigerian American designer and Wallpaper* US400 honoree Ini Archibong. ‘Mfon’, meaning ‘grace’ in Nigeria’s Ibibio language, is a vast chandelier made from hand-blown Murano glass and experienced alongside an ambient soundtrack. Its scale gives the different experiences, identities and localities carried through the exhibition room to coexist.

‘I think in terms of my own writing and curatorial practice, it’s always been about a series of questions being proposed as opposed to resolved,’ Prempeh says. ‘I think I want this moment at the end of the exhibition to do that for the visitors, for them to stop and start thinking about what the questions are.

‘I want the visitors to leave with curiosity,’ she says. ‘If they leave with a curiosity about Black design then I’ve more than achieved my goal and I’d be very happy.’

‘The Nue Black Aesthetic’ is at the Design Museum, London, from 6 November 2026 to 8 August 2027

There are few weeks in London’s calendar when the city feels quite as alive as it does during London Design Festival. Every September, museums, galleries and streets become the centre of conversation, where architects, designers and makers invite us to look differently at the spaces we move through every day.

The first programme announced for London Design Festival 2026, which returns from 12 to 20 September, looks at both the origins of design and its future direction. This year, both craft and artificial intelligence sit alongside one another as historic techniques are revisited through contemporary collaborations, exploring themes of migration, ecology, and cultural exchange across many confirmed projects.

London Design Festival 2026: programme announced

A bamboo pavilion with a bigger story to tell

Among the first commissions announced is The Pangolin Shield, the festival’s inaugural Landmark Project by the Anglo-Indian studio Studio Saar and structural engineers Atelier One. Installed on the Strand, the pavilion takes its cue from the pangolin, the shy, armour-plated mammal whose overlapping scales serve as the starting point for a structure made of bamboo and woven shields traditionally used by farming communities in north-eastern India.

While the pavilion could easily be appreciated for its impressive engineering, the aim is to encourage visitors to engage with it on a deeper level. It invites reflection on colonial histories, the movement of people and ideas, and the stories that materials carry as they journey across the Indian Ocean. Traditionally, the bamboo canopy serves both as shelter and as a space for contemplation, urging those on London’s busiest streets to slow down and be viewed.

Made looks back to the Barbican

Renowned for its iconic brutalist architecture, the Barbican has profoundly influenced London’s design imagination. Its impact is evident in contemporary interiors, furniture design, and even the conversations surrounding urban living.

This autumn, Made revisits that legacy with a new collection developed by designer Miriam Howitt, drawing on archival research into the estate and its original interiors. Furniture, lighting and textiles draw on the Barbican’s distinctive interiors. To accompany this, an installation at the festival explores how one of Britain’s most recognisable architectural landmarks continues to shape ideas of home decades after it first opened.

The V&A begins with an awakening

The V&A has become the spiritual home of the London Design Festival, and its annual commission often captures the mood of each edition. This year, Awakenings, curated by Carrie Chan and Kristian Volsing, looks at how design can reshape our relationship with the world around us.

Spread throughout the museum, the programme brings together designers including Aziza Kadyri, Eunjo Lee and Henry Svendsen, alongside new commissions exploring sound, identity, artificial intelligence and the natural world. There is a sense of curiosity running through the exhibition, as well as a sense that technology is no longer treated as something separate from craft. Instead, both are becoming part of the same conversation.

The Design Museum turns its attention to people behind the practice

The Design Museum’s programme spans fashion, furniture and contemporary design culture. A major ongoing retrospective celebrates NIGO, charting the Japanese designer’s influence across streetwear and luxury fashion. London-based designer, educator and cultural change-maker, Simone Brewster’s Platform installation continues her exploration of sculptural furniture and material histories, layered with references from 'palaeolithic fertility deities to African diasporic traditions'.

Away from the galleries, conversations take centre stage too. Brewster joins Jasmi Hussein, Emefa Cole and Hettie Judah for a discussion exploring design and motherhood, shifting the focus away from finished work, towards the lives and experiences that shape creative work.

Japanese craft meets contemporary design

This year, Craft x Tech Tokai Project continues its tradition of collaboration between Japanese artisans and international designers. The exhibition highlights the fusion of traditional craftsmanship and contemporary design, featuring media such as ceramics, washi paper, lacquer, textiles, and woodworking.

Featuring designers such as Bethan Laura Wood, David Caon, and Philippe Malouin, who engage with artisans whose techniques have been refined and passed down through generations, showcasing the exciting possibilities born from this rich exchange of ideas.

New conversations between Asia and London

Elsewhere, MixZ continues its exploration of cultural exchange between Asia and the UK through a pair of exhibitions taking place at the V&A and the Old Selfridges Hotel.

One of the exhibitions will highlight the ancient beauty of Dehua porcelain, while the other delves into the future with immersive technologies and artificial intelligence. Throughout both presentations, the focus is on collaboration as community, underscoring the idea that true innovation seldom occurs in a vacuum. Instead, it flourishes through the shared knowledge, materials, and ideas that flow between different cultures.

The south of France’s annual design competition and festival, Design Parade, celebrates a milestone anniversary in 2026, marking 20 years of its ‘Objet’ (Product design) competition, and 10 years of its ‘Architecture d’intérieur’ (Interior design) competition. The occasion was customarily revelrous with passionate speeches, a pétanque tournament, a retrospective exhibition curated by David Giroire, and a talks programme featuring India Mahdavi hosted by Matter + Shape beneath umbrella pines to a soundtrack of cicadas.

Design Parade 2026 at Villa Noailles

At the 1920s Villa Noailles in Hyeres, the ten ‘Product design’ finalists included ‘imprecise candle clocks’ that challenge our relationship to time by Matisse Vrignaud and Lundja Medjoub (winners of a residency at the Sèvres National Manufacture). Yohan Thomas’ efficient lamp that hacked its own design system bringing autonomy back to small-scale manufacturing. And Mexican designer Eduardo Altamirano’s hypnotic, minimalist open speaker won the public prize.

Tin Ayala (Ecuador), who remixed precolonial Andean ceramic huacos with characters from video games and comics suggesting pre-to-post-colonial continuities, won the jury’s ‘Product design’ grand prize. Meanwhile conceptual designer Shahar Livne (Netherlands), a former student of Formafantasma, examined colonialism through the lens of rubber, examining its human and animal cost.

Stanislas Colodiet, director of CIRVA (France’s International centre of Glass and Plastic Arts) and member of the ‘Product design’ jury this year, remarked that post-colonialism has gained more interest from designers in recent years, as well as how objects can shape new rituals. 'An object should have agency,' he says.

Colodiet will work closely with winner Ayala during an upcoming residency at CIRVA in Marseille, which is part of the prize; and was proud to reflect on the collaboration with last year’s winner Simon Dupety, whose installation of organic glass vessels and lamps formed a dystopian garden inside the Villa Noailles.

Transforming Villa Noailles through contemporary interior design

The ten ‘Interior design’ competition finalists each transformed a room in the villa. Winner of the jury’s grand prize, Valentin Bayoud’s hearth-inspired cocoon replaced fire with water, inviting shared contemplation. Water was central to Elen Rio’s Mediterranean garden with a dynamic basin and playful hosepipes; as well as Yohann Hubert and Carlotta Lagazzi’s (winners of the Nationale manufactures Mobilier national Prize) reimagining of a wrecked boat.

Julie Liger, Artistic Director of Design Parade, noticed an increase in ‘spaces that isolate you from the intensity of life, yet not to be alone – to be with friends and discuss, and to see and observe nature.’ Reflecting on her own pioneering participation in 10 years of the ‘Interior design’ competition, she’s seen the rise of environmentalism. Today it’s integral to how all finalists think, yet this year explored it with the most freedom and sophistication in the use of circular and natural materials.

As well as noting an almost ‘Baroque’ approach to craft and decoration, with designers showing intensive interest in materiality and taking craft back into their own hands. See Boris Cojean’s silky beeswax surfaces; Simon Searle and Victoire Lesthevenon’s local timber tinted with plant-based dyes (Public prize winner); Marion Moustey and Ewerton Alves’ aubergine curtains; and Clément Pasquier’s magical cork oak skin.

Liger sees the competition as an extension of the rich French heritage of interior design, and importantly one that, rather than in Paris, is rooted in the Mediterranean context of the south. Taking place during intense heat-waves across Europe, Design Parade’s question of how to live in the Mediterranean felt very relevant, as Northern Europe looks south for wisdom and innovation from shading, to water management.

An eco-system of design

Each year of the festival, the regional eco-system of design further strengthens. This year, visitors can discover new collectible design gallery Pour Vous and return to the Banane d’Or concept space in Hyères; be inspired by graduate presentations at the Camondo Méditerranée school and an exhibition on design and textiles at the Hôtel des Art featuring Sheila Hicks, Hella Jongerius and Muller Van Severen in Toulon.

They can also experience the work of Design Parade veterans of all levels in various places. During opening week, Edgar Jayet (5th Interior design winner, 2021) opened a recently designed home to curious visitors; pétanque played out at the sea-front Hotel Le Provencal designed by Rodolphe Parente (6th Interior design jury president, 2022, and 10th Interior design jury member); and lunch was hosted at Hotel Lilou designed by Kim Haddou and Florent Dufourcq (3rd Interior design finalist, 2018).

One day, dreams Liger, Design Parade will take to the streets with regional public commissions from designers, such as a fountain or landscaping. Perhaps more critically and environmentally engaged than ever before, this year’s Design Parade shows that it’s set on further expanding its impact through its community, as well as continuing to inspire surrealist imaginations through its enduringly playful spirit.

Design Parade is on view until 4 September 2026
villanoailles.com

Since the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicked off, it is only to be expected that the world has gone a little football crazy. New York has become a new stomping ground for soccer fans, and to accommodate them, Crosby Studios has designed ‘Home of Football: Home & Away’ (tickets here), a pop-up exhibition created in collaboration with cultural platform Home of Football and arts collective Air Afrique. The exhibition is designed to serve as an interactive space that offers a new perspective on the sport’s enduring legacy.

Football memorabilia is reimagined in New York exhibition

Founded by Harry Nuriev, Crosby Studios is best known for championing a transformative spirit within spaces – from Clive Christian’s London flagship to a reimagined Parisian espresso bar. Located at High Line Nine in New York’s Chelsea Gallery District, the new exhibition is no different. Divided into six chapters, the showcase looks at the codes of sport, art, design, and fashion and how they intersect.

What marks out this exhibition from others is the new viewpoint provided. Designed through Nuriev’s architectural lens, the space is graphical, with acoustic elements to enhance the impact of the presentation. The colour palette alludes to a football field, with hues of mint green, while circles and curvatures integrated within the space nod to the shape of a football and the markings on the pitch.

Memorabilia was selected and curated by Air Afrique, with highlights such as Pelé's 1958 Brazil World Cup jersey and Ronaldo artifacts from Brazil's 2002 World Cup triumph. The presentation also includes more than 60 other match-worn jerseys, as well as trophies, and photographs of defining footballing moments.

Coupled with the display of archival pieces is a new retail concept, The Crosby Shop, a platform to present some of Nuriev’s favourite brands – among them Baccarat, Nothing, publisher Rizzoli, men’s grooming brand Obayaty, and olive estate La Terra Di Neena – including some that will be available in the US for the first time. The shop is also home to Balira Coffee, a café pop-up from former Real Madrid star Sami Khedira, a World Cup-winning player for Germany in 2014, who will make select appearances.

Says Nuriev, ‘This concept is about the clash between football, fashion, and art culture. It is a form of cultural transformism, translating the energy and visual codes of football into a new media format that feels open and accessible, not only to football fans, but also to people discovering this world for the first time. The green is a digital version of the football field colour, and the circles reference both the ball and the centre point of the field, becoming symbols of movement, gathering, and play.’

'Home of Football: Home & Away' is located at High Line Nine, Hudson Yards, 507 W 27th Street, New York, NY 10001 ,until 19 July 2026. Tickets are available here

Robert Wilson was the ultimate nomad. The Texas-born, Pratt-educated artist and theatre-maker moved easily and always: between cities and continents, cultures and disciplines, the expressive and the elusive, defying boundaries through the force of his vision and a compelling charisma. And so it’s fitting that The Watermill Center, the laboratory for creative thinking that Wilson founded in 1992 in an abandoned Western Union building on New York’s Long Island and described as his 'greatest artistic achievement', was the setting for the first American edition of Nomad, the globe-trotting showcase for art and collectible design.

Nomad makes USA debut

Powered by extraordinary destinations, ranging from the Monaco villa once occupied by Karl Lagerfeld (another nomad par excellence) to the decommissioned modernist terminal at Abu Dhabi International Airport, nine-year-old design fair Nomad has emerged as the anti-fair. It doesn’t layer atop a site so much as nestle and immerse itself within it, soaking up the power of a place to illuminating effects.

The prospect of a stateside debut at Watermill, home to a year-round artist residency programme and funded in part by one of the most highly anticipated bacchanals of any summer in the Hamptons, was suggested to Nomad co-founder and director Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte by a trustee of the centre some years ago and ultimately blessed by Wilson in spring last year, before his death on 31 July 2025 at the age of 83. (An age at which, he’d told Wallpaper* in an interview at Watermill earlier that year, he had ‘more work than ever’, including an installation destined for Salone del Mobile.)

'I think Robert Wilson liked the concept of Nomad very much, because it aligns with his way of being interdisciplinary and combining different cultures. We have a lot of common ground,' said Bellavance-Lecompte, an architect and curator. 'It was a whole process to consider how we could come here without invading, to do it in a respectful way that could also support and promote his work, and now to expand his legacy.'

Art, design and architecture at The Watermill Center

An architect of time and space across hundreds of performances around the world, Wilson viewed The Watermill Center as 'my most concrete and accessible legacy'. He boiled down the institution’s mission to four foundational principles: honour the present, look to the past, support the local community, and support the global community.

Wilson first came upon the ten-acre property in the mid-1980s, drawn to Long Island’s East End by the beautiful light and a desire to trade Manhattan loft living for natural surroundings. In the crumbling, U-shaped industrial building – once a research hub that from 1925 until its closure in 1965 developed innovations including the high-speed fax machine – he discerned an appealing architectural simplicity and a beguiling surplus of windows.

Retaining the original footprint, he embarked on a 15-year project to rebuild it, inspired in part by the work of Philip Johnson, in whose New York architecture office Wilson worked as an assistant in the early 1960s. A barn-like artists’ residence, designed by Wilson in collaboration with the architect Roger Ferris, was completed in 2021.

Visitors to the inaugural Nomad Hamptons arrived at the centre as Wilson intended: by walking along a lush woodland path studded with monumental sculptures from his collection of more than 6,000 art and design objects, before ascending the stairs to reach what he dubbed the 'Knee building'; a zinc-sided structure that acts as a joint between the north and south wings.

With a floor lined in river stones, it is punctured by perpetually open doorways that afford a clear east-west view through the building. A veil of cherry red heralded Nomad’s four-day residency (25-28 June 2026), and in the trees fluttered American artist Rachel Hayes’ vibrant and dreamy textile collages, a special commission that also made for picnic blankets with a Rauschenbergian flair.

'The concept is always to dialogue with the architecture where we go to create an experience,' said Bellavance-Lecompte. In the Hamptons, that experience was shaped by a thoughtfully curated group of 32 exhibitions, each one unfolding in its own nook of the Watermill campus, including the third-floor eyrie that served as Wilson’s summer home. Opened for private tours guided by Noah Khoshbin, the light-filled space is a mesmerising mélange in which a petite René Magritte cloudscape can join a Bruce Nauman screenprint to float above a Navajo blanket, smoke-fired ceramic vessels by Bonnie Lynch, and a stainless-steel mesh chaise longue designed by Wilson in 1987 for his production of Parzival in Hamburg. And that’s just the first room. (Wilson furniture fans can find more in his self-explanatory 2025 book, Chairs.)

'Bob started collecting when he was 12 years old. The collection is a bit like Andy Warhol’s or André Breton’s in that all periods, mediums, and cultures are represented,' said Khoshbin, the centre’s curator, who also organised a presentation of works from Wilson’s vast archive in a lower-level space. 'His mission and his legacy for the artists who are in residence is that they have this collection as a resource – you can touch the works, move the works, have it in your studio or your bedroom.'

A visual tribute to Robert Wilson

The photography of Dominique Nabokov offered additional vantage points on Wilson’s singular approach to living and working (spoiler alert: the two were inextricable). Curated by Paris-based architect Sophie Dries, who instantly ingratiated herself to seasoned Wilson followers on the fair’s VIP day by toting a fluorescent Louis Vuitton handbag from the edition he designed in 2002 at the invitation of Marc Jacobs, the images were accompanied by Wilson-designed objects ranging from iconic chairs ('as important as a character' in most of his productions, he bristled when they were referred to as 'props') to striking glass works made in Marseille during his artist residency at CIRVA (Centre International de Recherche sur le Verre et les Arts Plastiques) that spanned 1994 to 2005.

Nomad in the Hamptons

For most exhibiting galleries, 'site specific' was the prevailing ethos. Cairo's Le Lab was given a room anchored by a massive wooden table that Wilson designed for, and built within, the space. 'This table will never leave this room. It’s here for good,' said Russell Piccione, who curated the presentation, titled 'Through a Collector’s Eye', with gallery founder Rasheed Kamel. 'Knowing that it was going to be in our room influenced a lot of decisions: materiality, surface, and depth, a certain soulfulness.'

Among the works orbiting the table were Ibriham El-Salahi’s Pain Relief Drawings, etched on scrap paper during the African artist’s 2016-18 incarceration in Khartoum, and a steel-framed louvered wall work by Betil Dagdelen, described by Piccione as 'a contemporary Turkish painter who happens to work in fibre'.

The centre’s serene sunken art library hosted Abby Bangser’s Object & Thing, which celebrated material experimentation and the collecting impulse with works that included a special Watermill edition of 'Disco Vision' upcycled-LaserDisc lamps by Christian Wassmann, who designed the library’s original shelves.

On the other side of the space, amid volumes dedicated to matters anthropological, theatrical, and sartorial, was the unmistakable work of Gaetano Pesce. Presented by Kalei NYC in collaboration with the designer’s estate, the forms of the colourful resin chair and jumbo throne were inspired by the frankincense trees native to Oman. More Pesce was on view in the centre’s kitchen, reimagined as a joyful haven for Italian Radical Design and spritzed regularly with a fragrance from Amouage – a precursor to the scent-embedded Pesce pieces slated to launch soon.

Other highlights included Tabayer jewellery, with finessed gold forms inspired by modernist sculpture and inlaid with otherworldly morsels of chrysoprase, blue chalcedony, and red jasper. At the Maison Gerard nook, Ayala Serfaty’s patinated bronze console, part of her new ‘Janus’ series, had the lightness of a lily pad and the organic intricacy of multiplying cells.

Aurèce Vettier (an art project founded in 2019 by Paul Mouginot and presented at Nomad by the Spaceless Gallery of New York and Paris) deploys algorithms to inform the creation of forms ranging from an Aubusson tapestry to a tree-like outdoor sculpture that evoked a glitchy mash-up of Claude Lalanne and Ingo Maurer. New York-based jewellery designer Ippolita Rostagno joined forces with Piotrek Panszczyk Burke on an installation of wearable nuggets of eroded gold, harvested from the Yukon using placer mining. 'Please touch them!' they encouraged.

Corporate partners were intelligently integrated. Sisley Paris tapped French-born artist Sydney Albertini, based in nearby Amagansett, for an installation of lively and large-scale botanical compositions that lined the walls of the centre’s dining room, while Giorgio Armani, a longtime Wilson collaborator, explored the connections between art, design, and craftsmanship with the help of commissioned works by New York-based artists Ariel Dearie and Jonathan Kline. Curated by Abby Bangser and inspired by the natural setting of The Watermill Center, the Armani presentation placed the new works in conversation with Armani/Casa pieces in Murano glass and Limoges porcelain.

Kline, a basket maker whose chosen medium is black ash, created a suite of wall-mounted open-weave grids using the inner layers of the tree, which are distinguished by their intriguing grain and irregular contour. His process shares elements prized by Wilson: slowness, contemplation, and the endless possibilities unlocked by the meeting of vertical and horizontal. 'With basket weaving, there’s a lot of time between concept and realisation. You often don’t really know where it’s going,' said Kline. 'Baskets kind of grow more than you create them. They give you time to ponder.'

A place to ponder when entering, exiting, or traversing the Knee building was created by 'Rooted Movements'. Developed with Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism, the presentation brought together the work of Emirati artists Afra Al Dhaheri, Zuhoor Al Sayegh, and Azza Al Qubaisi. 'Our objective is always to link the destinations where we go around the world, and it was important for us to bring a presence from the Middle East,' said Bellavance-Lecompte, who in 2011 founded Carwan in Beirut as the first contemporary design gallery in the Middle East.

Al Dhaheri, a native of Abu Dhabi and a 2023 participant in The Watermill Center’s flagship International Summer Program, created cotton rope installations that cascaded in banded, hair-like bundles from the industrial catwalk, their deliberately untwisted ends frizzled and pooled on the cool stone floor. The suspensions created arches to walk under, directing movement through a space infused with fragrant incense. Recalled Al Dhaheri, 'It’s like Bob used to say, “Interesting things happen when people cross paths”.’

Light filters softly into the stone entrance of an old Kyoto townhouse where Michael Anastassiades stands in front of his new creation: five thin glass tubes rise from a narrow wood base, their illuminated filaments forming a circle – just like the sun above the horizon.

'Light is the base of everything,' says Anastassiades, the Cypriot-born, London-based designer. 'Everything starts from a glow. It’s the first thing I think about before I make or design. It's always the starting point.'

This philosophy shapes 'From Warm Yellow to Saturated Red', Anastassiades’ exhibition at Taka Ishii Gallery Kyoto, where his new works – lighting, sculptural objects, seating – are harmonised with the stillness of a 150-year-old machiya, or townhouse.

Sunset – the fleeting intensity of its scattered light, the precision of its deepening shades – is the creative inspiration behind his first solo exhibition in Kyoto. Anastassiades’ objects glow quietly in a play of light and shadows inside the traditional interior – among tatami-lined spaces, paper screens, textured soil walls, high timber rafters, an old storehouse and courtyard gardens framing patches of sky.

Elemental, light and pared-back in form, his works balance precision with poetry, through a mix of cultural influences – Japanese bamboo, Greek island stones, Icelandic fishing knots, Egyptian stools, Cypriot textiles.

A key protagonist in the exhibition is his series of ‘Sunset’ lamps. The first, with a fully lit ‘sun’, is positioned in the stone entrance – and as the exhibition deepens inside the machiya, the 'sun' in each work is positioned a little lower, mirroring its descent into the horizon.

Dynamic vertical lights are also crafted from Japanese bamboo, knotted with linen thread used by Icelandic fishermen; alongside two triangular wood stools with clean curves and pointed edges; and hand-patinated bronze objects, from thorns to stones, laid on handwoven textiles by Cypriot artist Joanna Louca.

The exhibition marks something of a new creative chapter for Anastassiades, opening shortly after he announced plans to close his eponymous lighting brand after nearly 20 years, to focus more deeply on creative projects.

Here, Anastassiades shares his thoughts on sunsets and stones, fishermen’s knots and filters, while taking Wallpaper* on a private tour of his new exhibition.

Michael Anastassiades in Kyoto: interview

W*: Tell me about the sun.

MA: This exhibition is about a very specific time of day, when the sun is setting. Interesting, intense moments. I’ve made a series of sunset light pieces. This one at the entrance is a whole circle of lights – and as you progress through the gallery spaces, the light goes down to the middle of the horizon, like the sun setting. The lights are super-thin – maybe 4mm with a very, very fine LED. These are one-off pieces. To me, these objects are sketches. Drawings. Improvisations.

W*: Standing inside the machiya entrance, I can see a row of stones in a tatami space. Tell me about these.

MA: I’ve always been fascinated with natural stones. These are 25 bronze casts from my collection of stones, which I’ve collected since I was a teenager. I have a huge collection of stones. These are from the Greek island of Kefalonia. I collected them when I was 20 or 21, from a cove in a special bay. I revisited that bay 30 years later – I asked a fisherman to take me to this cove. There were probably 30 different coves, but we got there – and found more stones.

W*: Why stones – and why casts?

MA: These are not the found objects: it’s the whole idea of creating something. I’m fascinated with the role of nature as a designer. They look almost perfectly spherical, like eggs. They were found that way. It’s the idea that nature is able to create this perfect shape.

W*: What about this ‘Bamboo’ light upstairs?

MA: I used Japanese bamboo and black linen thread with a knotting technique used by Icelandic fishermen, holding the metal brackets. The bulbs are the only technological bit. For my brand, I have a lamp called ‘Take’, made of bamboo. It’s interesting to see the evolution here: the other one is very much an industrial product – but this has a handmade feel. The cables on the floor are part of the piece.

W*: What inspires the verticality in your work?

MA: It is part of the language that I’ve used for a very long time. I have been completely fascinated with linear sources of light, ever since the first pieces I made commercially – the ‘Tube’ chandelier. That was very much based on the incandescent bulb. Of course, many people used this in the past, especially the famous Eileen Gray [for her] floor lamp – I was fascinated with these bulbs for a long time. And then, as soon as I started using them, they stopped making them. About 15 years down the line, I decided to make my own bulbs – so I had these made specifically.

W*: There’s such a softness in the light.

MA: The temperature, the colour – everything about it is so carefully chosen. It is not a random piece. It is very much a warm light. The glow is so fundamental, as part of the design of the fixture. It can completely transform how something is perceived.

W*: Why lights – what’s the seed of your desire to express light?

MA: I think we’re all drawn to light in some way or another. I’ve been attracted to light for a very long time. It’s part of the human instinct. From very early civilisations, people worshipped glowing things – the sun, the moon, meteorites, fire. Why did I decide to focus on light? Because I decided I needed to focus on something when I started my brand. I found myself making more and more lights and then eventually working with companies, especially Flos.

W*: In this space, the lights feel almost sacred.

MA: They are meditative objects for sure. If you put things in a certain brightness, you have to be really sensitive with how you want things to be seen. In this context, the house, it had to be this way, it could not be different. Even the choice of materials and selections – it’s all designed around these intimate spaces.

W*: Tell me about the stools.

MA: They’re made from Oregon pine – it’s the first time I’ve used this material. I made three stools before with the same scale, using basalt, so they had a very different energy. I thought wood would be more suitable for this house.

W*: Such clean curves and points. Why this shape?

MA: I’m very much inspired by Egyptian stools, where the corners are elevated, although they’re normally square. This is triangular because I wanted to make a dialogue with the two bronze ‘Thorn’ pieces, on the walls. The stools are quite welcoming, even though they have a presence that says don’t sit.

W*: And another ‘Sunset’ lamp in an alcove?

MA: Here, the sun is almost disappearing – the time between the bottom of the sun touching the horizon and the sun disappearing. All these sunsets are familiar in a sense. We have all watched so many sunsets. Somehow, you can relate to them.

W*: Tell me about the bamboo light screen in the kura storehouse.

MA: To me, it is about filter. The sensation of when something catches your eye without necessarily looking at it directly – from the tip of your eye, you catch a movement. This is what these screens are for me. They are filtering this idea, this play of light, this linear thing that we pass through. This light is part of a series of two screens, designed for this space. It just fitted.

W*: Do you see the sun as a metaphor?

MA: To me, it’s not really a metaphor: it is something that no matter how many times you see it or experience it, every time is unique. Plus it is responsible for how we experience life, the way we experience light.

W*: Was the exhibition inspired by a particular sunset moment?

MA: Not one particular sunset. You know, when you work so much, it is so rare when you can catch the light, catch the sunset. In recent years, I’ve been going to a small Greek island between Rhodes and Cyprus. Now I’m building a house to spend more time there. It’s a place where I can pause. Every evening, we go on hikes up on the rocks on the mountain, not very high – there is one spot which is an incredible place to watch the sunset.

W*: And how about your relationship with Japan?

MA: The first time I came here was 1991. I was a student at the Royal College [of Art]. I didn’t want to come as a tourist so I applied for an internship and came here in the summer, to Tokyo, to work for Toshiba. I spent three months here – it was fascinating, a very different Japan. I next came back 25 years later, with Flos.

W*: Has Japan left an imprint in you creatively?

MA: As a creative, as an artist, when you commit to something, it completely changes the result in your approach to your creative process. That level of commitment – I don’t think you can experience it in any other country.

W*: How do you feel about the light in Japan? Particularly Kyoto, where light is often filtered by paper and nature.

MA: I’m shocked at how soft the light is here at the moment. The humidity makes the light softer at this time of year. The light in the summer in Cyprus flattens everything out. In the Greek islands, it’s the same. In London too, the sun is very different. Coming here suddenly – the way you experience the sun, the light, is different.

W*: And how do you feel about your show opening now in Kyoto?

MA: This is the longest time I’ve spent in Japan. This is an important time for me. I wouldn’t have chosen a different moment. In this context especially, this is perfect.

'From Warm Yellow to Saturated Red' by Michael Anastassiades, at Taka Ishii Gallery Kyoto, until 4 July 2026

For those who believe that truly appreciating great design requires more than a glance on a screen – that it must be held and experienced – an unmissable event is arriving in London this weekend.

Basic.Space is an online marketplace spanning luxury fashion, design, art, furniture, collectibles and lifestyle objects, also known for hosting immersive retail experiences. Central to its appeal is a distinctive model of creator-led curation, where designers, artists and tastemakers build and oversee their own 'storefronts'.

Now, the platform has unveiled the first wave of participants for its London debut: a two-day event taking over The Old Selfridges Hotel from 13-14 June 2026, bringing together a mix of creative voices, brands and collectible pieces under one roof.

This marks Basic.Space's first venture outside the US, following successful editions in Los Angeles and New York. Produced in collaboration with creative director Juliana Salazar, the London edition is organised around four pillars: design, art, fashion and sound.

'Discovery has always been at the heart of what we do at Basic.Space, and London embodies that spirit like few other cities,' said Jesse Lee, the platform's founder and chairman of Design Miami.

What kinds of makers and objects can visitors expect? There is a strong emphasis on UK-based talent. Samuel Ross – the artist and designer known for his work across fashion and sculpture – will take part alongside gallerist Max Radford, production designer Jabez Bartlett and Loewe Craft Prize finalist Jobe Burns. Designer Lewis Kemmenoe and London-based jewellery, homeware and accessories brand Completedworks round out the local contingent. Platform:, the art e-commerce destination acquired by Basic.Space in 2025, will also present a dedicated exhibition featuring London galleries Nicoletti and Albion Jeune.

The international roster is equally eclectic. Berlin-based designer Illya Goldman Gubin joins multidisciplinary artist Marcin Rusak, whose practice spans furniture, objects and botanical materials. Paris- and Seoul-based artist and designer Nara Lee will also exhibit, alongside UAE-based creative Roham Shamekh and Melbourne- and Los Angeles-based artist Nick Thomm.

Among the more unexpected additions is Telepathic Instruments, an Australian music technology company founded by collaborators including Tame Impala's Kevin Parker, which will use the event to unveil a limited-edition transparent version of its chord-based synthesiser. Carpenters Workshop Gallery, meanwhile, will bring a collection featuring works by Rick Owens, Karl Lagerfeld, Charlotte Perriand and Jean Prouvé.

To purchase tickets to the event, visit Basic.Space's website

During 3 Days of Design 2026, Georg Jensen took over a space in the city's Højbro Plads (opposite its showroom) and transformed it into a ‘Secret Garden’ to debut its new ‘Georg Jensen at Play’ collection. Featuring silver and stone dice, a woodland-inspired Mikado set, a spinning top, a snail whistle, a yo-yo and a new take on the traditional Scandinavian 'Kubb' Game (here renamed 'Toad'), the series taps into a playful side of the Danish design house and silversmithy, and offers an insight into creative director's Paula Gerbase's approach to the illustrious heritage of the brand.

Since her appointment in 2024, Gerbase has been studying Georg Jensen's history and the opportunities to quietly shake up its heritage in a way that is both exciting and respectful. Recent launches include a home fragrance debut, and a collection of archival jewellery expressing modernist Danish design principles. With ‘Georg Jensen at Play’, Gerbase uncovers another chapter of the company's legacy, inspired by its founder's own life and the approach to silver that has defined its history.

We met Gerbase at Georg Jensen's ‘Secret Garden’ to find out more about how play fits into the company's history, and how it's helping shape her future vision.

Georg Jensen at 3 Days of Design: interview with Paula Gerbase

Wallpaper*: Why did you choose games?

Paula Gerbase: My perception of Georg Jensen before I started was quite different to what I found when I joined. [I saw the company as] something that was quite rigorous; it was about quality and silversmithing, but in my view it had a seriousness to it, and an overarching diligence. But actually, as I started to uncover the history of the man himself, the way that he set up his original atelier, where his roots were from, my perception changed.

W*: Can you tell me more about Georg Jensen’s life before he founded his workshop?

PG: [He came] from this woodland area outside of Copenhagen, quite humble beginnings. As a child, he was a wanderer, and this curiosity was really integral to how he lived and worked. I was told stories of him as young boy, being sent out to fetch milk, and then being surprised at finding a little field mouse, forgetting about the task, and scooping up the field mouse and taking it home.

Then it was fast-forward to his sculpture education at the Royal Academy here in Copenhagen, and then his being awarded a travel studies scholarship, whereby he went to France and Italy, and really absorbed a lot of [local] nature. He then came back home, and when he started working as a goldsmith, most of his pieces were belt buckles, brooches, pendants, all very animalistic: insects, critters, fireflies. So all of those elements led me to realise that what I was actually undertaking was something so much more playful, it had so much more freedom, and was also more fluid in nature.

And I also saw an openness to chance: when [Georg] started setting up his own atelier, collaboration was there from the very beginning, with other artists, sculptors, silversmiths invited come in and reinterpret his own work. This became integral to how he founded the company, but also how he continued his legacy.

W*: How has this shaped your approach to silver?

PG: That openness is something that I would love to recreate here: an opportunity for chance encounters, a space which has some generosity, a playfulness, and curiosity for allowing people to interact with silver in a way that isn't so rarefied. [It’s a chance for] speaking of material, a material that is living and breathing, has patina, and dents, and evolves with time; and of course, it’s absolute quality, but we're showing the material for what it is, which is a very beautiful material that can weather and absorb these simple moments. Because if you inherit something, you're inheriting it with the traces of those moments well lived.

W*: How did that lead to ‘Georg Jensen at Play’?

PG: It felt completely natural to create a space to allow for those dialogues, and for people to be able to touch and feel the material, and maybe also [to give them] permission to look at design as imperfection.

Design should be reflective of the way that we live and [our work] should support and honour that. I think silver as a material can really do that because it does absorb [lived] moments, and it has markings of those moments.

W*: This is an interesting approach for Georg Jensen: we are very used to experiencing the company's objects behind glass. Here in the garden, though, a child was just playing with a silver object and throwing it around. That wasn't on my bingo card for today. I imagine it is important for you to open up the house in this way.

PG: There's, I hope, a humility [that reflects] the spirit of our founder as someone who invited so many different kinds of people into the atelier. And this is also my experience of working in this house, alongside artisans; this is a community, and these relationships, these conversations are actually imperfect, just like a family is. There are moments when you love each other. There are moments when you're arguing about something. But ultimately, it's a space for dialogue.

That is also something that is important for me, to be a catalyst for dialogue; I think that is very much in the spirit of Georg Jensen and maybe it starts to tell different stories about what the house is.

W*: Can you tell me more about the games you are launching? Did they exist in the archive?

PG: They are all new. We've conceived several woodland creatures that are very much inspired by Georg Jensen's own childhood in the woods. And so, for example, in the King's game and the Ring Toss, the King is an arrogant toad, proudly cross-armed.

But we have a history of many playful, small objects in the archive. There are lipstick cases, there's a flashlight, a silver wheelbarrow. There's lots of humour and unexpected moments in silver that you can find in the archive, [and that] inspired these objects.

W*: What are the key themes that you're looking to explore through your role as creative director?

PG: Movement, lightness of spirit, curiosity. I also think about eccentricity a lot, which is perhaps not something that one might currently relate to Georg Jensen, but when I look at the history, there's a huge amount of eccentricity. Of course, this house is also proudly Danish, and so, for me, it's been an education in heritage and folklore.

And actually, we are here [in our ‘Secret Garden’], near the statue of Absalon, the founder of Copenhagen: I saw something interesting and light about putting something so silly in a space that is so filled with history.

W*: How do you think the panorama of Danish design is changing, and how might the future look like?

PG: Each house is quite unique, so I think it's important for the authenticity to start to come through quite strongly. That's a focus for a lot of us – what our own values are. Danishness is, of course, a common factor. But it is not (for us, at least) the only one. So finding those pillars that make each house unique, and leaning into those will allow for a future that is interesting and modern, while also challenging the perception of what design can be – it doesn't always have to be midcentury.

Welcome to Copenhagen: 3 Days of Design 2026

Our team is back in Copenhagen for 3 Days of Design 2026 (10-12 June). Founded in 2013 as a micro festival with 4 brands and now counting more than 400 participants, 3 Days of Design has become an unmissable moment on the global design calendar and a central event for the ongoing conversations around the many facets of design.

This year, the festival follows a theme of 'Make This Moment Matter' , what 3 Days of Design CEO Signe Byrdal Terenziani calls ‘a collective recalibration from 'more’ to 'meaningful. It marks a shift from focusing on the past of design or obsessing with the future, while instead looking at what is happening right now.

Fittingly, many exhibitions look at design with an everyday lens: expect projects that explore the mundane, from bathing (at Bread and Butter) to cutlery (by LA gallery Marta) to play (from Georg Jensen) and much more.

Among the things we look forward to discovering are the many cross-overs between Danish and Japanese design (one among all Japanmade Vol I, our Japan Editor Jens H. Jensen's curation of Japanese design with a Danish lens), and the conversations around the evolution of Danish and Nordic design, as companies develop new ways to celebrate and evolve their legacy for the future.

Check out our 3 Days of Design preview of 10 things not to miss while in Copenhagen, and follow along for more.

Meet the editors

Gubi curates the contemporary home

For 3daysofdesign 2026, Gubi presents ‘Scenes’ – an immersive exploration of the contemporary home as curation. Across a sequence of interiors, the exhibition delves into atmosphere, rhythm and the ways design shapes our experience of home. Conceived as a series of distinct spatial narratives, ‘Scenes’ unfolds through curated environments including a hero installation by Nadia Olive Schnack; previews of the summer and fall 2026 collections; an outdoor setting centred around the Gubi X Bonacina 1889 collaboration; and a hospitality-inspired environment.

Writer: Olly Mason
Orientkaj 18-20, 2150 København, Denmark

‘Epicurus’ presents hospitality through design

One of GamFratesi’s latest spatial projects – Epicurus – is a restaurant and jazz club that unites a culinary experience with world-class live music. With the interiors designed by GamFratesi – and featuring Gubi’s iconic Beetle and Violin chair – the venue was conceived as a multi-sensory homage to the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus. Figurative wooden inlay drawings adorn the walls with a natural and textural palette throughout.

Writer: Olly Mason
Epicurus, Rosenborggade 15, 1130 København, Denmark

&Tradition celebrates a design icon

&Tradition explores the legacy of Verner Panton (on the late designer’s 100th birthday) through a series of interpretations of his legendary Flowerpot Lamp. At the Copenhagen showroom, the elements of the Flowerpot are deconstructed and reassembled into arrangements devised by Panton himself but never realised before. The &Tradition and Panton collaboration punctuates the city as well, with special installations at the Danish Design Museum and the Danish Architecture Centre.

Conceived by the &Tradition spatial team, the exhibition design to showcase the company’s new launches is based on a modular pine structure created with durability and flexibility in mind. Making its debut at 3 Days of Design this year, the system is going to be further developed for future uses (including retail).

Writer: Rosa Bertoli
&Tradition, Kronprinsessegade 4, 1306 København, Denmark

A new chapter for House of Josty

House of Josty is an institution of culture and wellbeing, originally established in 1824 on the edge of Frederiksberg Gardens.

Now beautifully restored and reopening this week, House of Josty enters a new chapter forming a café, a residence and a house for gatherings. The interiors combine vintage Scandinavian furniture with striking pieces by Gubi and tactile rugs from Layered. Surrounded by the gardens’ lush greenery, the house feels like a secluded retreat in the heart of the city.

Writer: Olly Mason
House of Josty, Pile Allé 14A, 2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark

For Værktoj, designers sew and stitch

For Værktoj, designers were invited to engage with the sewing machine as a tool that merges industrial production and domestic making. All objects on display, by the likes of Erwan Bouroullec, Foster and Partners and Louise Campbell, were created with the sewing machine as a starting point.

Now in its third edition, Værktoj is a platform that explores how designers’ identities are formed by the tools they use in their work, and the tools themselves as key factors in the creative process.

Writer Rosa Bertoli
Gothersgade 30

Ground yourself at the Danish Architecture Centre

Lots on at the Danish Architecture Centre. In ‘Age of nature,’ designers such as Studio coquille and studio ossidiana, discuss how architecture and design can work with organic matter, climate and elements to regain our lost balance with the planet. There is a mushroom tower, soil studies, plant based building fabric and more.

Meanwhile, on the ground level, a sensory installation will become permanent lobby for DAC. Studio Archival collaborated with Dinesen to redesign the reception’s rest areas and furniture, adding smells, sounds and textures of the forest. Benches, counters and columns will be kept or repurposed throughout the centre, after 3days.

Writer Ellie Stathaki
Bryghuspladsen 10, 1473 København, Denmark

Kvadrat unveils ‘Three’ curtain series

At Kvadrat, the launch of new curtain collection, 'Three' by Isa Glink (the company’s creative director of Residential Curtains), is an opportunity for an overview of the ways textiles can take multiple dimensions to divide, screen or simply hang.

Writer: Rosa Bertoli
Kvadrat Showroom, Pakhus 48, Klubiensvej 22, 2150 Nordhavn

A soft, sculptural presence by Space Copenhagen

Quick pit stop at Ambra, designed by Space Copenhagen and featuring its ‘Bella’ lamp (supersize edition!) for &Tradition. Shaped like a four-leaf clover, its structure is softened with textile to be a discreet presence in the room.

‘This space is beautiful but also intimidating if you want to create a cozy feeling,’ says the studio’s co-founder Signe Bindslev Henriksen. ‘So we felt we needed a significant presence on the ceiling, a soft, stoic piece of lighting we needed to create the right atmosphere in a subtle manner.’

Writer: Rosa Bertoli
Store Kongensgade 59, 1264 København, Denmark

A-N-D debuts lighting showroom

A-N-D lighting has illuminated our pages frequently since its founding in 2014. The company (which stands for A New Detail) is based in Vancouver, and today has opened its first showroom outside of its home town in Copenhagen. A-N-D’s lights are suspended across three floors of a former book printing factory, with highlights including co-founder Lukas Pete’s wibbly glass ‘Pebbles’ scattered and suspended in abundance. Every component on an A-N-D light is designed and manufactured in-house. Modularity is key for optimal bespoke specificity. ‘Please touch everything,’ co-founder Matt Davis implored, refreshingly, at the opening: ‘These are beautiful lights that work hard.’

Writer: Hugo Macdonald
Sankt Peders Straede 45B

Celebrate 100 years of Verner Panton

The Verner Panton centenary is definitely felt across town - here’s a room at the Danish Design Museum dedicated to the designer’s vision, part of a series of spaces titled ‘Living with Verner Panton’ and demonstrating how his works adapt to a variety of interior set ups.

Writer Rosa Bertoli
Bredgade 68, 1260 København, Denmark

Vitra launches the ‘Bascule’ collection by Studio Œ.

The Bascule Lounge Chair pairs the relaxed aesthetic of a loosely fitted fabric cover with an innovative patented Vitra seat mechanism that offers automatic weight adjustment. The chair follows the body from an upright angle all the way to a deeply reclined, almost horizontal position. Studio CE designed a generously cut cover that drapes over the structure like a jacket. Tailoring techniques from the world of fashion - originally developed for ease of dressing and freedom of movement - have been translated into the chair's design.

Writer Olly Mason
Vitra, Klubiensvej 22, Pakhus 48 2150 Nordhavn Copenhagen

Ishinomaki Laboratory

Ishinomaki Laboratory was forged in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011. In a landscape of sudden, overwhelming uncertainty, the simple act of making became a vehicle for moving forward. Over the last fifteen years, as Ishinomaki slowly rebuilt, the studio’s utilitarian ethos evolved from a local emergency response into a global design movement. As the city’s daily rhythms stabilised, Ishinomaki Lab blends hyper-rational design and robust materials to transition away from temporary fixes.

To mark this 15-year milestone, a new exhibition brings together 15 definitive pieces that capture the essence of the brand. Far from mere furniture, these objects serve as physical markers of place and time. Fifteen years later, the making hasn't stopped.

Writer Olly Mason
At Århusgade 128, 2150 København, Denmark

Tekla’s celebration of the patchwork quilt

The Heart of Living is Tekla’s celebration of the patchwork quilt. At Kunsthal Charlottenborg, a series of quilts constructed with traditional Swedish log cabin pattern featuring interlocking strips of fabric taken from the companies archives are shown on box beds inspired by 19th century Scandinavian homes. A spatial installation by Mentze Ottenstein, it features pine cabin-like structures whose patterns mirror the quilts themselves.

Writer Rosa Bertoli
Kogens Nytorv 1

Exploring Scent as sculpture at Frama

At the Frama Studio Store, an ongoing space for experimentation, the ‘The Mechanics of Scent’ exhibition introduces a collection of ‘Scent Sculptures’, explored by Frama for the first time. ‘Apothecary’, the aroma at the core of the exhibition, returns to the Studio Store in a homecoming to the interior that first inspired the combination of its ingredients.

Writer: Olly Mason
At FRAMA, Fredericiagade 57, 1310 København, Denmark

For Scale issue three in town

David Michon, founder of For Scale – the decor world’s favourite critical rag – and Wallpaper* Design Award winner, is in town to launch Issue 3 of his print edition. The issue explores various acts of doing and undoing, with riotous imagination, vis and vim. We toasted David and his launch at our favourite Copenhagen watering hole Bo-Bi Bar, ahead of the magazine’s official launch tomorrow with Australian hardware brand Bankston at their showcase ‘How to Handle’.

Writer: Hugo Macdonald
Gammel Mønt 2

Louise Roe’s doggie delights

At Louise Roe’s gallery, the soigné maven’s son and brand director Emil introduced us to a very handsome table and dining chair called Frankie. Available in ash or beech, their tidy geometry is perfect for the more refined, gently deco hospitality setting we are seeing back in fashion. There is a sturdiness to the furniture too. And it’s this robust elegance that inspired Emil to suggest the collection be named after his dog Frankie - a Labrador, Bulldog, Staffie cross. Woof.

Writer Hugo Macdonald
Vognmagergade 9

Material Matters at Ukraine House

Plenty of material conversations, as expected, at Material Matters at Ukraine House. Fascinating surfaces made of mycelium, olive pits, construction waste, recycled leather and much more. Established and newer names - pit-to-table stood out, but also Studio Bundle and PriestmanGoode.

Writer Ellie Stathaki
Gammel Dok, Strandgade 27B, Copenhagen

AHEC's 3D forest

AHEC have a feature space at Material Matters. Their immersive installation, occupies walls, ceiling by and floor - you can see, sit on it and smell it. Working with Mitre & Mondays (“It's a real 3D physical experience of the forest,” they said at the opening) and Benchmark, they argue for not only the value of wood and using timber in construction and design, but also about understanding our forests as living organisms and entire entities.

Writer Ellie Stathaki
Strandgade 27B, 1401 Copenhagen

Come for Tableau’s cups, stay for a drink

The cup as an ‘emotional everyday object’ is the centre of Tableau’s display at Cafe Sommersko. Curated by studio founder Julius Værnes Iversen with Liv Vaisberg, the installation takes over the venue’s public spaces to offer a selection of cups (that you can buy) from a series of creatives working across different materials and genres. The display starts outside with a small shelving unit on a run-down Citroen car and continues inside: come for the cups, stay for a drink.

Writer Rosa Bertoli
Palægade 6, 1260 København, Denmark

GUBI x House of Josty dinner

The GUBI and House of Josty opening dinner - a beautiful setting in the main dining room of Josty brought press, architects, designers and friends together over food by FoodStudio, perched upon GUBI Daumiller Side Chairs across long tables in the evening sun.

Writer Olly Mason
At House of Josty, Pile Allé 14A, 2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark

Magniberg's whimsical bedding

Early morning visit at Magniberg, tucked into a courtyard on Fredericiagade and serving as the Swedish brand's new home in Copenhagen. The display features the new madams bedding, made from scans of wildflower illustrations from vintage books, rearranged on white and partly recoloured for a touch of surrealism.

Also on display is a new series from E 15 featuring their Backenzahn stool in stainless steel, available in polished and powder coated versions.

Writer Rosa Bertoli
Fredericiagade 15E in Copenhagen

Velux: the power of daylight

Velux, the Danish window behemoth, has enlisted the creativity of Christina Augustesen, a Danish visual artist, architect and light designer – and now daylight expert. Christina is concerned with how we use artificial light and daylight together holistically to influence our perception of atmosphere and space. The result is ‘Daylight Instruments’: four glass light sculptures at the Velux-dense building of Pas Normal’s HQ. The sculptures capture daylight and turn it into something more physical and dynamic. ‘Daylight is everywhere (when it’s not night),’ Christina says. ‘It is powerful, it is energy, but it is also invisible and immaterial. When it hits a surface, it becomes physical. My ambition with ‘Daylight Instruments’ is to collect daylight so it becomes a material and takes on a form. These sculptures remind us how to sense small shifts in daylight. As such, they make the unconscious conscious, through colour, light and reflection.’

Writer: Hugo Macdonald
Pas Normal, Århusgade 126a

String Furniture's ‘Faces for Spaces’

The architecture of adaptability meets a playful new persona. In ‘Faces for Spaces’, String Furniture celebrate their heritage modular system, translating structural flexibility into literal characters. Each unique composition is brought to life through a precise interplay of objects, balance, and spatial imagination.

Writer Rosie Cave
Odd Fellow Palace, Bredgade 28, 1260 Copenhagen

Carl Hansen & Søn presents four new products

At their showroom, Carl Hansen & Søn presents four new products from four different decades, including Frabricius & Kastholm’s ‘Scimitar Chair’, inspired by Kastholm's time in Lebanon in the late 1950s, where he observed relaxed, cross-legged seating which he wanted to replicate with a piece of furniture.

Among the new launches is also the Begonya Pendant by Øivind Slaatto, shown in its deconstructed form and featuring a geometric metal structure and a shade inspired by paper lanterns but actually made from a woven fabric.

Elsewhere, the CH280 modular Sofa by Hans J. Wegner reflects his belief that furniture should serve evolving needs of life.

Writer Rosa Bertoli
Bredgade 21-23, 1260 København, Denmark

Four decades, four designs at Carl Hansen & Søn

At their showroom, Carl Hansen presents four new products from four different decades, including Frabricius & Kastholm’s ‘Scimitar Chair’, inspired by Kastholm's time in Lebanon in the late 1950s, where he observed relaxed, cross-legged seating which he wanted to replicate with a piece of furniture.

Among the new launches is also the Begonya Pendant by Øivind Slaatto, shown in its deconstructed form and featuring a geometric metal structure and a shade inspired by paper lanterns but actually made from a woven fabric.

Elsewhere, the CH280 modular Sofa by Hans J. Wegner reflects his belief that furniture should serve evolving needs of life.

Writer: Rosa Bertoli
Bredgade 21-23, 1260 København, Denmark

Other Circle top 10

In its second year, Other Circle has grown arms and legs and tentacles. There are more than 80 exhibitors in the industrial building, with sponsorship from Claude and BMW (thank you for the lift back into town). It’s definitely a scene within the scene; a circle within a circle perhaps. 90s music, technical outerwear, 3D printed eyewear, intricate pastries. The intro flier describes ‘a post-disciplinary creative culture’. This is true, and the ‘collective momentum’ they are aiming for is definitely vibrant. There is a lot here, and if we have a quibble it’s only that there is so much of real interest, laid out casually, cheek-by-jowl, that inspiration risks tipping into overwhelm. It feels like the world’s best graduate show, or a microcosm of the design industry: a cacophony of creativity and creations bouncing between art and ingenuity. Alongside beautiful work, previously featured in W* by Max Lamb and Potato Head, and NM3 - here are ten of our highlights:

Christine Ingridsdotter has reissued 8 items of furniture from the archives of her fiancé, Swedish interior architect Jonas Bohlin. Designed for some of Stockholm’s institutional restaurants in the 80s and 90s (and still in use) they are arrestingly brilliant and deserving of celebration. We’ll take them all, please.

A tidy, bubblegum pink TV and cable stand by Danish brand Pedestal with a voluptuous sculptural podium by Copenhagen artist Jacob Egeberg, which had us feeling the need for ice cream.

Inner View Object by Line Vester, released in a limited edition of 150 to mark Muuto’s 20th anniversary.

Muuto’s 20th anniversary Library installation included some renegade library rules that we enjoyed.

Field Studies are two magnificent rugs by LA-based interior designer Jamie Bush for Marc Phillips Rugs. As with the best design, they need little explanation.

A satisfying display of graphic tiles in Tile Works, by Tajimi Custom Tiles. TCT offers fully bespoke-able tiles for architects and designers, based in Tajimi, Japan’s historic and largest ceramic tile producing region.

We lusted after Parisian design studio Douze Degrés table and standing candle last year in Milan, based on the principles of a lighthouse. The studio returns with a prototype for a wall-mounted sconce, which they hope to have in production by September.

Mission Seating by Cypriot designer Christine Kalia is an intriguing series of forms with perhaps rather punishing levels of comfort. The chair, bench and armchair are made from repurposed window profiles.

CRUDE is artist Sofie Winther and designer Charlie Boyte. We applaud their investigation into ‘post-growth’ aesthetics, told with poetic poignancy in a series of found, mass-produced dining chair skeletons, covered in miss-fitting skins sourced from discarded sofas. Calling it early, but this is the project that will stay in my mind long after the 3 Days are done.

Nychair X is a Japanese folding chair designed by Takeshi Nii in 1970. Nii devoted his life to the pursuit of perfecting the folding chair and, after a brief slump in one, we feel quite strongly that he succeeded.

Sanna Holmberg’s ceramic-as-molten-metal objects felt like ceremonial or devotional ware from another time, place and perhaps even planet. All of which feels very attractive at the moment.

Writer Hugo Macdonald

Don't miss Hay's exhibitions

Hay’s exhibitions at 3 Days of Design always attract a lot of buzz and this year was no different. Their space (they are showing away from Hay House this year) was packed from very first thing on opening morning. Joining the collection is a sofa by Philippe Malouin, a folding chair by Icelandic designer Gudmundur Ludvik and a cast aluminium lamp by Claire Lavabre.

Writer Rosa Bertoli
Overgaden Neden Vandet 17, 1414 Copenhagen

LA gallery Marta lays the table

LA gallery Marta set the table with a series of cutlery by some of today’s leading creative voices, curated by Dung Ngo. Knife, Fork, Spoon 3.0 features sets that have 3D printed to demonstrate the creative potential of the technique beyond fast prototyping.

Writer Rosa Bertoli
Den Frie Udstilling, Oslo Plads 1

A spot of play

From day one in her role as creative director, Paula Gerbase has mined the archives of Georg Jensen with an anthropological quest to determine the human soul within the silver. At Play is a series of exquisite games adorned with Danish wildlife, inspired by the woodlands surrounding Georg Jensen’s birthplace at Raadvad. The games are set-up in a halcyon garden space in Højbro Plads. More than a collection,’ says Paula, ‘It is an invitation to join us and enter our universe with curiosity, lightness and a generous dose of joyful competition.’

Writer Hugo Macdonald
Højbro Plads

Take the tube

Eschewing the inevitable more-is-more grandstanding that takes place during any design gathering, we applaud Aesop for the confidence to put quiet rigour over loud noise. Across two of their stores in the city, the brand has an installation called Enduring Forms, promoting algae-based bioplastics developed by Melbourne studio Other Matter, aka Jessie French. In both stores the algae-based material brings its lively green-ish hues to the windows as vinyl. More than mere decor, we are introduced to the leather-like material developed by French, into which the vinyls will be repurposed once the festival is over. The fascinating work with French is a punctuation mark on a longer-term collaborative journey. We’re excited to see where it takes us to next.

Writer Hugo Macdonald
Strandstræde 8 & Kronprinsensgade 4-6

Under his eye

In the mighty barrel-vaulted loggia of the Thorvaldsens Museum, at the feet of the feet of some of the Danish sculptor’s largest works, are a scattering of artworks or design art or collectible design or craft. Works ‘beyond mass-production’ is how the curiously anonymous curatorial text for Objects of Desire describes the remit. The international group includes Birgitte Due Madsen, Boris Berlin, Studio Corkinho, Rahee Yoon and Uncommon Ancestor. As the evening light poured into the hall, the spectacle was magnificent, however the question remains: can even the most beautifully singular, sculptural side table hold its own against the scale of a giant marble man on a horse or throne? Suddenly the works felt very small indeed. Bombastic? Definitely. A folly? Perhaps.

Writer Hugo Macdonald
Bertel Thorvaldsens Plads 2

Tarkett takes a new look at linoleum flooring

Tarkett has invited three visionary designers – Yinka Ilori MBE, Laurids Gallée and Christian + Jade – to explore how carpet, homogeneous vinyl and linoleum can be used creatively, not as finished flooring products but as material starting points on a circular journey. Arriving in Copenhagen with a trio of site-specific installations, each designer interpreted materials from the brand's collection – made from renewable natural materials such as linseed oil, resin and cork. Ilori produced a colour-soaked rainbow room, transforming Tarkett's materials into an immersive environment inspired by play, community and joy. Gallée created graphic interpretations of his illustrated furniture, realised in linoleum intarsia. Meanwhile, Christian + Jade draped the flooring material in deep black to create new perspectives on contemporary seating.

Writers: Olly Mason and Laura May Todd
Gothersgade 49, 1123 København, Denmark

Normann Copenhagen opens its HQ showroom

Normann Copenhagen open the doors to their HQ showroom and celebrate with ‘The Grid’ exhibition – highlights include a reissue of Niels Bendtsen’s lounge chair from 1974, and a vase by Tableau amongst others.

Writer: Olly Mason
Niels Hemmingsens Gade 12, 1153 København, Denmark

Lay your head down

Tina Seidenfaden Busck is the hostess with the mostest and, in our humble opinion, the greatest curator in Copenhagen, as any visitor to The Apartment can attest. Her eye has a knack for beholding beauty beyond the majority of us, and her showcases have an almost spiritual dimension as a result. For 3 Days, Tina is showing a self-evidently titled group show: ‘Artists I Collect and Admire’. Alongside the peachy Märta Måås-Fjetterström tapestries, we were delighted by the news that Tina is now letting The Apartment as somewhere to stay. Careful Tina: how will you ever get people to leave?

Writer: Hugo Macdonald
The Apartment, Overgaden Neden Vandet 33

What are you doing?

We are given an intimate insight into Jaime Hayon’s life and practice, in an autobiographical showcase that celebrates the Spanish designer’s relationship with his late mother Raquel. Raquel died two years ago, and in the soothing hallows of the House of St Leo, Jaime has curated a series of works and ephemera that ‘capture moments in time: conversations, memories, anecdotes’, the designer says. Raquel lived with Jaime for three years before she died and the designer took the title for his show from he endless, mystified curiosity about his practise. ‘She would come to me when I was doing anything and say, ‘Jaime – what are you doing?’’ The room is filled with layers of curios, each annotated by hand by Jaime. On show is a painting by Jaime that he made as a tool to explain why he was getting divorced, when words failed him. There is a chai he designed for Fritz Hansen that Raquel chose the colour of, with her favourite cushion and fan still resting in it. Photos of Raquel and young Jaime with his brothers bring the memories sharply to life. ‘I was raised in freedom, and this exhibition tells me who I am,’ the designer said matter-of-factly, ‘Too many of us only realise how important our parents are when they die.’

Writer: Hugo Macdonald
House of St. Leo, Trelleborggade 5

Celebrating 90 years of Alvar Aalto and Iittala

There are few forms more recognisable in the canon of Scandinavian design than Alvar Aalto’s wavy, organic vases for the Finnish design brand Iittala. Aalto first conceived the iconic shape, inspired by the leather breeches of a Sámi woman, precisely 90 years ago – and to celebrate that milestone, Iittala has teamed up with Norwegian aluminium producer Hydro to transform the vase into a larger-than-life pavilion on Copenhagen’s waterfront. Constructed from low-carbon aluminium, the seven-metre-tall structure was designed by Tableau CPH as a faceted, silvery interpretation of the Finnish design classic. Inside, Iittala unveiled the new Aalto City Vase collection, an exploration of how the design icon continues to evolve across cultures and contexts.

Writer: Laura May Todd
Ofelia Plads, Kvæsthusbroen, 1250 Copenhagen

Muuto: ‘Next Chapters’

Muuto celebrates its 20th anniversary – with highlights including the ‘Close to Heart Chair’ by Spacon and the ‘Inner View Object’ by Lise Vester, each design in a limited edition of 150 numbered pieces.

Muuto also revealed the winners and runners up in their Muuto Design Contest – this year’s winner was ‘A Piece of Seating’ by Kihyun Kim from Seoul, South Korea. The runners up were ‘Cork Stool’ by Jules Charvet from Paris, France, and ‘Erosion Container’ by Gabriella Mozo from Milan, Italy.

Writer: Olly Mason
At Østergade 36-38, 1100 København, Denmark

Maharam's architectural boat trip

Maharam celebrates the European launch of Edelman and Knoll Textiles with a multibrand installation at 3daysofdesign’s Framing exhibition at The Odd Fellow Palace. The installation features designs from across Edelman, Knoll Textiles, and Maharam on a dynamic presentation system by American industrial designer Leon Ransmeier. Maharam also celebrated the week by taking to the water with an architectural boat trip and breakfast!

Writer Olly Mason
Bredgade 28, 1260 København, Denmark

Step into Eilersen House

Stepping into Eilersen House feels like a warm hug, perfectly capturing the move away from cold minimalism and towards ‘cozy cocooning’. Walking through the exhibition's five beautifully layered rooms, each space feels personal and welcoming, a comforting sanctuary from the busy streets of Copenhagen. At the heart of every space sits a stunning new design, including the new Snooze Sleeper Sofa, the Bean Sofa, and even a new dog bed, providing your home with pieces that are relaxed, elegant and functional.

Writer Rosie Cave
Address: Eilersen House, Niels Hemmingsens Gade 7, 1153 Copenhagen

Industrial choreography

LAYERED and Massproductions present Industrial Choreography - an installation that translates the two-dimensional craft of weaving into a spatial experience. It captures the dynamic that sparked their new ‘Cord’ Collection. The exhibition formed huge spinning car wash-style pillars - clad in the thick Cord collection yarns - mimicking the mechanical rhythm of the loom.

Writer Olly Mason
At Amaliegade 6, Copenhagen, Denmark

A-POC Able Issey Miyake's pleated shades and portable lights

Making their debut at 3daysofdesign, clothing brand A-POC Able Issey Miyake shines with their new TYPE-XIII Atelier Oï lamps. The collection mixes one piece of cloth with one piece of wire to form a beautiful, portable light. The removable pleated shade has been specifically designed so you can change the colour to match your mood, allowing you to play with your decor and bring a joyful, fresh feeling to any room.

Writer Rosie Cave
Address: Holbergsgade 20, 1057 Copenhagen

Baina reimagines the bathroom as a sacred space

We had never considered a footed salt dish an essential bathing-space accessory, but after seeing Agnieszka Owsiany's elegant hand-forged stainless steel interpretation, we can't stop thinking about it. The ceremonial vessel is one of several pieces specially commissioned by Antipodean bathing brand Baina for its exhibition ‘The Practice of Bathing’, which we stumbled upon between appointments. Conceived to mark the launch of the brand's home fragrance collection, the show celebrates bathing rituals through a series of functional objects, including a sterling silver oil burner by Gala Colivet Dennison, a leather-fronted cabinet by Marsha Golemac and a suspended mirror by Olivia Bossy.

Writer Ali Morris
Baina, Borgergade 91, 1300 Copenhagen

Hidden gems at Aarticles Gallery

Hidden away on the fourth floor of a historic Copenhagen apartment building, ‘Compositions’ by local gallery Aarticles is one of the week's most rewarding discoveries. Set within rooms blessed with stained-glass windows and views across the city's rooftops, the exhibition sees co-founders Kasia Sznajder and Fred Aartun bring together newly commissioned works, existing pieces from the gallery's collection and carefully selected found objects. The result feels like a contemporary cabinet of curiosities, filled with objects to discover. Among them are delicate silver works by Yeodong Yun, black ceramic vessels by Nozawa and carved wooden pieces by Aartun himself.

Writer Ali Morris
Christian IX's Gade 1, 4th floor, 1111 Copenhagen

Royal Copenhagen's archive

One of the week's highest-profile launches is Triton, the reissue of a collection of shell-like porcelain vessels drawn from Royal Copenhagen's archive. Originally introduced in 1976, Triton was the creation of the late Danish artist Arje Griegst. It fell out of production, and pieces from the collection have since become highly prized collector's items. For its return, the collection has been developed in collaboration with Griegst's son, Noam, who created three new colourways to sit alongside the original rose finish. More than 50 years on, Triton remains one of the brand's most technically demanding projects, but also one of its most spectacular. See it in person at Royal Copenhagen's flagship showroom in an exhibition curated by Dan Thawley, with a futuristic scenography by 1kg that combines sound, scent and optical illusion.

Writer Ali Morris
Royal Copenhagen, Amagertorv 6, 1160 Copenhagen

Form Portfolios

Danish designer and textile artist Kim Naver is the focus of an exhibition by design company Form Portfolios that shines a welcome light on a prolific and under-recognised creative career. Curated by Naver, now in her eighties, in collaboration with Form Portfolios creative director Peter Christensen, Kim Naver: Dansk Moderne unfolds across three rooms within the company's Copenhagen offices. Spanning more than six decades, Naver's practice is a joy to discover. Light-filled interiors, wire-hung display shelves and slender metal tables give her richly textured textiles, drawings and archival material room to breathe, revealing the breadth of a body of work that deserves far wider recognition.

Writer Ali Morris
Form Portfolios, Badstuestræde 17, 1209 Copenhagen

Inside a collector's home: Tina Seidenfaden Busck opens her doors

This week, the eighteenth-century apartment gallery of Tina Seidenfaden Busck plays host to works by artists she has long lived with, admired and collected. Arranged throughout its rooms are paintings, photographs, ceramics, textiles and collages by artists including Yto Barrada, Isabella Ducrot, Nathalie du Pasquier, Alekos Fassianos, John Kasmin, Hylton Nel and Peter Schlesinger, all sitting in perfect harmony. Known for her discerning eye, Busck views collecting as a continuous movement between looking, living and making. 'I don't go by any rules,' she says. 'If I like it, I go for it.'

Writer Ali Morris
Overgaden Neden Vandet 33, 1. sal, 1414 Copenhagen

Deoron: ‘A space for curated sound and objects worth noticing’

Deoron brings together more than 50 designers in an industrial space on Paper Island – working across furniture, lighting, homeware, technology and lifestyle. A sculptural sound system is running all day, with listening sessions, live performances and a space to stay and unwind. Deoron partners with Hypebeast for the opening aperitivo party.

Writer Olly Mason
Papirøen 21, Copenhagen

Rue Verte's dark, sculptural world gets a refresh

At Michala Jessen's concept store and design studio Rue Verte, a sultry monochrome mood prevails through a palette of volcanic stone, sculpted marble, textured metals and dark woods. Completely refreshed for 3 Days of Design, the eighteenth century space showcases new collections by designers and artists including Henry Wilson and Jojo Corväiá alongside vintage pieces and carefully sourced objects gathered by Jessen.

Writer Ali Morris
Ny Østergade 11, 1101 Copenhagen

To My Ships: ‘The Incessant Anxiety’

Further cementing itself as the design industry’s favourite personal care brand, To My Ships unveiled their new geranium eau de toilette this morning with the frankly genius name: ‘The Incessant Anxiety’. Over a breakfast that turned out to be the sceniest gathering of 3 Days, we were given a preview of Daphne – the soon-to-be new restaurant by the design industry’s favourite restaurateur: Frederik Bille Brahe. The grounded superstar has recently had his fourth child. He says Daphne will be: ‘A special place for beautiful, simple food like the best roast chicken’. And that he’s looking forward to sitting in the corner and taking a bit of a breather.

Writer Hugo Macdonald
Daphne, Pilestraede 58

Bath time

Baina is an Antipodean towelling company making its 3 Days debut this year. And what a debut. Alongside introducing us to its 100 percent organic cotton towels and apothecary collection, the brand is launching a very nice new home fragrance with 11 essential oils; most keenly smelt among these are Sandalwood, Amaris and Vetiver. Baina has also commissioned a fascinating works for bathing by a series of contemporary artists, which are interspersed with historic bathing objects. We will take the sterling silver Oil Burner by Gala Colivet Dennison and the hand-forged steel Footed Salt Dish by Agnieszka Owsiany. Scratch that: we’ll take it all.

Writer Hugo Macdonald
Borgergade 91

The best seat in town?

A Chieftain Chair by Finn Juhl sat atop a Range Rover Defender.

Writer Hugo Macdonald

Stellar casting

Australian designer Henry Wilson’s cast bronze lights have graced one of Beyoncé’s music videos and featured in a Roy family residence in Succession. Two more modern iconic placements, you’d be hard-pushed to find. And with good reason: they are exquisite, neo-classical forms that tingle the spine and fingers with their beauty. Henry’s lighting is on display in abundance at Rue Verte, alongside a weapon-grade hefty aluminium champagne bucket, and an extremely chic bronze bottle opener. (Rue Verte is also home to one of our favourite fireplaces.)

Writer Hugo Macdonald
Ny Østergade 11

Vinyl waste, reimagined

Across town from her algae-based window vinyls for Aesop, Australian designer Jessie French of Other Matter is demonstrating what can be done with end-of-life vinyl and production offcuts. Rather than being discarded, the material is mixed with charcoal and reprocessed into a leather-like surface called Other Matter Leather. 'The charcoal unifies the colour and provides a beautiful texture,' French told us. ‘It's the only thing added.’ At ‘Latitude’ – a showcase of work by a collective of Australian designers – French is presenting the first application of Other Matter Leather as upholstery on Australian brand Made by Morgen's ‘Crafted’ dining chair and stool. 'Nothing is wasted, nothing sent to landfill or compost to sit in the ground. It is reprocessed into something of value where the loop is a workable model that sustains itself.'

Writer Ali Morris
5 Grønningen, 1270 Copenhagen

Vipp x Mesura: a Midsommar picnic

Vipp's collaboration with Barcelona-based design studio Mesura is a playful take on the Vipp guesthouse inspired by Danish Midsommar. The immersive installation takes place in a converted garage and open-air courtyard space at the company's Copenhagen campus.

The installation includes a huge swimming pool-inspired modular seating pit in soft buttery yellow upholstery, a Swivel Chair see-saw and umpire's chair.

The installation is inspired by the simple act of a picnic. Draped across the space and over Vipp's furniture, a vibrant plaid textile creates a shared landscape for rest, conversation and play.

Writer Olly Mason
Snorresgade 22, 2300 København, Denmark

Royal Copenhagen relaunches Arje Griegst's ‘Triton’ collection

Alongside Royal Copenhagen’s polished presentation celebrating the relaunch of Arje Griegst’s ‘Triton’ collection, visitors to Copenhagen this week should also make time for a detour to the Griegst showroom on Holbergsgade, where an exhibition drawn from the designer’s archive offers further context to the revival. Designed by Copenhagen-based architects Mentze Ottenstein, the show brings together archival ‘Triton’ pieces alongside examples of Griegst’s wider oeuvre, providing a rare opportunity to view the Danish designer’s ceramics, jewellery and metalwork in dialogue.

Writer: Ali Morris
Holbergsgade 10, 1057 København, Denmark

Ege Carpets explores human sensory perception

Danish textile brand Ege Carpets presents ‘The Shape of Perception’, an immersive sensory exhibition created in collaboration with anthropologist and designer Rikke Skytte. By analysing how early human understandings of spaces remain relevant in contemporary design, Ege invites visitors to explore how movement, sound, touch and sight shape our interactions with colors, textures and environments.

Writer: Rosie Cave
Ege and Gabriel showroom, Christianshavns Kanal 4, 1406 Copenhagen

Eldvarm explores 500,000 years of human connection

‘I, Belong’ is a cosy little presentation at The Conary by Scandinavian fireside accessories brand Eldvarm. Developed by founder Louise Varré in collaboration with designer and thinker Paul Bennett, the show explores how half a million years spent gathering around fires may have shaped our brains, behaviours and sense of belonging. Featuring new and existing Eldvarm products by Emma Olbers, Daniel Rybakken and Guillaume Delvigne, it examines the rituals once centred on the hearth – from storytelling to shared meals – and considers why they continue to soothe our nervous systems today.

Writer Ali Morris
Dronningens Tværgade 26, 1302 København, Denmark

Emerging designers ask us to slow down at Fanzi

Surveys of emerging designers are always amongst the most exciting components of any design fair, showing us what the industry’s youngest and most eager talents are most preoccupied with. Taiwan- and Copenhagen-based roving gallery Fanzi did just that with a group exhibition of European and Taiwanese designers that explored themes of slowness, materiality and cultural exchange. Titled ‘Welcome. Slow Down.’, highlights included an interlocking modular table system from the Zurich-based studio Intra-Intra, sconces made from lab-grown crystals by the German designer Elisabeth Seidel and sunburst-shaped extruded metal vases from Taiwan’s Kaiping Liu. In addition to the exhibition, Fanzi also hosted a series of participatory events in the space, including tea ceremonies, sound baths and a performance by a calligraphy master, making good on their promise to encourage visitors to slow down and engage more mindfully with design.

Writer: Laura May Todd
Posten 6, 1577 Copenhagen

Tucking in with Imogen Kwok and Noura Residency

Following the debut show curated by Charlotte Taylor last year, Noura Residency invited London-based chef and creative director Imogen Kwok to conceive the latest iteration. Titled ‘Fat Powder Fruit Sugar’, Kwok merged the worlds of design, craftsmanship and cuisine to create a mise-en-scène that evoked the ephemeral moment just before a beautifully laid table is unravelled by the act of serving and eating. Highlights included cherries with glass-like sugar leaves, a floral-topped butter cone sculpture and tabletop objects by Barcelona’s Marlot Baus, contemporary furniture brand Køge and Nootora, which sources ethical ingredients from local and organic farms.

Writer: Laura May Todd
Noura Residency, Sankt Peders Stræde 35A, 1453 Copenhagen

A joint show from two 18th century craft houses

Two of the UK and Ireland’s most iconic and historic craft houses joined forces for a shared presentation in Copenhagen this week. 18th-century ceramics manufacturer Wedgwood and Irish crystal manufacturer Waterford both welcomed visitors and offered a glimpse into their creative process. The former did so through a photographic series by photographer Lesley Lau, which offered a rare glimpse into Wedgwood's historic Stoke-on-Trent factory and the artisans behind its signature Jasperware production. Waterford, meanwhile, invited guests with a hands-on insight into the process of crystal making, showing visitors the many stages behind each finished piece, from paper plans to hand-carved wooden moulds, before bringing the craft to life through demonstrations from its master cutters.

Writer: Laura May Todd
Amagertorv 6, 1160 Copenhagen

Bomma illuminates Copenhagen with 'Fragments of Light'

Bomma, a Czech design lighting brand, unveils 'Fragments of Light' during 3 Days of Design, an immersive installation centred around its 'Fragments' lighting collection and set within the extraordinary interiors of Copenhagen's newly restored Court Theatre. Crafted from upcycled crystal shards, each ‘Fragments’ piece is being meticulously refined by master glass cutters into gemstone-like objects. The experience is accompanied by a special presentation of the portable ‘OLLO’ lamps, while a live performance brings the remarkable venue to life. 'Fragments of Light' celebrates the craftsmanship, innovation and circular design behind the Czech glassmaker.

Writer: Rosie Cave
Christiansborg Ridebane 16, 1218 Copenhagen

For this year's 3 Days Of Design, Fritz Hansen is turning its attention from objects to the atmosphere, asking what a design exhibition could sound like. Created with Japanese audio brand Technics, Sound Club examines how music, light and furniture combine to shape the character of a space, inviting visitors to slow down and engage with design through listening as much as looking.

Fritz Hansen's Sound Club at 3 Days of Design

The project arrives as Fritz Hansen marks the 90th anniversary of Christian Dell's Kaiser Idell lamp, an enduring Bauhaus design that forms the centrepiece of this new collaboration with Technics. Presented in matching deep burgundy finishes – a shade that forms part of Fritz Hansen's evolving visual identity – a limited-edition Kaiser Idell table lamp and Technics turntable anchor a series of listening environments spread across the Danish brand's Copenhagen flagship, courtyard and a dedicated installation space.

For Fritz Hansen creative director Els Van Hoorebeeck, the starting point was the collaboration itself. 'Obviously we had to go beyond a purely visual presentation when you're collaborating on sound,' she says. 'Music is an emotional, sensory layer on top of a setting. We all have certain songs that bring us back to a space or a memory. We wanted to create that kind of connection, encouraging people to engage with what they're seeing rather than simply taking a picture and moving on.'

The partnership emerged organically. During research visits to clubs in Seoul and later a Technics café in Kyoto, Van Hoorebeeck and her team encountered the Kaiser Idell lamp paired with Technics turntables on numerous occasions – and an idea began to form.

The initial connection was visual but soon revealed broader similarities between the two brands' approaches to design. 'The arm of the light spoke to the arm of the turntable,' she says. 'It felt like the roles of both brands overlapped.' Both companies share a commitment to craftsmanship too. 'We're both very focused on performance and longevity,' says Van Hoorebeeck.

For Dario Reicherl, CEO Asia at Fritz Hansen, the installation also acknowledges an aspect of design that sometimes remains unspoken. 'Sound has always shaped how we feel in a space,' he says. 'We just haven't always acknowledged it as part of the design conversation.'

Rather than staging a conventional product launch, Fritz Hansen has created a series of spaces centred around different encounters with sound. Visitors can sit in a lounge and hear the company's new podcast series, settle into a listening bar equipped with noise-cancelling headphones and an exclusive vinyl recording created for the collaboration, or spend time in a courtyard animated by a programme of live DJs.

The installation also draws on Fritz Hansen's archive. Original steel furniture designs from the 1930s, including a table and drinks trolley, have been brought back specially for the exhibition. Positioned alongside the Kaiser Idell lamp and Technics turntable, they create a setting that spans nearly a century of design history.

Elsewhere, sound becomes a way of revealing the hidden processes behind design itself. Within the flagship store, visitors can listen to recordings made during the production of Fritz Hansen furniture, from the sounds of tools and materials to the distinctive audio cues used by craftspeople during assembly. As Van Hoorebeeck explains, some of the company's makers can judge whether a piece is correctly assembled simply by listening to it. The recordings offer visitors an opportunity to hear the sounds associated with the making of Fritz Hansen furniture, an aspect of the process that is usually hidden from view.

The exhibition is also conceived as a response to the pace of 3 Days Of Design itself. Rather than prescribing a single route through the installation, Sound Club encourages visitors to engage on their own terms: to listen to a podcast, spend time with a record, linger over coffee in the courtyard or simply sit and pause for a moment. 'We recognise everyone's navigating a very busy schedule,' says Van Hoorebeeck. 'But we wanted to create an opportunity for people to really feel the design.' Visitors, she says, can shape their own journey through the installation, deciding 'how much they want to invest their time' and creating moments to 'zoom out' amid the intensity of the festival.

From vinyl records to the focused pool of light created by the Kaiser Idell lamp, Sound Club reflects a broader interest in analogue experiences. Ultimately, the installation is less about products than the conditions they create together. Through sound, light and furniture, Van Hoorebeeck hopes to create an experience that lingers beyond the exhibition itself. 'My hope is that people will leave happier than when they arrive, more relaxed,’ she explains. 'Gathering likeminded people in the same space creates great energy and music can enhance that.'

Fritz Hansen Sound Club, Løvestræde 5, Copenhagen, 10–12 June 2026, 10:00–18:00

The creative season in the south of France commences for 2026. From Aix-en-Provence to Marseille, Saint-Tropez to Saint-Paul-de-Vence, experience the luminosity, delicacy, heritage conversations, sensuality and organic nature of contemporary regional design. Discover French icons of the 20th century, Pierre Paulin and Jean Prouvé. Lose yourself in the dense atmospheres of photographer François Halard and the idealism of Victor Vasarely; then find fresh and emerging inspiration in the annual Design Parade that celebrates a special anniversary this year.

10 design highlights in the south of France this summer

‘Childhood Memories’ at Une Maison à Saint-Tropez

Interior designer Isabelle Castanier invites 20 designers into her childhood home in Saint-Tropez to salute the generations of children who have grown up in the 18th-century Provençal house. A series of playful tableaux tells stories of sandcastles, sweet dreams and sticky fingers through textiles by Sarah Espeute, trumeau mirrors by Sébastien Gafari, cast aluminium treasures by Axel Chay, and many more delights from the likes of India Mahdavi and Linde Freya Tangelder. Each Thursday evening, the exhibition spills out onto the Place des Lices, showcasing collectible design between games of pétanque and glasses of lemonade.

6 June-31 July 2026
Une Maison à Saint-Tropez, 17 Avenue Foch, 83990 Saint-Tropez

Olivia Cognet, ‘Inhabiting the Landscape House’ at Dragon Hill

This summer, Vallauris-based sculptor-designer Olivia Cognet inhabits the organic Dragon Hill house designed by French architect Jacques Couëlle in the 1960s with a domestic landscape of works that respond to its cavities, recesses and irregular volumes. Just like Couëlle, Cognet seeks to dissolve the boundary between the body and space: there’s a vast sofa made in collaboration with Lyon upholsterer Degut, and a garden seating space of monolithic furniture that blends function and decoration. Dragon Hill and its sculpture park, found in the hills above Cannes, comprise a private residence; it can occasionally be visited by appointment, subject to availability (visit requests may be sent to hello@dragonhill.fr).

13 May-November 2026
Dragon Hill Residence, Castellaras le Neuf, 06730 Mouans-Sartoux

‘Project for a revolution’ at the Vasarely Foundation

In honour of the 50th anniversary of Op art pioneer Victor Vasarely’s ‘Architecture Center’ in Aix-en-Provence, inaugurated in 1976, Fondation Vasarely charts the building’s genesis and ambitions in an exhibition in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou. Archival materials chart its conceptual origins in the Bauhaus; Vasarely’s urban integrations in Caracas in 1954; and his ‘Polychrome City of Happiness’ thesis, as well as contemporaneous projects of Yona Friedman’s ‘Spatial City’ and André Bloc’s Habitable Sculptures.

12 June-1 November 2026
Fondation Vasarely, Jas de Bouffan, 13090 Aix-en-Provence

François Halard at Gallifet

More than 100 photographs by French photographer François Halard capture his quest for beauty through the materiality of interiors, the depths of memories and fragments of ancient architecture. Titled ‘Ne rien jeter, 33 ans après’, the exhibition traces an archive of studio visits to Cy Twombly, Robert Rauschenberg and Carlo Mollino, pilgrimages to Casa Malaparte and Giverny, and the physicality of image-making from hotel darkrooms to painted layers.

This year, Gallifet’s summer season brings the culinary residency of Lisa Desforges and Bruno Hammerle, who worked together at l’Ami Jean in Paris and now reunite to craft spontaneous hyper-local menus for the courtyard restaurant beneath century-old chestnut trees.

6 March-27 September 2026
Gallifet, 52 rue Cardinale, 13100 Aix-en-Provence

‘Movement Architecture Community’ at Kolektiv Cité Radieuse

This summer, the non-profit gallery inside Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation in Marseille spotlights the work of Australian photographer Adrian Meško, who was born in the former Czechoslovakia. Specifically, his documentation of (La)Horde, the contemporary dance collective with whom he embedded during the pandemic, documenting their rituals, choreographies and architectural inhabitation. Through the lens of Meško and the corporeal expression of (La)Horde, the exhibition explores the intersection of movement, queer politics and Modernist built environments that can both constrain and emancipate.

10 July-22 August 2026
Kolektiv Cité Radieuse, Third floor, Unité d’Habitation, 280 Boulevard Michelet, 13008 Marseille

Victor Siret and Arnaud Eubelen at La Traverse

First up this summer at La Traverse – a destination for creative happenings in Marseille’s Malmousque neighbourhood – is a solo show by artist Victor Siret, who adopted the French port city as his home in 2022. His embroidered canvases depict Marseille permeated by American motifs, as a desert-like fever dream of flattened buildings, signs and slogans visually informed by films and video games. Later in the summer, Brussels-based designer Arnaud Eubelen, who works ‘in the no man's land between sculpture and design’, reappropriates industrial materials to rewire their value, as part of a boutique-style exhibition for reading, exploring objects and listening to music.

Victor Siret: 14 May-4 July 2026 / Arnaud Eubelen: 11 July-26 September 2026
La Traverse, 16 Traverse Sainte-Hélène, 13007 Marseille

Design Parade

In 2026, the annual festival ‘Design Parade’ celebrates a double anniversary: 20 years of its product design competition and ten years of its interior design counterpart. Under the artistic direction of Julie Liger, this special edition takes over the entire 1920s Villa Noailles for the first time – where exhibitions of the ten finalists of both categories will be judged by two esteemed juries chaired by Sofia Lagerkvidt and Anna Lindgren of Front Design studio (product design) and Laura Gonzalez (interior design). The atmosphere further expands with scenographies by Joachim Jirou Najou; showcases by previous winners Thomas Takada, Simon Dupety and Malo Gagliardini; and ‘20+10: Design Parade Generation(s)’, a retrospective of Design Parade curated by David Giroire.

25 June-30 August 2026
Villa Noailles, 47 Mont de Noailles, 83400 Hyères, France

Pierre Paulin at the Musée Fabre

In Montpellier, the Musée Fabre presents a major retrospective of designer Pierre Paulin (1927-2009). In the context of post-war 20th-century French design, the exhibition reviews key milestones and iconic creations such as the ‘Mushroom’ chair (1960), ‘Ribbon’ chair (1966) and ‘Tongue’ chair (1967), which, once avant-garde, are now considered ‘classics’ of modernity. Working during the ‘Glorious Thirty’, Paulin blended Nordic and American influences, with fluid forms and an awareness of pop culture and aspirational lifestyles. Visitors can explore the ‘Élysée Smoking Room’, presented for the first time outside Paris since its restoration, and an immersive experience by Paulin, Paulin, Paulin and Sounds Like Paulin.

27 June-1 November 2026
Musée Fabre, 39 Bd Bonne Nouvelle, 34000 Montpellier

Paulin, Paulin, Paulin at Hauser & Wirth Monaco

Paulin, Paulin, Paulin, the Paris-based design studio expanding the legacy of Pierre Paulin, has curated a setting of furniture and art titled ‘Mise-en-scène’ that is in situ for the summer at Hauser & Wirth Monaco. Musical activations curated in collaboration with Sounds Like Paulin, the record label founded by Benjamin and Alice Paulin, will surround the ‘Déclive n°3’ recliner in orange; the geometric ‘Video Barnum’ seating with integrated speakers; and the modular ‘Chirac’ sofa alongside works by Andy Warhol, Alexander Calder and Rashid Johnson. Available to visit by appointment, the scene recontextualises Pierre Paulin’s heritage as a ‘living force’ for exchange in the vision of Paulin, Paulin, Paulin.

9 April-31 August 2026
Hauser & Wirth Monaco, One Monte-Carlo, Place du Casino, 98000 Monaco

Jean Prouvé at Fondation CAB

Paris-based 20th-century design specialist François Laffanour curates a selection of works by French architect, builder and designer Jean Prouvé, centring around the innovative ‘Coque’ and ‘Métropole’ prefabricated houses originally designed in Meudon. Their designs can be explored through photographic archives from the 1930s and dynamic architectural elements, presented alongside furniture including the ‘Cité’ bed, ‘Compas’ table, ‘Standard’ chair, ‘Antony’ armchair and ‘Marcoule’ bench. Step outside into the gardens to see one of Prouvé’s 6×6m demountable homes, and don’t miss the parallel exhibition of American artists Nassos Daphnis and Rita McBride.

14 March-31 October 2026
Fondation CAB Saint-Paul-de-Vence, chemin des Trious, 5766 Saint-Paul-de-Vence

Also read: Stay in Jean Prouvé’s 6x6 demountable house at Fondation CAB in south-east France

It’s both ancient – and modern. The shoji screen, handcrafted using a millennia-old Japanese papermaking technique, is not flat: it gently undulates like a waterfall, the softened geometry of its crafted wooden frame illuminated like shifting daytime skies by hidden LEDs.

This harmony of paper, wood and light is 'Grid Unwoven', the alchemical result of a creative collaboration between Lanzavecchia + Wai, a design studio in Italy and Singapore, and Takanori Senda, a Japanese artisan specialising in ancient Mino Washi papermaking in Gifu Prefecture.

It’s one of six new creations launched in the latest edition of Craft x Tech, an innovative initiative that fuses Japan’s traditional crafts heritage with progressive technology and contemporary design to create new pathways for endangered artisan traditions to thrive in modern times.

The project matches six contemporary international creators with traditional makers in Japan. The inaugural edition two years ago specialised in the northeastern Tohoku region, while the latest collection focuses on the craftsmanship of the central Tokai area.

From tiled chairs and modular tables to rainbow-bright tie-dyed lighting systems, six creations were brought to life by a collection of designers, including David Caon, Philippe Malouin, Bethan Laura Wood, Atang Tshikare, Eugene Studio and Lanzavecchia + Wai.

The idea of evolution rather than preservation lies at the heart of Craft x Tech, which is helmed by Hideki Yoshimoto, founder of Tangent design studio and a project associate professor at the University of Tokyo, with curatorial direction by Maria Cristina Didero.

‘Craft x Tech has always been about exploring how Japanese craftsmanship can engage with contemporary culture and design – not simply as preservation, but as an evolving creative practice,’ Yoshimoto tells Wallpaper*.

‘For this Tokai Edition, we were particularly interested in a region where craft and industrial production have historically developed side by side. At the same time, bringing together a wider range of international creatives made for really rich dialogues across different materials, cultures and approaches to making.’

London designer Bethan Laura Wood was immersed in the colourful cosmos of Arimatsu Narumi Shibori, an ancient tie-dyeing craft in Aichi Prefecture, celebrated for its original textures, intricate shading and complex patterns.

The result of Wood’s partnership with Hiroyuki Murase of Suzusan, a fifth-generation artisan family, is a textile-wrapped lighting system called ‘Kataginu’ – cascading suspensions of bloom-like textiles, meticulously crafted and organically steeped in exotic bursts of colour patterns.

‘I was struck by all the different ways in which the tying and binding can create complex patterns,’ she says. ‘I knew I wanted to work with a vibrant mix of two colours in conversation and to highlight this bleach-like blur that comes from the reaction between the two dyes, which cannot be overly controlled. This captures the “living” quality of the dye – being active, moving and reacting to the physical placement and folding of the fabric.’

For David Caon, a Sydney-based designer known for his aircraft innovations, the idea of ‘letting go of control’ shaped 'Fushi' – an elegant console and lighting system made from clean-lined modular ceramic components fired in Oribe glaze, creating deep, textured shades of bamboo green.

The components were crafted by Yohei Ito, the third-generation head of Fudogama kiln, specialising in Mino Yaki, a regional ceramics tradition in Gifu Prefecture dating back to the fifth century.

‘With Mino Yaki objects, part of the beauty of the craft is that every piece becomes quite unique after firing,’ explains Caon. ‘As a designer, there is not the same level of control over the final appearance of the objects that I have with other processes.’

Meanwhile, the industrialist minimalism of British-Canadian designer Philippe Malouin encountered the vividly decorative world of Owari Shippo, a type of enamelware from Aichi Prefecture, resulting in a highlight: the pared-back elegance of ‘Kasane’, stackable boxes with randomly speckled surfaces, their geometry inspired by sculpted conical sand mounds found in Kyoto’s Ginkaku-ji gardens.

Ceramics and chairs are not often juxtaposed, yet Eugene Kangawa of Tokyo-based Eugene Studio innovatively layered the deep indigo beauty of Seto Sometsuke Yaki ceramics with traditional mortise-and-tenon joinery to create a series of chairs, with matching tea vessels.

Clean-lined angles are wrapped sharply in white porcelain tiles hand-painted in indigo pigment, created in collaboration with Mayuki Kato, the fourth-generation head of Shingama kiln in Aichi Prefecture.

Another highlight was Atang Tshikare’s sculptural dialogue with Iga Kumihimo, braided silk threads in vivid shades, a traditional craft rooted in the natural beauty of Mie Prefecture.

‘Yamollo’ is a lighting work that takes the shape of a layered cascade of Iga cords in earthy tones, shifting from light at the top to dark at the base, hinting at the dynamism of a volcano – brought to life with artisan Tomoyuki Matsuda, fourth-generation CEO of Itogo.

Meanwhile, Lanzavecchia + Wai developed the flowing screen ‘Grid Unwoven’ with Mino Washi master Senda of Warabi Paper Company – pushing the traditional scale to its limits by creating a 2m by 2m screen that flows and curves, with a backlighting system evoking a sense of sky.

And threaded connectively through each of the projects? A sense of possibilities for traditional craft forms that continuously adapt, evolve and explore the boundaries of their potential.

As founder Yoshimoto explains: ‘In the long term, I hope Craft x Tech can become a platform where traditional knowledge and contemporary creativity intersect to generate new possibilities for craft. I see craft not as something static or nostalgic, but as a living body of knowledge that can continue shaping the future of design and culture.’

Craft x Tech Tokai Project 2026 Tokyo Exhibition runs at Kudan House in Tokyo from 30 May to 2 June

The deep-rooted connection between design cultures in Denmark and Japan is well documented. So much so that, in the last decade, it has given rise to the slightly wince-inducing catch-all term ‘Japandi’, a word invented to make a particular aesthetic of minimalism and honest materials more marketable. However, to reduce the connection between the two design cultures to moodboard-level aesthetics alone, Wallpaper’s Japan editor Jens H Jensen argues, is to miss the point entirely.

'When people think about Japanese design, they often only think about the simplicity of the design. I see it more as an honest and very pragmatic approach that resonates well with the Danish design tradition, where form always follows function,' he tells Wallpaper*. 'Japanese [and Danish] design isn’t simple to try to be minimalist. It’s simple because it’s often the most pragmatic way of making a certain product, resulting in honest, no-frills objects that require an extremely high level of craftsmanship to execute well.'

For Jensen, it is the close relationship between designers and manufacturers that distinguishes Japanese design objects from products that simply trade on a Japanese-inspired aesthetic.

'You might be able to get some nice photos for Instagram, but if you look at many of these Japanese-inspired products up close, the level of craftsmanship simply isn't there.'

‘Japanmade Vol.I’ at 3 Days of Design 2026

In ‘Japanmade Vol.1’, an exhibition being held next week (10-12 June) during 3 Days of Design 2026 in Copenhagen, Jensen – who has lived in Japan for more than 20 years – has teamed up with fellow Danes at OEO Studio – which has a project office in central Tokyo – to explore this connection. ‘My aim with “Japanmade” is to highlight contemporary design made by real craftspeople, objects that are built to last a lifetime. The quality of the materials and finishing touches is on a completely different level.’

Located in the same building as the city's harbourside exhibition space Pakhus 11, ‘Japanmade Vol.1’ occupies three connecting rooms accessed by a different entrance. Within these intimate spaces, visitors are presented with an edited selection of Japanese design as seen through Jensen's and OEO's Danish lens. The selection includes work from five brands working exclusively within Japan and across a broad range of materials – from washi (Japanese paper), solid brass, hinoki wood, soy wax and even plastic. Works are presented on staging made from cardboard pallets – a low-carbon solution that OEO and Jensen hope will make the experience feel more like visiting a gallery than a traditional interior design exhibition.

Thomas Lykke, who founded OEO Studio with Anne-Marie Buemann in 2003 and has maintained a presence in Japan for nearly 20 years, describes the exhibition as ‘a distilled and edited selection viewed through a holistic lens and approach’. While Japanese and Scandinavian design are often grouped together through shared qualities such as simplicity, craftsmanship and material honesty, he believes the relationship is more complex. ‘There are certainly links and shared values between Japanese and Scandinavian design,’ he says. ‘That said, the bond goes deeper than that.’

Jensen shares that view. ‘I think that Japanese design is highly respected and appreciated throughout much of the global design community for its simplicity and extraordinary attention to detail. However, there is a tendency to focus on very traditional crafts. I hope Japanmade can help to show the variety of materials and production methods.’

For example, Sekisaka, a 300-year-old Japanese manufacturer from the Kawada district of Sabae City, Fukui Prefecture, will present contemporary objects informed by traditional Urushi lacquerware, but realised in durable resin and ABS plastic that make them suitable for daily use in schools, hospitals and airlines.

MAS, a sub-brand of Karimoku Furniture, will showcase furniture rooted in Japanese woodworking expertise, including pieces made from hinoki – Japanese cypress – a durable, lightweight softwood more commonly associated with traditional architecture and construction than furniture making. Meanwhile, 300-year-old handmade paper workshop Naowashi by Gen Taniguchi, in Nao, Saga Prefecture, will show products made entirely from locally grown kajinoki paper mulberry rather than the more typical kozo variety. Kajinoki fibres are longer and intertwine more easily, producing paper that is both thin and strong.

Artisanal soybean candlemakers Sheep will display candles handmade at its workshop in Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture, using high-quality soy wax, pure essential oils and cotton wicks, while New Light Pottery, a lighting studio based in Nara, the ancient former capital of Japan, will present lamps that celebrate the beauty of local materials such as Japanese washi paper, glass, ceramics, lacquer-finished brass and marble

'The strong bond, mutual respect and physical proximity between designer and manufacturer play a big role in the final product. This is something I believe is quite unique to Japan and is something to celebrate,' reflects Jensen. 'In Denmark, for instance, many of the famous furniture makers now produce outside of Denmark. I truly believe something essential gets lost when the distance between design and production increases.'

The exhibition's 'Vol.1' title suggests that ‘Japanmade’ may be the first in a series. 'Only the future can tell,' Lykke says. 'Having said that, we naturally hope “Japanmade” will evolve over time. We'll take it step by step and see where the journey leads.'

‘Japanmade Vol.1’ will open during 3 Days of Design from 10-12 June at Dampfærgevej 2, Nordhavn, Copenhagen

Heralding the arrival of summer, Copenhagen’s 3 Days of Design festival – this year taking place 10–12 June – is always a highlight of the cultural calendar, with dozens of exhibitions and installations of contemporary design taking over the city.

Less sprawling than the behemoth of springtime’s Milan Design Week, 3 Days of Design offers a chance to engage with the best of new furniture and decor – through a refined and distinctly Scandinavian lens. Craftsmanship, natural materials and wellbeing tend to be central. Since its debut in 2013, the event has grown to become a significant moment of trend-setting, talent-scouting and community connection in the design world.

The festival’s theme for 2026 is ‘Make this Moment Matter’, eschewing the tendency to focus on the past or future in preference for the present, and gently calling on design to possess a sense of ‘purpose’.

Here are six highlights to see during 3 Days of Design 2026.

Six things to see at 3 Days of Design 2026

'At Play' by Georg Jensen

Since her appointment in 2024, Paula Gerbase has been inspiring in the way she has been quietly shaking up heritage silver company Georg Jensen. For 3 Days of Design, the creative director is staging a games extravaganza, inspired by summer traditions of play with both a contemporary twist and a mood that’s rooted in Georg Jensen’s history of material honesty and purity of craftsmanship. Titled ‘At Play’, the immersive installation also nods to the company founder’s own fascination to nature: ‘He grew up in a small village of craftspeople north of Copenhagen, spending his days playing and roaming freely in the surrounding woodlands,’ says Gerbase. ‘This spirit of playfulness and exploration runs throughout the house’s 121-year history.’ Expect walnut and sterling silver interpretations of classics from a ring toss to a yo-yo, and much more. Writer: Rosa Bertoli

Højbro Plads, 1200 Copenhagen

‘Objects of Desire’

The 19th-century Thorvaldsens Museum serves as the impressive backdrop for this group exhibition of contemporary furniture and objects, carefully curated by Copenhagen-based designer Birgitte Due Madsen.

The works on show, including a table made using ottchil lacquer by Korean designer Rahee Yoon and a modernist-inspired birch armchair by French studio Sausset Leou, invite visitors to slow down, look closely, and engage with the craftsmanship underpinning them. ‘These are pieces designed for longevity,’ says Madsen. ‘Objects that can be returned to, lived with, and appreciated across years, even decades.’

Bertel Thorvaldsens Plads 2, 1213 Copenhagen

‘Knife, Fork, Spoon 3.0’

Cult Los Angeles design and art gallery Marta comes to Copenhagen to present an exhibition of artistic, 3D-printed cutlery sets by 12 international designers. Curated by editor and collector Dung Ngo, and with support from furniture company Design Within Reach (DWR), the exhibition centres flatware as a vehicle of creative expression, cultural unity and technical evolution.

Through 3D-printing, the works on display embrace rapid prototyping, complex forms, reduced material waste and simplified supply chains. Designers include Lagos-based Nifemi Marcus-Bello, American jewellery maker Jacqueline Rabun, and Polish artist-designer Marcin Rusak (watch our short film). The exhibition is staged within the Ark Journal showcase, ‘Design/Dialogue’, which also features design brands such as cc-tapis, MDF Italia and Vaarnii.

Den Frie Udstilling, Oslo Plads 1, 2100 Copenhagen

Material Matters

The event dedicated to material innovation and responsible sourcing in design, Material Matters – founded in London by Grant Gibson – brings together a range of designers, brands and startups that are trying to change the game.

Exhibitors this year include Malai Biomaterials, an Indian studio developing textiles and objects made from bacterial cellulose grown on coconut waste, and Spanish company Birdmind, transforming agricultural waste into circular materials for architecture and interior design. Plus, London design studio Mitre & Mondays collaborates with the American Hardwood Export Council and Benchmark to showcase sustainable approaches to foresting and using hardwood timber.

Gammel Dok, Strandgade 27B, 1410 Copenhagen

‘Compositions’ by Aarticles

Aarticles, the Copenhagen gallery-marketplace co-founded by Fred Aartun and Kasia Sznajder, has made waves for its impeccable curation of craft-driven furniture and decor from an international array of independent designers. For 3 Days of Design, it hosts ‘Compositions’ in a historic apartment turned creative workspace.

The group exhibition presents objects from successive collections brought together to reveal the layered approach of design practice. Featured makers include celebrated Californian sculptor and furniture designer Vince Skelly, who makes his European debut, Copenhagen-based design duo Christian + Jade, and Korean metalworker Yeodong Yun.

Christian IX's Gade 1, 4th floor, 1111 Copenhagen

‘¿Jaime, What Are You Doing?’

Danish paint and plaster brand St Leo presents a deeply personal exhibition from Spanish designer Jaime Hayon, conceived as a tribute to Hayon’s late mother.

‘¿Jaime, What Are You Doing?’ features sculptures and furniture pieces in materials including glass, ceramic, marble and bronze, all of which reflect Hayon’s distinctive, artistic approach. Works have been selected for their sentimental significance, and Hayon has accompanied them with personal handwritten anecdotes.

Trelleborggade 5, 2150 Copenhagen

Other Circle

A large group show which debuted last year, Other Circle is not an official part of the 3 Days of Design programme, but has already attracted a sizeable following for its sharp curation of trendsetting emerging and established talent. Hosted at The Lab, a former industrial complex in the Nørrebro neighbourhood, Other Circle was established by a group of creatives working across the fields of architecture, design, fashion and branding.

This year, expect the likes of South African designer Lea Colombo, who crafts colourful furniture from monolithic rocks, and Tokyo-based Nao Iwamatsu, whose interior design products are grounded in ‘narrative minimalism’. Meanwhile, design platform Volum presents the cutting edge of Norwegian talent; London-based designer Emma Clarke unveils a collaboration with Swedish furniture brand Joy Objects that centres urushi lacquer; and Indonesian initiative Wasted transforms discarded plastic into new functional objects.

The Lab, Vermundsgade 40, 2100 CPH

Aalto 90 Pavilion by Iittala

The work of Alvar Aalto is a constant source of inspiration for Finnish company Iittala, and this year's 90th anniversary of the legendary Aalto Vase is proving to be an opportunity to think beyond the tabletop. Danish design studio Tableaux Cph and Norwegian aluminium specialist Hydro have worked with the Finnish company in a Nordic collaborative extravaganza, creating a seven-meter-tall pavilion that recreates the undulated forms of the vase, with a futuristic twist. Writer: Rosa Bertoli

Ofelia Plads

Japanmade Vol. I

In Japanmade Vol.1 Japanese design is interpreted through a Danish perspective. Danish-born Wallpaper* Japan editor Jens H. Jensen – who has lived in Japan for more than twenty years – has teamed up with fellow Danes at OEO Studio – which has a project office in central Tokyo – to explore this connection. ‘My aim with Japanmade is to highlight contemporary design made by real craftspeople, objects that are built to last a lifetime. The quality of the materials and finishing touches is on a completely different level.’

The selection includes work from five brands working exclusively within Japan and across a broad range of materials – from washi (Japanese paper), solid brass, hinoki wood, soy wax and even plastic. Works will be presented on staging made from cardboard pallets – a low-carbon solution that OEO and Jensen hope will make the experience feel more like visiting a gallery than a traditional interior design exhibition. Writer: Ali Morris

Dampfærgevej 2, Nordhavn

Bread and Butter

Making its debut in 2025 with the theme of ‘perfect pairings’, group exhibition Bread and Butter offers a gentle approach to the design of traditions. After a first edition focused on dining, the curation now thinks beyond the table, looking at bathing culture and bringing together a series of wellness traditions from Japan to Denmark. Designers are invited to offer their take on these rituals, which range from John Tree’s bucket/stool (guided by a memory of his parents helping him in the bath by sitting on a stool and pouring water from a plastic bucket, a tradition he carried on with his children) to Studio Large Medium Small’s vessels inspired by the halved shells used in Korean bathing culture. Writer: Rosa Bertoli

Sankt Peders Stræde 35A, 1453 Copenhagen

Amid a White House pressure campaign to quell diversity, equity and inclusion programmes, and restore ‘truth and sanity’ to US history, the Smithsonian Institution is quietly clapping back.

Last week, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. restored impeachment language to a portrait of President Donald J. Trump. And Monday evening in New York, the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum hosted a jubilant gala to celebrate the 2026 National Design Award recipients.

The honourees, chosen in 10 different categories by an independent jury, marked one of the most diverse and politically-engaged talent pools in recent memory, a roster that includes Thought Matter, a branding agency who’s redesigned the US Constitution; Laura Kurgan, a digital designer whose data visualisations have shed light on topics including mass incarceration; and Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman, whose work strikes alliances across the US-Mexico border.

‘[The winners] understand, as you all do, if you're in this room, that design is everywhere, and that it is, in fact, not neutral at all,’ said Cooper Hewitt director Maria Nicanor in a speech. ‘All of them are truth seekers, beauty makers, connectors.’

The National Design Awards grew out of the White House Millennium Council, an inter-governmental coalition established by the Clinton administration to rise to the challenges of the 21st-century. Now in its 26th edition, the prize is recognised as the most prestigious design accolade in the nation.

High-profile attendees included Martha Stewart, Thom Browne, Maya Lin, Jenna Lyons and Tory Burch, who all received special recognition at the awards banquet. Also in attendance was Joe Gebbia, a co-founder of AirBNB and America’s first Chief Design Officer, a title granted by President Trump in 2025.

In their 60-second acceptance speeches, award winners expressed gratitude while acknowledging the challenges facing the design community and the country – from artificial intelligence to climate change.

Some took subtle aim at recent White House actions. Kurgan, who took home the award for digital design and is a professor at Columbia University, seemingly referenced that institution’s $200 million settlement with the federal government last summer: ‘[Academia] is undergoing serious assault and transformations,’ she said. Architect Teddy Cruz, a co-winner of the award for climate action, devoted his firm’s award to ‘every single beautiful member of the immigrant communities we work with every day.’

Still, Gebbia, who leads America’s National Design Studio, touted the importance of America’s design sector and the need for innovation. The honourees, he told Wallpaper* following an address, represent ‘the best of our nation.’

And indeed, the remainder of the evening, set in the grand hall of the National Museum of the American Indian, was a celebratory one. The night culminated with a special dessert performance from artist Laila Gohar, complete with a marching band and cakes in the shape of objects from the Cooper Hewitt’s permanent collection.

‘It makes me hopeful that we have good [honourees] who are good designers,’ Nicanor told Wallpaper* as waiters sliced into cakes shaped like Michael Graves teapots. ‘Some of them are very young, some of them have long trajectories, so there's a continuity there. I don't see that breaking.’

The 2026 National Design Award Winners

• Robert Earl Paige (Design Visionary)
• Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman (Climate Action)
• Mattaforma (Emerging Designer)
• Frida Escobedo Studio (Architecture)
• Thought Matter (Communication Design)
• Laura Kurgan (Digital Design)
• Josh Tafoya (Fashion Design)
• Charlap Hyman & Herrero (Interior Design)
• Ten Eyck Landscape Architects (Landscape Architecture)
• Berea College Student Craft (Product Design)

Afternoon Light isn’t your typical design trade fair. The New York Design Week happening – on view through 19 May – is tightly curated and yet bypasses the usual pomp, circumstance and aggressive fluorescent lighting.

There’s no hierarchy between the 63 exhibitors or walls between their displays, plus it’s a lot less awkward to engage with an audience that's equal parts visiting trade and general public. ‘We believe strongly that the most interesting rooms hold both canonical brands and emerging studios democratically,’ says Deirdre Maloney, co-founder of Afternoon Light. ‘The tension between them is what makes each look better’.

Location is key. This year’s edition – the fair’s second – is taking place on the light-filled 5th and 6th floors of multifaceted Financial District office tower WSA. Sweeping views of the surrounding skyline, East River and Brooklyn Bridge make for a dramatic but also contextualising backdrop. The travertine stone and hardwood floors help too. Here, there’s room to meander, relax in one of the lounges, peruse a pop-up book store, play a game of ping-pong and grab a bite to eat.

‘We heard a lot of people wax poetic about how the fair last May just felt really good, like a relief or respite, and it's always our goal to create a space where people want to hang and where doing business is a pleasure,’ says Minya Quirk, fellow co-founder of Afternoon Light.

How the event facilitates that business also reflects this no-nonsense approach. Its cash-and-carry model is made explicit with a suggested shopping list published by design criticism Substack For Scale. Items – everything from chairs and lamps to tiles, speakers and hardware – range in price from $17 to $14,000. Here are a few highlights.

Rare Reissues

Rarify, a company that has taken American furniture design by storm, has mounted two activations at the fair. With likeminded platform IKONstudio – uncovering long overlooked design classics – it has mounted an immersive installation within WSA’s red velvet-laden entrance. On view is the ‘SOM79’ chair, originally designed by Charles Pfister for Halston's Olympic Tower studio, a space that had a similar look. With 3D-printing lighting brand Gantri, Rarify is launching emerging Brooklyn designer Christian Borger’s hyper-engineered ‘MLS-01’ kit-of-parts lamp.

Illuminating new lighting

There are several innovative lighting fixtures on offer. New Orleans-based Sara Schoenberger is unveiling her architectural ornament-inspired ‘Coronette’ collection. Stickbulb – often using oak wood trees felled across New York City – is introducing ‘Pleat’, pendants incorporating folded Japanese kozo paper. Detroit-based designers Ryan Kahen’s totemic ‘Ode to Pluto’ both references celestial bodies and the speakers that define the Midwest city’s still thriving electronic music scene.

Amped-up listening experiences

In a similar spirit of design facilitating listening experiences, sound-oriented furniture producer Symbol Audio is launching a bespoke speaker using Swiss modular storage unit brand USM’s Haller System. Staged as a listening room, the ‘Wall of Sound’ installation at Afternoon Light recalls the Grateful Dead’s 1972 Woodstock performance and Jamaican hi-fi culture.

Eye-catching hardware

Good sound systems require powerful hook-ups – why shouldn’t they also look good? Cue boutique Australian hardware manufacturer ZETR. Making its US debut at the fair with an interactive display imagined by Flack Studio and featuring lighting by Volker Haug, the brand is presenting both its fully concealed and metal finished flush-mount power point products. Taking a similar approach to re-assessing the oft-overlooked hardware typology is recently established brand Dimwit. Revealed at Afternoon Light, the ‘Anagrams’ collection comprises dimmers, switches and outlets cast in colourful hues of intricately flourished acrylic.

Tantalising tiles

There’s a good amount of innovative material solutions on offer. Take Dutch tile producer Palet, also making its US debut. Its favourable-price-point designs are graphical and visually playful, allowing designers and consumers to clad their bathrooms and kitchens in bold tromp l’oeil patterns.

Fresh furniture debuts

Los Angeles producer RAD Furniture has launched its collaboration with ever-experimental talent Sam Klemick. The ‘Post Collection’ translates Kelmick’s normally wood sculptural chair designs into the company’s proprietary powder-coated metal. Brooklyn’s Eric Weil is showcasing his new decidedly geometric, stepped-block ‘Carlo’ collection, while fellow Brooklyn studio Ollin presents squat cow-hide upholstered stools and footrests meant for lounging low to the ground.

Wallpaper* editors know a thing or two about design. We also know how to have a good time. Friday night, Wallpaper* teamed up with communications and storytelling platform Hello Human, and the Brooklyn-based cultural space, Public Records, to throw what was arguably the party of New York Design Week.

As soon as the sun went down, guests from across New York’s creative scene flocked to Brooklyn’s industrial Gowanus neighbourhood to celebrate in style. At Public Records – housed in an early 20th-century warehouse that originally served as the headquarters of the ASPCA – guests queued to mingle over mezcal cocktails (courtesy Oaxaca-based distillery Rosaluna); mill around the venue’s tree-shaded courtyard; and, of course, dance the night away to one of the best sound systems in town.

The beating heart of the evening was Public Records’ Upstairs listening lounge, which included a site-specific installation of 13 independent makers co-curated by Wallpaper* and Hello Human. Los Angeles-based studio Ah Um showcased two ambient lighting features, while husband-and-wife duo ALMa Design Studio displayed their Huipil vase, which draws inspiration from a traditional woven garment worn by Indigenous communities in Mexico. A foldable, metallic mirror by Elena Mahno merged geometry and art, while Kalon Studios presented a series of seating and tables made from gleaming steel and stone.

Innovative lighting set the ambiance in the sultry space, including designs from Brooklyn-based Ladies & Gentlemen Studio, who displayed a dramatic timber floorlamp, and Liyang Zhang, whose minimal paper piece takes the shape of a folded garment. Other creatives to be discovered Upstairs included Lichen, NoN Studio, oforo, Platform Studio, Thomas Yang, Vy Voi and Studio Baldo.

See all the exhibitors here

The pieces were in symphony with the creative ambiance – and a backdrop of an immersive soundscape, courtesy DJs Francis Harris (a co-founder of Public Records) and Dor Levi, who spun records upstairs. Later in the evening, the Sound Room hosted a techno night with Berlin and London-based DJ Irene Amnes; Los Angeles-based artist ONYVAA and Minimal Wave Records founder Veronika Vasicka spinning into the wee hours of the morning.

Inside Wallpaper's party with Hello Human and Public Records

New York Design Week 2026 is back in full swing and the Wallpaper* team is here (including members from across the pond!) for the action. From 14-20 May, we’ll be criss-crossing the city to bring you live reportage from the hundreds of shows, debuts and parties popping up around the Big Apple. If you’re in town, be sure to bookmark this page (and our handy-dandy map of happenings) for NYCxDesign, the city's official design celebration, as well as news straight from the city's hottest showroom and galleries; the convention floor of ICFF; plus the sophomore edition of Afternoon Light. Also not to miss, our takeover of everyone’s favourite magazine store, Casa, with our newly-released travel guides, including a special edition devoted to New York. Get it while it’s hot.

Meet the editors

Here’s what to see at NYCxDesign 2026, according to our editors

New York Design Week is a multi-borough affair, making it tricky to decide what might be worth a look. To make your life easier, we’ve identified some of the top things to do and see during New York Design Week. Here’s what’s on our radar, from fairs to showroom open-houses to museum exhibitions.

Kvadrat launches new accessories with Raf Simons

Out of the hundreds of textile collaborations out there, none carry quite the same IYKYK notoriety of Raf Simons’ ongoing partnership with Danish company Kvadrat. I still cherish my pebbly bouclé tote bag from 2014 (the first year of the collection) and we recently gave Simons’ adorable kids collection a Wallpaper* design award.

Last night at Kvadrat’s Park Avenue flagship, the brand revealed the latest drop of Raf Simons merch, which includes new textiles (including a buttery-soft waffle-weave velvet, inspired by the checkerboard patterns of the Viennese Secession movement) as well as fashion accessories including a baseball cap, toiletry bag and – my personal favourite – a pair of slippers. Get ‘em while they’re still in stock here. – Anna Fixsen

475 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10022.

A Snøhetta Soirée

There’s a truism about architects: they work hard and they play hard. That's why when I heard Snøhetta was having a housewarming to celebrate their new offices in Brooklyn last night, I couldn’t resist. As far as architecture offices go, this is one of the most impressive I’ve seen, with a prime Dumbo location (I had to swim through tourists snapping selfies in front of the Manhattan Bridge to get in), a roof terrace and an airy open plan illuminated by a skylight and (for the night anyway) a disco ball. Architects and design professionals mingled with journos over wine and snacks. Other notable cameos: Bjarke Ingels (a Dumbo neighbour) and a drag performer. – Anna Fixsen

‘The Espasso Apartment': Office of Tangible Space and VERSO come together

Office of Tangible Space and VERSO present an exploration of the enduring nature of creative influence. The exhibition pairs work by contemporary designers with historic design pieces to reflect on the continuity of ideas across time and propose that innovation is never created in isolation, but shaped by precedent, process, and lived experience.

‘The Espasso Apartment’ - found upstairs of the VERSO x Office of Tangible Space exhibition - showcases Brazilian and South American design amongst other international designers:
Featuring works by: Etel Carmona, Arthur Casas, Color Atelier, ETEL, Kat Howard, Kawabi
Fernando Mendes, Claudia Moreira Salles, Carlos Motta, Oscar Niemeyer, Office of Tangible Space, Sergio Rodrigues, Ronald Sasson, Giuseppe Scapinelli, Peter St. Lawrence, Joaquim Tenreiro, Waves and Frequencies, Jorge Zalszupin. – Olly Mason

144 Vanderbilt Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11205

Maiden Home's collection is an ode to the American Arts and Crafts movement

Presented during New York Design Week, this installation marks the debut of the Eva Collection, Maiden Home's second collectible series. Designed in their Tribeca studio, the collection-comprising a sideboard and an anmoire reflects an evolving expression of American design. Maiden Home nods to the American Arts and Crafts movement with touches of ceramic and timber frames, a friendly ode to both craft traditions and techniques. This is brought to life by artisans in upstate New York, who shape the wood. and a husband-and-wite ceramic duo in Colorado, who mold and glaze each tile before it is hand set into the facades.

Writer Olly Mason

34 Little West 12th Street, New York, NY 10014

Come dine with Molteni&C

A distinctly uptown dress code was adorned for this downtown dinner, hosted by Italian furniture giant Molteni&C at Casa Cipriani—the lacquered wood-lined members club across the upper floors of the historic Battery Maritime Building. Harbor views backdropped the celebration of Cristián Mohaded’s leather-strapped Corsetto armchair, fresh from its Milan debut. After martinis and champagne, Mohaded sat down (on a Corsetto, naturally) with Molteni Group’s CMO Giulia Molteni and PIN-UP magazine founder Felix Burrichter for a quick chat, before an Italian feast was served alongside a live jazz performance. Photos were not permitted, though a pro was on-hand to snap George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg, Eny Lee Parker, Adam Charlap Hyman and other notable guests. – Dan Howarth

10 South St, New York, NY 10004

Hardware gets hip with For-Scale and Bankston

Wednesday, For-Scale founder David Michon partnered with high-end architectural hardware brand Bankston took over Colbo Next Door, a newly opened, cozy wine and vinyl bar adjacent to hip boutique Colbo. Guests sipping orange wine packed into the narrow bar and spilled into Orchard and Allen streets at either end. Those able to slide into the exhibition, 'A Manifesto on Touch,' could glimpse Bankston’s collaborations with buzzy studios Sans-Arc, Edition Office, Civilian and YSG Studio. Open by appointment through 17 May. – Dan Howarth

51 Orchard St, New York, NY 10002

Take in a peepshow, Apparatus style

At Apparatus's midtown headquarters, a sumptuous 'peepshow' offers viewers furtive glimpses of sublime Puiforcat tableware. Through the exhibition, in which viewers sit on Apparatus's tubular Episode chairs, visitors get the opportunity to contemplate each silver piece – the hours of craftsmanship revealed; the importance of time and dedication to each object celebrated. In addition to the peepshow, pieces of furniture and lighting from Apparatus dot the space.– Olly Mason

At 124 West 30th Street, Floor 4, New York, NY 10001, United States

Soothe your senses with Suchi Reddy's new wallpaper

For prolific New York-based architect and designer Suchi Reddy, light is much more than a visual effect – It has the power to influence one’s mood and wellbeing. A lot of her work lately has dealt with the emerging field of neuroaesthetics—a science exploring the biological and psychological effects of aesthetic experience. Commemorated with an intimate dinner at Manhattan restaurant Bridges, her new Luminous wallcovering collection for Calico harnesses colour, pattern and various image-making techniques to help shape perception – how a space will look, but also feel. Catch the installation from 15-19 May. at Calico's Tribeca showroom.–Adrian Madlener

57 Lispenard St, New York, NY 10013

Watering Cans, and Other Rolled Sheet Metal Accessories, at Maharam

Students from the Leon Ransmeier-led industrial design program at Cranbrook Academy of Art spent a week in Guadalajara last October working with artist/designer Fabien Cappello to develop a series of watering cans produced by local craftspeople specialised in the hojalata technique: turning locally sourced tin into ornamental objects. Rolling and embossing metal almost like paper, they created experimental yet products. Presented at American heritage textile brand Maharam’s Manhattan showroom, as part of the Objetos de Hojalata para el Hogar exhibit, the dozen or so concept designs are as varied in shape as they are functionally configured. Writer: Adrian Madlener.

Maharam, 251 Park Ave S #15, New York, NY 10010

A Look Back at Tom Sachs' DIY Designs at Salon 94 Gallery

Collectible design gallery Salon94 has allocated its entire Upper East Side townhouse to a full retrospective of New York creative maverick Tom Sachs, known for cleverly combining salvaged items found on the street into prankish yet coherent furnishings. Works on view include Crate Chair No. 6, created with wooden barriers used by New York energy company CoEd. The Furniture exhibit demonstrates how through his ‘bricolage’ D.I.Y. approach, the polymath deftly blends high and low materials (ceramics and natural stone with styrofoam and duct tape) in bold ‘democratic’ concept designs. In doing so, he positions himself in a line of seminal ‘problem solvers': Frank Gehry, the Eameses, Noguchi, Brancusi, and so on. As of 15 May, the exhibition is also featuring wares by Satan Ceramics, a collective Sachs has been a part of for over a decade. Writer: Adrian Madlener.

Salon 94, 3 East 89th Street, New York, NY 10128

Gantri Wireless Launch Party at TIWA Select Gallery

Alex Tieghi-Walker’s Tribeca loft gallery-residence TIWA Select has a packed schedule this week, kicking off with the launch of California brand Gantri’s first collection of wireless lighting. Designed in collaboration with San Francisco-based design studio Ammunition, the series of geometric lamps fall into three styles – Drift, Pier, and Eave – and draw their colours such as Spruce, Magnolia, and Lichen from the West Coast landscape. These compact cordless lights were scattered through the space, tucked into nooks on the bookshelves, placed on side tables and desks, and positioned on the busy bar as if they belonged there all along. Writer: Dan Howarth

TIWA Select, 86 Walker Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10013

A night (and some lights) in Venice

The design crowd at large packed into In Common With’s Tribeca gallery, Quarters, Thursday for a celebration of the lighting brand’s debut foray into glassware. The Lido Series, produced in partnership with Venetian glass atelier Laguna~B and made in Murano, comprises four lighting designs and two drinking glasses embellished with colorful floral patterns. These were echoed in the impressive arrangements throughout the multi-room gallery, where the martinis (a common recurrence this week) flowed well beyond the scheduled closing time—a sign of a good party! – Dan Howarth

383 Broadway, Floor 2, New York NY 10013

Devin Wilde and Astraeus Clarke team up for the season's 'it' fixture

There have been several fortuitous designer collaborations launched at this year’s New York Design Week as independent studios and talents come together to complement each other’s expertise and intuition. One of the highlights of the week is a new lighting collection from ceramic artist Devin Wilde and design studio Astraeus Clarke. Friday night, the creative collaborators revealed Staccato, a new series of modular light fixtures that capture the allure of a sun-washed Italian villa, with a distinctly contemporary edge. Each fixture features Astraeus Clarke’s signature star-shaped shade holders topped with Wilde’s conical ceramic shades. It’s the result of a shared aesthetic and a real friendship. ‘We both came to the table with ideas, sketches and instincts, but it quickly became clear that there was a shared sensibility, we weren’t forcing anything,’ says Jacob Starley of Astraeus Clarke. ‘The forms just made sense together.’ Equally logical? The Italian-style amaro that flowed during the launch party last night. – Adrian Madlener

Getting crafty with Sarah Sherman Samuel at colony

To launch her first monograph, The Intersection of Art and Design, celebrated Michigan-based designer Sarah Sherman Samuel has teamed up with Colony gallery to reveal her new exhibition, Weight & Wonder. On view are Samuel's signature furnishings like the Fort Credenza and Ledge Dining Table. She's also launching a new group of stone tables, called Pop Pop, specially for the show. Guests at the opening were treated to chocolates from Detroit and flavoured tequilas. And as an added fun activity bonus, they were also invited to paint Samuel-designed tiles and take them home. - Adrian Madlener

196 West Broadway New York, NY 10013

Inside our epic bash with Hello Human and Public Records

Wallpaper* editors know a thing or two about design. We also know how to have a good time. Friday night, Wallpaper* teamed up with communications and storytelling platform Hello Human, and the Brooklyn-based cultural space, Public Records, to throw what was arguably the party of New York Design Week.

As soon as the sun went down, guests from across New York’s creative scene flocked to Brooklyn’s industrial Gowanus neighbourhood to celebrate in style. At Public Records guests queued to mingle over mezcal cocktails; mill around the venue’s tree-shaded courtyard, and, of course, dance the night away to one of the best sound systems in town.

Read the recap (and see who turned up!) here.

Furniture finds its foodie side at USM

At USM Modular Furniture’s SoHo flagship, the Swiss brand’s signature storage system provided multiple stages for culinary experiments by Pinch Food Design. A host of inventive drinks and snacks were presented on, around and inside the minimalist steel structures, inviting guests to help themselves to the feast. Wine-filled glass amphorae were suspended from towering frames, while desserts such as red velvet monkey-shaped cookies, chocolate eclairs and passionfruit-glazed churros were hidden inside drawers. In the name of journalism, I sampled them all (it was a lot…), and the tastiest were the wafer-thin chips with a ranch coating, yellow carrot and cheese tartlets presented on cross-shaped shelves, and mole-coated polenta churros hooked onto rails. Luckily this week’s step count has been high enough to burn this all off! – Dan Howarth

28-30 Greene St, New York, NY 10013

Take in a sky-high design showing

Eighty floors above Manhattan, Galerie Gabriel is showcasing a collection of 20th-century and contemporary masterworks set against sweeping skyline views. The duplex penthouse in the Sutton Tower has been framed as a collectors’ home by interior designer Julie Hillman, who has assembled a variety of furniture pieces by the likes of Jean Royère, Gio Ponti, Charlotte Perriand, Osvaldo Borsani and many more for the project titled The Cultivated Eye. The items are dispersed through the expansive residence alongside contemporary and custom designs, as well as artwork provided by Creative Art Partners and curated by Paige Israel. Highlights include a bespoke double-sided cream sofa with wooden lion feet that’s positioned in the centre of the vast, triple-aspect living room, and a series of Aboriginal artworks and artefacts sourced from D’Lan Galleries. And don’t miss the powder room for a slightly dizzying experience. – Dan Howarth

Open to the public by appointment until 30 November 2026. 80th Floor, Sutton Tower, 430 E 58th St, New York, NY 10022.

Go on a field trip with BluDot

Tired of the New York-iness of New York Design Week? Head over to Blu Dot's Madison Avenue flagship to take a trip up north, more specifically to Minneapolis, Minnesota. For its 'Field Trip' presentation, Blu Dot tapped Twin Cities area photographer Galen Fletcher (a protege of fellow Minnesotan Alec Soth) to photograph the brand's Field lounge chair in recognisable places throughout the region, from the frozen Minnehaha Falls to the famed First Avenue music venue. As a Minnesotan, this one hits particularly close to home. – Anna Fixsen

Blu Dot, 79 Madison Avenue, New York, NY

Channel your inner child with Soft Geometry's new lighting

This Design Week, husband-and-wife duo Soft Geometry introduced a series of lighting that explored childhood memories growing up in India during the 1990s. The group, presented in an exhibition called 'Flowers in Our Hair,' brought together two expressive sconces – one flower-shaped, the other evoking long plaited hair styles – to explore the aesthetic links between how we decorate our spaces and our bodies. – Olly Mason

Kartik Research, 61 Orchard St.New York, NY 10002

A final call for ICFF

It's the final day of ICFF, one of America's largest furniture shows. It's also the final time you'll catch the fair before it moves to a new slot on the design calendar, November 2027. Wallpaper* editors scoured the fair floor during the preview day on Sunday, but there is still time to catch all of this year's offerings.

Out of the thousands of furnishings, light fixtures and accessories on view, lighting stood out. We particularly loved the work of Brooklyn-based designer Anna Dawson, who introduced a series of glass lights that draw on her childhood memories of ribbon dancing with her grandmother. Dawson uses kiln-formed glass, in glowing reds, oranges and golds, to create fluid shapes that evoke movement and warmth.

W*400 designer Virginia Sin also had a strong booth, the highlight of which was her new Field lighting collection. The clever system, which arrives flat-packed, features a ceramic backplate and six different shade options made from materials including moiré, parchment and paper-thin cork. Each shade folds, origami-like, over the bulb, creating diffuse, atmospheric lighting for virtually any environment. Talk about a bright idea! -Anna Fixsen & Olly Mason

Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, 655 W 34th St, New York, NY 10001

Warp & Weft marks its 25th anniversary with the debut of its Crossroads collection at ICFF

Tasteful nudes at the Ace Hotel Brooklyn

If you've got it, flaunt it. At the Ace Hotel Brooklyn this Design Week, that specifically meant life-drawing skills. Monday evening, the perennially-hip hospitality outpost teamed up with the design Substack For Scale (see their collab with Bankston below) for an evening of good ol' fashioned figure drawing. During two evening sessions during the event, Furniture With Life, burgeoning artists, charcoal pencils and drawing pads in hand, gathered around a styled tableau, complete with furnishings and lighting from Rarify, Beni Rugs and Santa & Cole – plus an in-the-buff model, who was none other than writer and design historian Michael Diaz-Griffith. Talk about naked ambition! – Anna Fixsen

252 Schermerhorn St., Brooklyn, NY 11217

DESIGN HOTELS x LUMENS

‘The New York Edit’ - a Design Hotels and Lumens presentation, curated by Simple Flair, at 11 Howard
Featuring design from:
In Common With
Rosie Li
Roll & Hill with Christopher Merchant
SIN
Forma Rosa Studio
PELLE
Caroline Kable
Episode
Umberto Bellardi Ricci
Rafael Prieto
Sunfish

Writer Olly Mason

At 11 Howard St, New York, NY 10013, United States

A star-studded evening with the Cooper Hewitt

The National Design Awards mark one of the most prestigious honours in American design. Tuesday evening, in a glittering ceremony in Lower Manhattan, the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum honoured the ten 2026 recipients, plus a handful of other luminaries. High-profile attendees included Martha Stewart, Thom Browne, Maya Lin, Jenna Lyons and Tory Burch, who all received special recognition at the awards banquet. The night culminated with a special dessert performance from artist Laila Gohar, complete with a marching band and cakes in the shape of objects from the Cooper Hewitt’s permanent collection. Read our full report on the evening here. – Anna Fixsen

Bright ideas from Lucifer Lighting

Here’s a secret: one of the best art galleries in New York isn’t in a Chelsea Gallery, but in a Tribeca lighting showroom. Lucifer Lighting, the family-run, San Antonio, Texas-based company that’s been a go-to source for architects and designers for 45 years, has recently partnered with Pace gallery to install a joyful survey of works from the late American pop artist Robert Indiana. Yes, you’ll spy a mini Love sculpture, but also, in honour of America’s 250th birthday, a variety of patriotic prints – all beautifully lit, of course. To celebrate, Lucifer hosted a panel discussion moderated by journalist Ian Volner that included architect Marlon Blackwell, Lucifer founder Gilbert Mathews, Robert Indiana Legacy Initiative director Emeline Salama-Caro and Grammy Award-winner Randall Poster on a discussion surrounding the meaning of ‘made in America.’ This lighting company is clearly serving up bright ideas in more ways than one. – Anna Fixsen

11 Jay Street, New York, NY 10013

This spring marks the return of London Craft Week (11-17 May 2026), taking over the city to celebrate makers and their diverse work. In an age of digital and AI overload, the need for the human touch feels greater than ever. Across exhibitions and workshops, visitors can closely engage with handmade pieces spanning Indonesian batik to Scottish silversmithing.

2026 marks London Craft Week’s 12th edition. That this year, big names like Sotheby’s have got in on the action – sponsoring the event and hosting auctions and displays – points to a broader shift in which previously overlooked craft works are being reframed and valued as high art and design worthy of collecting.

There continues to be a focus on keeping heritage crafts alive at London Craft Week, as well as empowering the next generation of makers to thrive, taking the many disciplines of craft practice in new directions.

Among the myriad events around the capital, here are some highlights.

London Craft Week 2026

‘The Invisible Made Visible’ by Blackdot

Blackdot, a gallery founded by Sara Chyan centred on contemporary art, design and jewellery, brings together young and emerging makers for a presentation exploring the ‘hidden layers’ of craft. From subtle gestures to personal stories, the works on show invite viewers to reflect on the meaning and methods behind crafted works that might not immediately be obvious.

Among the talent present, Cindy Liu makes delightfully delicate silver fork pendants and necklaces that transform into instruments of sculpture, presented on a 3D-printed resin frame. Each silver piece in Liu’s ‘Metal Veil’ series starts with a fragment of antique lace, sourced from Malta and Belgium, sealed in molten wax, and hand-carved into cutlery forms.

Shivangi Vasudeva’s wooden furniture, meanwhile, emerges from conversations with Naga communities in northeast India, where objects are communal, and rooted in land and folklore. Her seats are upholstered in textiles developed by Jaipur-based upcycling studio Iro Iro, naturally dyed and handwoven from the fashion industry’s offcuts and deadstock.

14-15-16 May
Blackdot Gallery, 9 Caledonian Rd, N1 9DX

Them Outdoors x Garden Museum

The Garden Museum in Lambeth hosts a special exhibition in its courtyard garden focused on the role that sculpture can play in gardens and outdoor spaces. Presented by Them Outdoors, an online gallery and platform dedicated to design-led garden furniture and decor, the exhibition features pieces that emerge from craft practices including metalwork, lost-wax casting and ceramics.

There are waxed steel birdhouses from furniture designer Jaclyn Pappalardo, made using an innovative method of inflating metal using water and resulting in organic shapes, and hand-carved solid oak spheres from sculptor Matt Kendall, using storm-fallen wood. From artist Julia Clarke, there is a playful ceramic sculpture with white ‘ears’, and from furniture designer Tom Hatfield, an iroko wood bench with integrated terracotta planter.

11-17 May
Garden Museum, 5 Lambeth Palace Rd, SE1 7LB

‘Seven Crafted Stories’ by Emma Louise Payne

Last year, British ceramicist Emma Louise Payne opened an atelier-meets-exhibition-space in a west London townhouse: Atelier Seventy-Six. This May, she opens it again to the public for her latest curated exhibition of craft, ‘Seven Crafted Stories’, showcasing seven makers spanning the disciplines of leather working, glassmaking, woodworking, weaving, quilting, silversmithing and ceramics.

Payne gives each of the artisans a dedicated room in the (still lived-in) home, meaning visitors get an immersive experience of the varied crafts across seven domestic spaces. Open for the entirety of London Craft Week, ‘Seven Crafted Stories’ will give a particular focus to one maker per day, with live demonstrations and intimate classes.

Makers include Glasgow-based silversmith Monica Findlay, whose boxes and jewellery are made with methods and motifs rooted in Scottish landscapes and history, and glass designer Jochen Holz, who crafts delightfully characterful homeware and decorative objects from colourful glass.

11-17 May
Atelier Seventy-Six, 76 Sussex Square, W2 2SS

‘Batik: Recolouring Tradition’ by Lisa King

British textile artist and designer Lisa King interrogates the traditions, stories and potential of batik, a dyeing technique using wax resist that results in colourful, patterned fabrics. King was inspired by her late mother Farida King’s rich textile archive and Indonesian heritage, mining these personal and cross-cultural references to explore batik for the contemporary moment.

Indonesia is an important centre of the craft, and the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia has partnered on this London event to bring batik into the spotlight. King worked with artisan communities in Indonesia, colour specialists in the UK, and experts in Southeast Asian textiles to develop a body of work that positions batik as a living, evolving craft bridging heritage and innovation.

12-17 May
Gallery 8, 8 Duke Street, St James's, SW1Y 6BN

‘Our Common Ground’ by Slow Ways Studio

The founders of Slow Ways Studio – an initiative documenting heritage crafts in the UK – undertook a 1,300-mile walk across the length of Britain to meet makers, finding out about their endangered practices and mapping their locations. From Land’s End to John O’Groats, navigating footpaths and bridleways, the adventure took three months. Now that project, and the work of those makers, will be displayed at a fascinating exhibition.

From tanning, turning and weaving to printing, engraving and stitching, the crafts in ‘Our Common Ground’ paint a picture of handmade creativity across Britain today, which faces an increasingly fragile future, and the deep, often historical relationship between making and place.

Makers include The Marchmont Workshop, which produces rush-seated chairs in the Scottish Borders, and Jessica Watson Brown, who runs a tannery in an old stone barn in Dartmoor, teaching workshops in tanning and ancestral skills.

5-30 May
art'otel London Hoxton, 1–3 Rivington St, EC2A 3DT

For full listings and details, see londoncraftweek.com

If you thought the month of May was just for the Met Gala, your mom, and bad Justin Timberlake memes, you’ve got another thing coming: May marks the biggest city-wide celebration of design in North America via the annual festival NYCxDesign. During this week-long jubilee, officially slated for 14-20 May, designers, makers and manufacturers descend upon the Big Apple to scope out major launches at ICFF, America’s leading commercial furniture trade fair; absorb fresh ideas at showcases like Afternoon Light; and, of course, party the night away at soirées thrown by showrooms and studios across the city.

Because New York Design Week is a multi-borough affair and also bumps up against New York Art Week, it can be tricky to determine what might be worth a look. To make your life easier, we’ve identified some of the top things to do and see during New York Design Week. Here’s what’s on our radar this year.

FAIRS

Frieze New York
WHAT: The design world isn’t the only one descending on the Big Apple this time of year; one of North America’s largest art fairs, Frieze New York, will also be taking place concurrently. If you (or your client) need an excuse to build an art collection, be sure to pop by the Shed to scope out offerings from leading galleries like Gagosian, David Zwirner, Houser & Wirth and many more.
WHEN: 13-17 May 2026
WHERE: 545 West 30th Street, New York, NY 10001

TEFAF New York
WHAT: The European Fine Art Foundation (TEFAF) is an annual spring show inside the vacuous Park Avenue Armory dedicated to fine art, antiques and collectible design from top galleries around the globe. Expect 20th-century treasures from masters like Jean Prouvé, Charlotte Perriand, and Pierre Paulin, alongside hot contemporary names like Harry Nuriev, Faye Toogood and Misha Kahn.
WHEN: 15-19 May 2026
WHERE: 643 Park Ave, New York, NY 10065

Afternoon Light
WHAT: If independent, emerging design is more your speed, pop by WSA in Lower Manhattan for Afternoon Light. Now in its sophomore year, the design showcase has become a go-to for design heavy-hitters (think USM and Carl Hansen & Søn) and in-the-know names like Sam Klemick (who is teaming up with fellow Angeleno RAD Furniture on a new collab) Matthew McCormick, Mary Ratcliffe Studio and more.
WHEN: 16-19 May 2026
WHERE: WSA, 161 Water Street, New York, NY 10038

ICFF
WHAT: Each year, more than 400 vendors and 13,000 design professionals head to Manhattan’s west side for North America’s biggest contemporary furniture, ICFF. Come for launches from American and international exhibitors alike; stay for a series of talks and lectures by leading figures in the design industry. Not to miss: Wanted, a highly curated subsection of the fair – 20,000 sq ft, to be exact, devoted to avant-garde and emerging voices.
WHEN: 17-19 May 2026
WHERE: Javits Center, 429 11th Ave, New York, NY 10001

GALLERIES

DUDD LIGHT at the Future Perfect
WHAT: Looking for some levity amid all the serious design names? Be sure to swing by the Future Perfect’s townhouse for JONALDDUDD’s annual showcase. This year, the ‘platform for dissenting voices’ is showcasing 120 night lights designed by Chris Wolston, Lindsey Adelman and Bethan Laura Wood and more – designers who clearly aren’t afraid to have some fun after dark.
WHEN: 12 May to 26 June 2026
WHERE: 8 St Lukes Pl, New York, NY 10014

Sarah Sherman Samuel at Colony
WHAT: Sarah Sherman Samuel is one of the biggest names in North American design, yet she’s only just launching her first-ever book. Come celebrate her new tome and her latest body of work, Weight and Wonder, at Colony.
WHEN: From 14 May 2026
WHERE: 196 West Broadway New York, NY 10013

Ana Kraš at Emma Scully Gallery
WHAT: Svila means ‘silk’ in designer Ana Kraš’s native Serbian and is the subject of her latest design investigations, now on view at Emma Scully. Visitors will be impressed with how the designer uses silk alongside materials like glass and timber to create luminous ‘panel’ lamps and ethereal tables.
WHEN: Through 13 June 2026
WHERE: 16 E 79th St #21, New York, NY 10075

Fancy & Flourish at Jacqueline Sullivan Gallery
WHAT: Iggy Azalea and Charli XCX weren’t the only fancy ones: early 19th-century American furniture was too. This delightful new show at Jacqueline Sullivan delves into the so-called ‘fancy’ style that swept North American design some 250 years ago, from elaborately stenciled chairs to agateware pottery. Come for the antiques, stay for the whimsical contemporary interpretations by Katie Stout, Gordon Moore, Isabel Rower and Sharktooth.
WHEN: Through 20 June 2026
WHERE: 52 Walker Street 4th Floor, New York, NY 10013

Roberto Lugo in Madison Square Park
WHAT: On the final day of Design Week Philadelphia-based potter and artist Roberto Lugo will bring his larger-than-life artworks to Madison Square Park for all to enjoy. ‘Alfarero del Barrio’, Spanish for ‘village potter’, is an all-out celebration of Puerto Rican culture and heritage via a gigantic, 20ft-tall urn and a 15ft-tall fire hydrant, decorated with images of Puerto Rican luminaries and graffiti.
WHEN: 20 May – 6 December 2026
WHERE: Madison Square Park

SHOWROOMS

Soft-Geometry at Kartik Research
WHAT: Los Angeles-based design studio Soft-Geometry takes a trip down memory lane via two new collections presented at the clothing store Kartik Research. On display will be a new version of their signature Long-Haired Sconces (inspired by flowing plaits) as well as a Flower sconces that recall the designers’ childhoods growing up in 1990s-era India
WHEN: 13-19 May 2026
WHERE: 61 Orchard St, New York, NY 10002

Christopher Merchant and Kawabi at Assembly Line Annex
WHAT: Sometimes the best collaborations are the most obvious. Take the recent pairing of Brooklyn-based maker Christopher Merchant and Kawabi, helmed by life partners Aaron and Irisa Na-Chan Kawabi. The studios were neighbours, but had never thought to collaborate before. The result is Amica, a new lighting collection that unfolded like a letter between pen pals. Check it out at Assembly Line’s Tribeca outpost.
WHEN: 14 May to 16 July 2026
WHERE: 66 W Broadway, Unit 402, New York, NY 10007

Lawson Fenning Bosque Collection
WHAT: For a quarter century, Lawson Fenning has been the definition of California-cool furniture. Now, with a new Manhattan showroom designed by Josh Greene, they’re ready to celebrate their 25th year in business via a new collection. Pop by the space to check out the new line, called Bosque, presented alongside new lighting from Ceramicah and and ceramics by Victoria Morris.
WHEN: Open Monday-Friday, 10am-6pm
WHERE: 417 Lafayette St, Floor 5, New York, NY 10003

For his new exhibition at Friedman Benda (until 24 July 2026), Dutch designer Joris Laarman is offering two radical bodies of work that he cooked up in his laboratory in Amsterdam – a former munitions factory on the leafy ex-military peninsula of Zaandam, where he moved with his family three years ago.

His boulder-like 'Symbio' benches are 3D-printed in recycled and carbon-capturing concrete, with recessed patterns embedded with a bio-active substrate that supports the growth of mosses and lichens. These, in turn, will provide habitats for insects, attracting bird life to a garden. Meanwhile, his 'Ply Loop' series of furniture swaps the toxic glues typically used in engineered wood with a new 100 per cent biodegradable resin, while pushing the form and aesthetic possibilities of plywood to the limits.

Joris Laarman: designing for humans and nature

'Symbio' gives a nod to German eco-philosopher Glenn Albrecht’s notion of the Symbiocene – an imagined age after the Anthropocene, in which humans and nature coexist in a state of reciprocity.

‘It’s the only way forward,’ says Laarman. But aesthetics play a vital role in making the case to the consumer, he adds. ‘If you want to compete with all the fancy colours and material technologies from the industrial era, you have to show the expressive possibilities of bio alternatives and create desire so that, when faced with a choice, people choose the regenerative option.’

This, he does in spades. Laarman’s benches are a poetic ode to a symbiotic future, their seemingly primordial forms bearing a reaction/diffusion pattern first studied by Alan Turing that occurs in nature from the interaction of two chemicals: one that is active and the other inhibiting. These patterns – which appear on fish, zebras, leopards and many plants – encapsulate the meeting of nature and technology in Laarman’s work.

His 'Ply Loop' series is much more complex in form, featuring improbable, computer-generated curves made possible in real life thanks to his use of tiny, laser-cut strips of plywood and a bio-based resin from Plantics, an Arnhem-based company where the designer is a partner. It is a thermoset resin, meaning it doesn’t dry out while Laarman and his team of craftspeople assemble each strip by hand – an insane jigsaw puzzle that takes many hours to complete. 'The resin is like the syrup in [staple Dutch treat] stroopwafel,’ he says of the material, made with waste from the sugar beet industry. It can be separated from the timber and reused at the end of the furniture’s lifespan.

Designing with science

Both series involved many years of research and collaboration with scientists and material innovation companies, with Laarman seeing them as a proof of concept for larger pieces in future. 'The gallery is the only platform that enables us to really invest in research and experimentation,’ he says. 'Showing with [Friedman Benda] is the earliest stepping stone to getting these ideas out into the world.

One wall of the gallery will come to life with an animated projection of how Symbio could be applied to building façades, something Laarman is already exploring. He is particularly excited by the carbon-capturing concrete developments by companies such as Paebbl and Carstorcon.

‘For a long time, we’ve been talking about how we should build less, to protect the environment, but these could offer a 180-degree turn around,’ Laarman explains. ‘We could actually lock away more carbon than we emit as we build.’ If adopted at scale, such innovations would enable our cities to become carbon sinks. In the meantime, Laarman’s collections at Friedman Benda, which marry craft and computation to highly expressive effect, offer a tantalising glimpse of a regenerative future – one that we should all be striving to bring to fruition.

‘Joris Laarman: Symbio’, is at Friedman Benda in New York until 24 July 2026

‘An Apparent Simplicity’: this title speaks volumes about the life and work of French designer Pauline Deltour. Brought together at MADD (Musée Des Arts Décoratifs Et Du Design) in Bordeaux, France, her body of work embodies not only her minimal yet playful style, but also her elegance and coherence. One hundred and eighty designs (including prototypes) over ten years. This number speaks to the enthusiasm and vitality that infused her short life (1983-2021).

Her path, through ENSAD (École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs) in Paris, and then Konstantin Grcic’s studio in Munich, hints at her design approach, which balances freedom à la française with German rigour and order.

‘Pauline Deltour: An Apparent Simplicity’ at MADD, Bordeaux

‘Pauline Deltour: An Apparent Simplicity’ (until 21 September 2026) also celebrates the partial reopening of MADD. After three years of restoration and renovation, under the direction of Antoine Dufour Architectes, two buildings classified as ‘Monuments Historiques’ by the Ministry of Culture are united: a late-18th-century townhouse and a late-19th-century municipal prison. The latter houses Deltour’s show.

Here, two former courtyards, where prisoners were allowed to hang out, are transformed into spacious galleries. To contrast with the original limestone walls, the ceilings are covered with metal and glass, letting in sunlight. Around the periphery of the former courtyards sit several small cells.

This is the perfect layout to segment Deltour’s vastly varied body of work: from metal to porcelain, textiles to sweets, tableware to tech, noble materials to natural supplies, and craft to industrial production. The scenography conceived by Konstantin Grcic and Caroline Perret (CPWH) injects energy into the show. All over the exhibition, huge photographs, still-lifes, and portraits of Deltour herself, in dynamic composition, lean against the stone wall.

The first courtyard is occupied by a long, narrow table and functional small objects, as if a vessel with a huge family of Deltour’s designs was setting sail. Although there is no viewing order, visitors might step into the left cell first. The space is dedicated to the ‘A Tempo’ for Alessi, a collection of stainless-wire baskets and a dish drainer, the mass-produced project that launched her career. The products developed from a basket from her ENSAD degree project, inspired by the ocean’s undulation and a coil seen at a factory.

Adjacent is a reconstitution of Pauline Deltour Design Office, an invitation to take a peek behind the scenes of her research and process. Here, a series of sketch-filled notebooks reveals her way of working, while books and personal objects suggest her inspirations. 'We wanted to highlight, above all, her strong, clearly defined style, a method, and a way of approaching projects,' says Etienne Tornier, the museum’s decorative art and design curator.

The invisible, practical details of Pauline Deltour's designs

Moving through the exhibition, visitors can experience the pieces of the ‘Bonhomie’ collection, a tea service created in collaboration with long-established Japanese porcelain maker Arita. The genius of this design is that the base of the teacup is heavy and thick for stability, while the sides remain delicate; Deltour was particular about invisible but practical details.

The next two cells demonstrate Deltour’s capacity to conjure with graphic lines. Tornier analyses her geometric objects for Puiforcat: 'For her, the line sometimes serves as a structuring element,' he says. While straight lines make a three-dimensional stripe for Cire Trudon, curved lines create an innovative system for JEM, the French ethical fine jewellery brand: as part of its ‘Étreintes’ collection, a half ring or a half bracelet of 18ct gold interlocks, becoming a complete piece. This system offers various design options, plain or hybrid: both in the same material, or mixing yellow and white gold, or mother-of-pearl inlay and set diamonds, among other examples.

The second courtyard is dedicated to Deltour's furniture for several brands (including COR, Offecct, and Hem). If she has often been described as 'a shooting star in contemporary design', these pieces of furniture are the perfect metaphor of her constellation.

Visitors are free to try out the seating. Among the designs, the most popular is the garden chair from the ‘Patio’ collection for Tolix, which is also placed outside within the MADD site.

Six cells surrounding this furniture gallery gather designs that include bags for Vitra and Fabernovel, clothing for Sogo & Seibu, a connected bicycle for La Poste, rugs for Hem and even interiors for Moustache and Hôtel Les Touquets. Altogether, they suggest Deltour’s perspective on the body and movement, and her bold sense of colour. 'It is interesting to see how colour influences form and the perception of form,' Tornier adds.

A monograph of the same title as the exhibition has been published for the occasion. More than a catalogue, it is a rich collection of memoirs and photographs, of products but also personal archives. The book is intimate and deeply moving, not only on account of a life cut short, but of the nature of Deltour’s work and personality.

‘Pauline Deltour: An Apparent Simplicity’ is on view through 21 September 2026 at MADD, Bordeaux

Milan Design Week exists on its own timeline. Days start late, exhibitions flow into cocktails, which flow into dinners and parties. You often leave for the day and come back quite close to the following morning, after a dozen or more hours looking at engaging installations, new furniture and objects, and immersed in conversation with people you often only see on this occasion.

For years, the after-dark events have been as important as a day at the fair, for the encounters with other creatives, conversations peppered with laughter, banter and cocktails (so many red drinks - from Aperol spritzes by the pint, to negronis as strong as they get).

And despite a week of late nights, we board our flight still annoyed that we actually have to leave Milan and miss the dinners and lunches that continue well into the weekend.

And for those who went to all the events and still have energy left to party? Well, there is Bar Basso of course, which never fails to gather and serve people well into the night. Cheers to that!

Here we bring you the best of some of our favourite parties from Milan Design Week 2026.

Milan Design Week 2026: the parties

Late Night Dance Party by Volker Haug Studio and The Future Perfect

Honey Dijon was on the decks at the Late Night Dance Party by Volker Haug Studio and The Future Perfect, hosted at Detune in Milano. With Aperol Spritzes by the pint, the party was both a wild dancing gathering and the debut of the studio's first portable lamp launching later in 2026.

Salone del Mobile dinner at Teatro La Scala

Salone del Mobile treated us to a dinner on the Stage at Teatro La Scala. We dined and chatted among sets and lighting equipment, and the atmosphere was magical. In her welcome speech, Salone del Mobile President Maria Porro (who had a theatre background before moving to furniture) invited us to look up, to the rigging loft: ‘it’s a fantastic work of architecture, design, craftsmanship and respect for tradition.'

H&M x Kelly Wearstler

The tiramisu at Kelly Wearstler and H&M Home's cocktail dînatoire matched the collection, featuring the silhouettes of the collection's vases

Knoll and Dozie Kanu at Bar Nico

Knoll and Dozie Kanu (pictured) took over Bar Nico for a night to celebrate the launch of their collaboration, a party which went from aperitivo to late night drinks and dancing with absolute ease

Wallpaper* x Rosewood

Wallpaper* and Rosewood invited guests to relaxed aperitivo illuminated by Andrea Branzi's handcrafted lamps in Japanese rice paper, casting a warm, diffused glow over guests.

Guests (including long-term Wallpaper* friend Ron Arad, pictured above) moved through the installation 'Objects That Speak, a conversation continued with Andrea Branzi'

P:S x Apartamento x Uniqlo

Creative agency P:S, in collaboration with Apartamento and Uniqlo, hosted an intimate dinner party at Michela Pelizzari’s home to celebrate the end of Salone. The informal gathering combined Italian food with Spanish drinks, reflecting the collaboration between P:S (Italy) and Apartamento (Spain).

The central element of the party was the 'closet Karaoke' (a nod to Uniqlo's Japanese origins), set up in Pelizzari’s own closet. Guests, including Matter and Shape artistic director Dan Thawley, Alcova co-founder Valentina Ciuffi and Eleni Petaloti, one half of design studio Objects of Common Interest.

RH

RH's grand opening in Milan was a star-studded soirée with celebrity guests including Margot Robbie and Zoe Saldana (pictured) and music by French DJ Huel

Marni X Wallpaper* at Pasticceria Cucchi

A cocktail with a serious design pedigree, the Marni x Wallpaper* party at Pasticceria Cucchi celebrated the fashion brand's takeover of the popular Milanese cafe. It was the perfect spring night topped with Negronis and colourful pastries.

Camron dinner

Global communications agency Camron's annual Milan Dinner took place at Dimorestudio-designed Trattoria del Ciumbia in collaboration with Lumens. The evening kicked-off the design week with dinner, dancing and disco, with guests including Faye Toogood, Charlene Prempeh (pictured above alongside Camron's Sujata Burman), Marc Benda, Lee Broom and Aric Chen.

Molteni

Molteni & C's annual Salone del Mobile dinner took place in the immersive botanical installation Elisa Ossino had created to showcase the company's new outdoor collections. The evening also doubled as Vincent Van Duysen's birthday, and a celebration of a decade as creative director

The Salone del Mobile may be vital to the commercial ecosystem of the design industry, but it is not an especially sustainable event. According to the report Milan Design (Eco) System, published annually by the Politecnico di Milano, the furniture fair produces 13.12 kilograms of waste for every square metre of exhibition space at the Rho Fiera, where it is held. It’s a staggering figure, not only for its environmental toll, but also because much of it could be avoided simply through smarter design.

It’s a problem that Enrico Magistro, founder of QuadroDesign – the Italian brand known for its pared-back stainless-steel taps – sought to address when he invited the Milan-based designer Giacomo Moor to design the company’s booth for the 2026 edition. Magistro had seen Moor’s series of easy-to-assemble wooden furniture developed for the LiveinSlums initiative in Nairobi and was struck by its potential to evolve into an architectural system.

From Salone del Mobile booth to social-impact structure in Zambia

'He wanted to create a pavilion that would have a second life once the fair was over,' explains Moor, who has devised a lightweight modular structure that will be dismantled and shipped to Masala, Zambia, where it will be installed by the social-impact company Koalisation as a public restroom at a local charcoal market. 'It’s a market that is predominantly run by women, who often bring their children to the workplace,' Moor says of the open-air bazaar, which previously lacked adequate sanitation facilities. 'So it will be equipped with showers and changing areas for children.'

Known for bridging design, architecture and carpentry through his multidisciplinary Milan studio, Moor approached the challenge with a system-oriented eye. He developed a modular timber grid based around a custom aluminium four-way connector that allows the structure to be dismantled, rebuilt and reconfigured for different uses. 'We wanted to create a truly replicable system, even in sociocultural contexts different from ours, where they might not have the same machinery,' he explains. Standardised wooden elements slot into the joint to create a lightweight structural lattice that can expand horizontally and vertically, while panels – used as partitions, shelving or roofing – can be added or removed depending on the context.

'The booth at the fair will be very ethereal, very light, with the addition of coloured panels that provide a graphic explanation of the project,' Moor told us of the temporary pavilion, which presents a teaser selection from his Thumb collection – originally conceived for the kitchen and now evolving into the bathroom – alongside the Hum range designed by Philippe Malouin, and a set of new stools by NM3.

'In Africa, on the other hand, the architecture becomes more closed and functional, because it also needs to allow users moments of privacy.' The real challenge, he adds, was ensuring that neither purpose compromised the other. 'The most complicated part was designing something capable of accomplishing two tasks that are so diametrically opposed – a commercial exhibition space on one hand, and a fully functioning restroom on the other – without sacrificing either.'

Salone del Mobile, International Bathroom Exhibition | Hall 06 | Stand B41

Large-scale experiential installations have become a mainstay at Salone del Mobile and Milan Design Week; they can help artists, designers and curators communicate ideas that leave an indelible mark on viewers and participants. Often, they are visually arresting spectacles, but messaging can easily lose potency as people scramble to capture photos rather than question the meaning of what they are seeing. AI technology features prominently at this year’s fair, as do references to nature and the environment. Here are just a few of the impactful and effective experiential presentations from Milan Design Week 2026 – see our guide to what’s on and our live blog from editors on the ground for more.

‘Anima Mundi. A Visionary Impulse’ by Dot Dot Dot and Geely

At the Fondazione Istituto dei Ciechi (Blind Institute), transdisciplinary studio Dot Dot Dot and car-maker Geely are making people stop and listen. In a neoclassical room with a self-playing organ, the sound is triggered by the number of people in the space. Semi-transparent veils produce imagery fed by data-gathering from the room using AI. The floor-to-ceiling veils are angled to create a perspective view with the organ as a focal point. ‘We wanted to question what renaissance means now, today humans are no longer at the centre, but part of an ecosystem where we need to listen to the other elements, too,’ explains Dot Dot Dot co-founder Laura Dellamotta. The dramatic musical composition is designed by Nicola Ariutti and reinterpreted by an algorithm and played through the 4,000 pipes.

Fondazione Istituto dei Ciechi Via Vivaio 7, Milan

‘Garden of the Hesperides’ by Annabel Karim Kassar

Annabel Karim Kassar recreates the Greek myth of a lost world with fruits of immortality. ‘Garden of the Hesperides’ is aptly sited in a hidden orchard – Orto Botanico di Brera – as part of the wider exhibition, ‘Interni Materiae’. Kassar has translated the latin word materiae to mean origin and concept, creating a sense of wonder through storytelling. The architect encourages visitors to discover the nine nymphs (Hesperides) who protect the fruits of immortality from a serpent. Large-format figurative paintings on Plexiglas are dotted around the garden, while a celestial blue-framed arched walkway guides participants on their path to discovery.

Orto Botanico di Brera, Via Brera 28/via Fiori Oscuri 4, Milan

‘Infinity’ by Marco Nereo Rotelli

This AI-driven installation by Venetian artist Marco Nereo Rotelli transforms Milan’s Cortile della Farmacia into a space for reflection on human values. The immersive, interactive installation uses environmental sensors that respond to visitors' presence, making them participants in the work. You interact with it by choosing a question such as: ‘Would you pay more to save the planet?’ You answer, and a poetic verse by Valerio Magrelli is projected onto one of the screens. Rotelli has collaborated with 2007 Nobel Prize-winning climate scientist Riccardo Valentini, while musician Alessio Bertallot contributes ‘Codice d’Acqua’ (water code), a generative AI soundscape.

Università degli Studi, Via Festa del Perdono 7, Milan

‘The Sound of Premium’ by WOA Studio for Continental

Tyre manufacturer Continental’s installation at Base in the Tortona district highlights the impact of sound pollution. Visitors walk through a space filled with tall columns of varying heights, representing an urban setting; the columns illuminate in time with the music as it builds to a crescendo and quietens back down. Designed by WOA Studio, ‘The Sound of Premium’ also proposes one way to reduce sound pollution: better tyres. Continental’s innovative ‘ContiSilent’ and ‘Silent Pattern’ tyres, which are designed to reduce noise levels, contributing to quieter cities.

Base, Via Bergongnone 34, Milan, base.milano.it

‘Metamorphosis in Motion’ by Lina Ghotmeh

Paris-based architect Lina Ghotmeh has transformed the courtyard of Milan's historic Palazzo Litta into a pink labyrinth. The installation, called ‘Metamorphosis in Motion’ (read our review), creates distinct zones for reflection, conversation, movement, and rest. Scents of cypress, cedar, and olibanum evoke Ghotmeh's Lebanese homeland, while soft seating, a talk space, a bookshop, and a food tasting area invite visitors to linger. Conceived as an antidote to the design fair’s frenetic pace, the work prioritises human connection and participation over spectacle.

Palazzo Litta, 24 Corso Magenta Milan, moscapartners.it/variations-2026

‘Oasis’ by Rick Tegelaar

Another installation offering respite is ‘Oasis’, a solo show by Dutch designer Rick Tegelaar, that provides insight into his process. Botanical artist Pim Schrier has helped Tegelaar create a verdant ‘room’ that instantly calms the senses. You enter the installation through a tunnel made from illuminated, woven plywood screens. This leads to a new lighting collection by Tegelaar called ‘Traces’, featuring pendant and wall lights, also made from plywood, stained in wood oil, bent and suspended into a stingray form. The air is softly, but noticeably perfumed with a scent by SOM Tales of Perfume, while mechanical panels create a gentle breeze around a sanctuary that’s designed for meditation.

Spazio Adatto, Viale Abruzzi 13, Milan

‘Aqua Sanctuary’ by Grohe

Grohe has created an exhibition focused on wellbeing, called ‘Aqua Sanctuary’, which unfolds across three sanctums. The first reimagines what a shower can look like, with light and water working in harmony to highlight a sculptural faucet suspended from the ceiling. In the second sanctum, precious stone and metals are the foundations of the Atrio Private Collection – a Buster + Punch collaboration offering elegant tap fixtures with quartz inserts. In the final sanctum, a bath in Phantom Black with Caesarstone Vanilla Noir details steals the show. This piece can be personalised thanks to its interchangeable inserts.

Teatro Studio Melato, Via Rivoli 6, Milan

When the world's biggest design fair announced Salone Contract 2027 earlier in 2026, the annual Milanese event, long the foremost staple in the global design calendar, showed that it does not rest on its laurels. Under the presidency of Maria Porro, Salone del Mobile is launching a new project focused on contract furniture and interiors – a take that is intended not only to shake up the industry and 'create concrete opportunities' for growth and sustainability, but also to place the focus firmly back on quality in the design and architecture world. From this year's Raritas (dedicated to collectible design) to next year's Contract, the fair is keen to address all scales in the design world's broad spectrum. The ambition is there – our ears have pricked up.

Salone Contract 2027: the global fair’s newest project

Salone Contract 2027’s announcement was arguably received with a mixture of excitement (the project promises a wealth of new opportunities for the design and manufacturing industry, and it's a new area for the fair to address) and questions (what does 'contract' mean? And how does it apply to designers of all scales?). Pioneering architecture studio OMA was revealed as leader of the project's masterplanning and design. At this week's Salone del Mobile 2026 – where Wallpaper* editors are on the ground and keeping a live blog – the architects offered a glimpse of what's to come during the dedicated Salone Contract Forum at Pavilion 14's Drafting Futures Arena.

'This is a very important step for the evolution of Salone,' Porro said at the event. 'The world of furniture is changing a lot, and this is a big opportunity for design. We thought about creating a Contract pavilion, but we soon realised that our usual rules do not apply here. The name of OMA instantly came to mind [for this journey].'

We attended the forum, so you won't have to – and put together a guide that explains all. Scroll down for more.

Who is designing Contract?

OMA and its research arm, AMO, are perfectly placed to take on the challenge of designing Salone Contract 2027, given their track record of acclaimed, high-profile projects, which range from the EU's visual identity and Barcode flag to the Prada catwalks. Always challenging the status quo and offering new takes on the way forward, the Dutch architecture studio is co-defining, together with Salone president Maria Porro, what Contract work means for the industry and what its physical space might look like.

Led by the practice's Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten, Salone Contract 2027 promises to break down the complex and often obscure (to the outsider) work and collaborations within contract projects, showcasing how they can provide space for design to grow bigger and better through such a process.

What is Contract?

At the Salone 2026 forum, David Gianotten and Maria Porro brought up several times how misunderstood the idea of 'contract' can be – and how complex its nature is. So, what is Contract? Gianotten explains the notion and practice of creating through contract work as an ecosystem – an entire environment: 'Contract tries to represent how a project is done as a one-stop shop, and its ecosystem, which is not only about producing furniture or interior, but it is really about the total environment. And in the end, it's even about the reuse and the end of the life cycle [of a project]. So it's not about aesthetics.'

Respectively, the space within Salone that will host this section 'is not a fair, or a show', he says. 'It is more like a stock exchange.' It is also about working with different specialists to move away from the product alone (although product design, of course, remains central), to more of a systems-building, something that thinks about broader lifecycles of projects and a space where maximum innovation can flourish.

What contract is not, Gianotten highlights, is 'just hospitality'. Contract design has a different timeline to single product design, and a very global aspect. Architect and MAXXI director Lorenza Baroncelli, who took part in a panel discussion on the theme, explained that contract may be about scaling up, but 'it is not about missing on quality – it is the future of quality'.

Salone Contract 2027’s physical space

'Creating the pavilion [for Salone Contract 2027] is as important as its content,' Porro stressed at the 2026 Contract Forum. She selected her architects carefully and first engaged with OMA seven months ago to co-define what this new area of the fair might look like.

'Contract is a start situation, not an end situation,' Gianotten says. Following that way of thinking, the Contract space is designed to be open, flexible and collaborative, aiming to create the right environment and ecosystem for value and collaboration.

There is a discreet entrance sequence, an entryway which the architects describe as an 'introduction' to the concept of Contract, familiarising the visitors with what they are about to see, before stepping inside the large exhibition hall. A round area at the centre of the structure will act as a 'forum of exchange', a (literal) circle which will be the project's social heart.

From there, case studies radiate, exhibited as little universes, with each display having the end result, the project at its core, and all the companies involved with it around it. The aim is to show how Contract is all about relationships and collaboration, contributions big and small. Movable elements will be used so that formats can adapt and change project by project and year on year as required.

Who can exhibit there?

OMA's Contract section aims to display how a contract brief is about creating an environment – 'not buying single objects and putting them together', Gianotten explains, 'but designing the whole environment at once'. The exhibitors will be fittingly diverse and covering all aspects of a bigger project – from design and architecture, to furniture design, but also larger manufacturing, smaller independent contributions and anything in-between.

'[Here, we are] not so much interested in the product by itself, but they're really interested in the whole system of the project,' he adds. 'It's not about the sales moment, but it is really about this long-term engagement for all the actors present, even the client, the designer, the producer, but also the operators.'

The naval industry is ahead of the game in this section, Gianotten flags. 'Already, 95 per cent of the boats are done under contracts. It is a sector that has already moved completely into that realm.'

Contract throughout history – key examples

A tightly packed lecture by Rem Koolhaas offered valuable context to the idea of contract work and an analysis of OMA's thinking for the project, going through some of the historical examples the team researched in order to develop their response to their brief for Contract. Koolhaas visited case studies of global work where a similar approach was adopted, and they range a lot, in typology, result and geographical location.

In Roman times, buildings were commissioned in a collective way, Gianotten explains. '[The contract approach was already embedded] in this mindset, where people would deliver everything from the local environment to the use of that building and even the after-use.' Examples cited vary from the way ancient Romans worked in commissioning as a sort of Gesamtkunstwerk, to the fascinating design story of the Rockefeller Centre in New York, as presented by Koolhaas.

The latter was run by John Rockefeller himself in a 'very rigid manner' that enabled the project not only to survive and complete, but also allowed a 'density of thinking and collaboration' with the important physical beginning of this contract: [It was to be] accommodated and housed in a single environment and [for the different actors] to be together for five years, day in day out, as a single team'.

The striking Lagos International Trade Fair Complex in Nigeria, designed based on hexagonal floorplans, was another key example of contract work with impressive historical intel and delivery results. Meanwhile, Koolhaas also used an ongoing OMA project in Miami, a private home, to showcase the complex nature of creating architecture and interiors, and how current affairs and global challenges, such as war, climate change and political decisions, affect manufacturing and supply chains – which in turn play a key role in a designer's decision-making.

What's next?

While the full scale of what's to come has not been revealed, there are enough hints to offer a taste of next year's Contract space and the opportunities it might offer to exhibitors and visitors. What sits at the heart of Salone's creatively disruptive approach also resonates with Koolhaas and his team. At the Contract Forum, the architect spoke about taking risks – and seeing risk-taking not as a detractor but a rich and even necessary condition to moving the needle in building and the construction industry, a traditionally slow-moving and arguably risk-averse field.

'I am not comfortable with being comfortable,' Koolhaas says. 'We shouldn’t be avoiding risk; by avoiding risk, we avoid creativity.' Gianotten added: 'Risk-taking is important to innovation. Innovation means taking risks.'

It is the right attitude to instigate change – and the hope is that Salone Contract 2027 will provide the platform for just that.

Check our guide to what to see at Salone del Mobile and Milan Design Week 2026 and follow our editors’ live blog for latest news.

Salone del Mobile 2027 will take place from 13-18 April, Fiera Milano, Rho

‘Objects that Speak: A Conversation Continued with Andrea Branzi’ sees Rosewood make its Milan Design Week debut with an installation that feels less like an exhibition and more like a space for thought. Curated in collaboration with Deyan Sudjic, the project traces Rosewood’s evolving relationship with design while paying tribute to Andrea Branzi, one of Italy’s most influential design minds, who passed away three years ago.

Set in Via Carlo de Cristoforis 1 and open until 25 April, the installation centres on a striking, almost meditative display: 15 monumental lamps by Branzi, crafted from Japanese rice paper and Belgian bluestone. Towering yet ethereal, these 'lamps' gather in the room like silent presences, accompanied by two of his wall paintings, shown publicly for the first time. ‘Rosewood is an unusual company run by people who are curious about design culture,’ says Sudjic. ‘It was their idea to look at Branzi’s work, and they asked me to help set up the exhibition and explore the continuing relevance of his approach to design.’

A leading figure of Italy’s Radical Design movement, Branzi helped redefine the discipline, placing narrative, symbolism and ritual on equal footing with function. ‘Branzi always questioned the tyranny of mass production, in which individuality is sacrificed to the needs of production technology,’ explains Sudjic. ‘Rosewood has an analogical approach; each hotel is different but also has a shared ethos for the guest experience.’

The conversation does not end with Branzi. The installation unfolds further through works by a new generation of artists and designers commissioned for Rosewood properties around the world, including Maarten Baas, Jaime Hayon and Marc Quinn, alongside six others. ‘It is a selection from around the world; some work with their own hands, others with technology. My criteria was that they would feel comfortable to share the same space as Branzi,’ adds Sudjic.

In the midst of Milan’s frenetic design week, the installation offers a rare space to pause and reflect. ‘I really appreciate the contrast of the craziness of Milan in the middle of Design Week with the calm of the Branzi installation,’ says Sudjic.

‘Girls run the world’, the poet Beyoncé once said. In the design world, though, female creatives are still sadly underrepresented and under-recognised. Progress is being made, but the design and architecture professions are historically male-dominated – and great work created by women often doesn’t make it to highlight-level at major design events.

Wallpaper* aims to redress that imbalance. In Milan, where our editors are currently on the ground reviewing all that's noteworthy during Design Week 2026, we keep track of the achievements of incredible female creatives in the city – from Salone del Mobile president Maria Porro, injecting new ideas into one of the oldest design institutions in Italy, to trend-setting curator Valentina Ciuffi, whose Alcova has become an example of championing creativity from all corners of the profession, and doyenne of collectible design Nina Yashar (watch our Ground Report interview), whose galleries Nilufar and Nilufar Depot are among the most important places to discover design.

We also have a careful lens on the work that Patricia Urquiola is doing at Cassina, in terms of both innovation and championing an emerging generation of creatives; and the electric energy with which Visionnaire art director Eleonore Cavalli finds the most exciting ways to shake up her company's strong heritage (through unexpected collaborations with the likes of metal stalwart NM3, for example).

Here, we gather a small directory, spotlighting just some of the women whose work has defined this year's Milan Design Week. For many more, follow our coverage on Wallpaper.com, where you’ll find the likes of Federica Biasi and her respectful interpretation of Maddalena De Padova's legacy; the inimitable Bethan Laura Wood, reinterpreting Baccarat's baroque and subverting its rules; and Nao Tamura and her sculptural origami furniture for Porro that leave us marvelling at her creative gestures every time we encounter them.

Nine female creatives to know at Milan Design Week 2026

Faye Toogood

Faye Toogood is the queen of prototyping, and this Milan Design Week has made it even clearer that the British designer is the best when it comes to visualising ideas in compact ways. We are particularly fond of her mini carved butter sofas, a prelude to her collection of seating for Tacchini (aptly called ‘Butter' and comprising different modular elements, or ‘slabs of butter’: a three-seater sofa, an armchair and a storage unit). But her miniature-making prowess was also evident in the perfectly compact ‘Lie Low’ bed, for Poltrona Frau, and the folded paper experiments that represent her ‘Crease’ collection for Meritalia, inspired by flat-pack constructions.

And while the life-size versions of these furniture design concepts are magnificent in their own right, seeing the ideas unfold in small scale (and in such imaginative, expressive ways) always puts a smile on our face.

Linde Freya Tangelder

The work of Belgian designer Linde Freya Tangelder (also known as Destroyers Builders) is a powerful whisper. Over the years, the designer has built an aesthetic identity that is unmistakably hers, based on a version of minimalism that is multi-material and takes modularity to unexpected horizons. At Milan Design Week 2026, Tangelder and Cassina staged a display at 10 Corso Como titled 'Fluid Re-Collection', an immersion into her creative world that includes her furniture, objects and study models placed in conversation with the lighting design she has been creating with the Italian company since 2022.

Ambra Medda with Amy Tai

'I love being part of a city that is changing and evolving at such speed,' said design curator Ambra Medda, who recently moved back to Milan from her longtime base in London. Her new creative space in the city hosts its inaugural exhibition, co-curated with design historian Amy Tai, bringing together the ceramic work of Greek designer Leda Athanasopoulou and textiles by the Chinese artist Yumo Yuan.

Read our interview with Ambra Medda

Elisa Ossino

Elisa Ossino's secret garden with Molteni & C is a much-needed oasis of peace in the middle of Milan ('What a beautiful gift to the city', we overheard someone say on our visit at the beginning of Milan Design Week). Titled 'Responsive Nature', the verdant installation takes over Garden Senato in a way that is both poetic and also a stage to showcase the company's new outdoor collections (including new pieces by Ossino herself). Through five environments, Molteni & C's furniture is set amid tropical plants, architectural ruins overgrown with foliage and water features that make you feel like you have left the city and have stepped into an otherworldly natural paradise.

Kelly Wearstler

Kelly Wearstler, queen of the maximalist interior, made her Milan Design Week debut to launch a new furniture collection designed in tandem with H&M Home. ‘We still had a lot of boundaries,' she told us. ‘Every piece had to be modular, but it pushed us to be more creative.' While all the objects in the collection feel unique, Wearstler was also keen that they work with any environment. ‘I wanted to operate under the ethos of just offering great accessible design.' Launching in 28 markets, the collection includes chairs, tables and lamps, as well as a series of tabletop items, ranging from wooden vases to drinking glasses. Anyone who has visited one of Wearstler's luxury lifestyle-forward Proper hotels will immediately recognise her distinctive aesthetic.

Read our interview with Kelly Wearstler

Marta Sala

Milanese gallerist Marta Sala founded her namesake company, Marta Sala Éditions, in 2015, with the aim of building a platform dedicated to limited-run design collections rooted in architectural rigour and material precision. Eleven years on, that vision has been entirely realised – in no small part thanks to her longstanding collaborations with some of the most exacting figures in design. At Milan Design Week 2026, she launched a new collection with Herzog & de Meuron, making its debut at the inaugural edition of Salone Raritas.

Read our interview with Marta Sala

Natalia Criado

Since founding her eponymous brand in 2018, the Milan-based, Colombia-born designer Natalia Criado has been developing a body of work that reads as both functional object and sculpture. This year at Milan Design Week, Criado worked with Laboratorio Paravicini – the Milanese ceramics brand run by Costanza Paravicini and her three daughters, Benedetta, Margherita and Bona, known for their deftly hand-illustrated ceramics. 'I had been aware of their work for some time, and what drew me in was not only the craftsmanship, but the structure behind it, a family-run studio largely composed of women,' Criado says.

Read our interview with Natalia Criado

Sophie Lou Jacobsen

For the past several months, New York glassware designer Sophie Lou Jacobsen has been spending more and more time in Milan, developing her latest collection inspired by the famed local aperitivo culture. 'In New York, we have happy hour, and in France, there is apéro, but aperitivo is a ritual really ingrained into daily life in Milan,' says the designer, who aptly titled the collection 'Disco Aperitivo', a nod to the 1980s style that still defines many of the city’s historic bars.

Read our interview with Sophie Lou Jacobsen

Lina Ghotmeh

Lebanese-born, Paris-based architect Lina Ghotmehhas built a reputation for immersive, site-responsive work, and was also behind one of the most anticipated installations of Milan Design Week, at Palazzo Litta, transforming the historic building's courtyard into different pockets of calm, culture and conversation during a frenetic week. ‘At a time when the world is bombarded from several standpoints, I wanted a place that cherishes joy and human connection. It is a setting that gently slows people down and allows them to engage with one another and with the place around them,’ she explains.

Read our interview with Lina Ghotmeh

See our guide to what’s on at Milan Design Week 2026 (until 26 April), and follow the adventures of our editors on the ground in our live Milan blog.

The Ikea reflection for this year’s Milan Design Week is titled ‘Food For Thought’ and unfolds through a playful sequence of spaces dedicated to the interaction between living and eating, at Spazio Maiocchi. The exhibition also features the world premiere of three products from the new ‘Ikea PS 2026’ collection, an exclusive preview of the long-running ‘PS’ series’ wider tenth edition. In addition, two new 'statement floor lamps' by Milan-based Raffaella Mangiarotti round out the highlights.

The journey begins with a culinary theme in the saluhall, the traditional Swedish market into which the courtyard has been transformed. Here, among hot dogs, porchetta, and cheeses, a stand offers a curious preview of the ‘meatball lollipop’ (seeing is believing), set to launch from May 2026 as part of a collaboration between Ikea and Chupa Chups.

Visitors then enter the main space, where the vibrant ‘Ikea PS 2026’ pieces are introduced (the full collection will be unveiled in mid-May): there’s an inflatable chair, a poetic bench, and a three-directional floor lamp.

‘Ikea PS 2026’ preview

The designers were given a precise brief (the objects had to be both practical and playful), and the first piece is a clever hybrid between a wooden bench and a rocking chair, designed by Marta Krupińska.

It is followed by ‘a multifunctional lamp’ by Alexander Pott, capable of functioning as an uplighter, spotlight and reading lamp in one. Inspired by the geometry of a cylinder, Pott cut steel at 45-degree angles to create joints that allow both head and base to rotate, offering multiple lighting options with just a few simple twists: ‘I made three prototypes from wooden broomsticks, cutting them into many different pieces,’ he explains. ‘I realised that a big part of the design is in the joinery and the angles. Together with Ikea, we recognised that if you make the joint adjustable and rotatable, you can actually go from one object to three functionalities.’

For the designer, creating an intuitive piece was essential: ‘I gave a lamp to my five-year-old son; he understood immediately that it was movable and after 20 seconds, he rotated it into another function.’ The lamp comes in three colourways: a bright yellow, a cobalt blue (‘a very DNA colour for Ikea’), and a classic warm burgundy.

Finally, inspired by Ikea’s mid-1990s air furniture, Mikael Axelsson approaches the concept through upholstery: ‘The core idea that I had was to have a metal frame and then kind of blow up a balloon within the metal frame,’ Axelsson says. Separate air chambers between seat and backrest ensure comfort while allowing for compact, portable packaging, while the bold green upholstery underscores its playful character.

Food meets design

The exhibition continues with five rooms that form the experiential core of the theme, each pairing a designer with a chef to explore how food and design shape everyday life, with inventive twists. London-based Oliver Lyttelton’s design joins forces with the Asian flavours of Tina Choi in a space inspired by a treehouse. India meets Italy through the traditional objects and textiles of interior designer Mehek Malhotra and the culinary approach of chef Maurizio Tentella. Playfulness and child-friendly design define the room by Lydia Chan, paired with the cuisine of Alessandra Lauria, where stools become lamps and walls turn into writable surfaces.

‘Room Self-Service’ celebrates the pleasure of eating in bed, conceived by Charlotte Taylor together with chef Ben Lippett. Lastly, Mexican duo Maye Ruiz and Rosio Sanchez present ‘Party at Your Place’: ‘For the living room, we wanted a tension and contrast between the private and the public. We went to a convent, because a lot of Mexican cuisine was created by nuns in convents during 16th century,’ says Ruiz, pointing to what she describes as the celestial blue of the walls, niches and ceramics. ‘We wanted to honour these women and also work on a concept of a girls' dinner.’

Throughout the week, a working kitchen hosts daily tastings resulting from the designer-chef collaborations, while the experience concludes with a visit to the ‘Billy café’, framed by the classic bookcase.

Ikea ‘Food for Thought’, Spazio Maiocchi, Via Achille Maiocchi 7, Milan

After meeting and sleeping on uncomfortable beds at the last edition of Salone del Mobile, Vispring and Tom Dixon decided to get into bed, creatively speaking, with each other. 'It was really important for us to work with someone with a British connection and global resonance to mark this 125th anniversary,' Clare Schifano, global marketing director at Vispring, explains.

'My narrative now is that I couldn't find a hotel room, so I had to build my own hotel,' says self-taught British designer Tom Dixon, reflecting on the inspiration behind the Fuorisalone activation at the Mua Mua Hotel. 'I think it actually resonates with anybody going to Milan because it's become the big nightmare – hotels become a conversation six months before Milan every year.'

Vispring was founded in 1901 and counts royalty among its clients. It famously created a split-tension mattress for Princess Diana and Prince Charles, each side tailored to their individual comfort. The company was especially keen to explore the contemporary twist Tom Dixon could bring to its heritage-brand aesthetic, the feeling was mutual. 'I have always wanted to do more with British manufacturers and the bedroom itself has become somewhat overlooked compared to, say, bathrooms and kitchens,’ Dixon says. ‘And bedrooms need to be rethought and reinvented, there hasn't been a space for truly extravagant design since waterbeds in the 1970s.'

Hotels offer a rich canvas for interior designers, a typology that Dixon's Design Research Studio (DRS) knows well, having completed numerous hospitality projects worldwide. The Mua Mua Hotel is a 12-room property designed by DRS on the Mulino Estate, the latter originally designed in 1929 by Piero Portaluppi Chiodi and Gio Ponti for the Sordelli family. Created for Milan Design Week, but set to remain a permanent hotel, the space hosts new pieces including four headboards and a bed inspired by Dixon's designs, plus bespoke showpieces made exclusively for Milan that will be distributed to Vispring showrooms once the event closes.

The ‘Fat’ chair design becomes a complete bed offering, while the ‘Groove’ headboard is inspired by Tom Dixon's furniture and lighting featuring ridges. 'The use of ridges and grooves results in very good cushioning,' Dixon explains. ‘Rainbow’, ‘Heart’ and ‘Wingback’ headboards are also on view at the hotel, with the collection giving a nod to Vispring's art deco golden years.

Completing the collaboration's debut are three concept pieces created exclusively for Milan Design Week: the ‘Flare’, the ‘Arch’, and ‘Bunny’. Adding a playful nod to Vispring's royal craft credentials, the brand will also present its own interpretation of ‘The Princess and the Pea’ with a Vispring mattress layered with a series of toppers, that showcase its range of fabrics and materials, both current and archival. This activation is more than a Milan moment, the designs check out and Mua Mua Hotel will soon be welcoming guests to stay.

Tom Dixon and Vispring at The Mua Mua Hotel, Via Aosta 2, Milano 2155, 21-26 April 2026, 10am – 7pm

Milan Design Week (20-26 April 2026) rumbles on, and one showcase on everyone's lips – enthusiastically recommended in exhibition queues, at cocktail parties and over dinners – is Alcova.

The design platform has this year taken over two of the city's most compelling venues: Villa Pestarini, the modernist residence completed in 1939 by Italian architect Franco Albini, which has remained a private home ever since; and the Baggio military hospital, a historic Italian Army complex built between 1928 and 1931, used heavily during the Second World War. 'All of the locations we have occupied since 2018 are very powerful examples of architecture. They are also places that are usually not accessible, and so they have this incredible patina,' Alcova co-founder Valentina Ciuffi told Wallpaper* during a show preview at Baggio.

The pairing is deliberate and evocative: one a sleek midcentury residence, the other a weathered institutional complex with its own internal logic of streets, courtyards and outbuildings. Across both, Alcova brings together 131 exhibitors, each staged as a thoughtful intervention rather than mere decoration. 'Alcova, since the outset, has always been a platform for emerging talent. It's always been really important to us to allow designers – even those at their first Salone – to be able to show their work. It's something that's quite endangered at Milan Design Week,' adds co-founder Joseph Grima.

Villa Pestarini

Stepping inside this rationalist, blocky structure gives you, in some ways, a sense of what it might be like to live here – the kitchen, bathroom and beyond are all operational. In other ways, Alcova's interventions transform the space: the kitchen is filled with accessories and a striking hand-motif chair from Worn Studios; the bath and shower have become home to concrete forms by Elisa Uberti; and the basement has been turned over to benches made from material offcuts, including pastel-toned marbles, by Atma.

The ground floor is where the rationalist dream is most fully realised: a space of geometric proportions, flooded with light through walls of translucent glass. It is here that the week's standout intervention holds court: 'Albini in Present Tense', a collaboration between Patricia Urquiola and Haworth & Cassina, presenting Albini's furnishings reissued exclusively by the latter, including a previously unpublished 1947 armchair. In the basement, Boccamonte makes its furniture debut with a collection celebrating architect Luisa Castiglioni, herself a protégé of Albini.

Baggio military hospital

Described as 'a city within a city' by Grima, this sprawling, semi-derelict site is gradually being reclaimed by nature – and that is very much part of its charm. Its streets, courtyards, hangars, kitchens and chapels all feel slightly unruly and faintly haunting, now occupied with a programme of site-specific work.

The Chiesa (church) – accessible for the first time this year – hosts 'Devices for Connection', an immersive installation by Leo Lague and collective Versa, integrating technology, sound, light and material. In Hangar 1, Objects of Common Interest for Dooor presents 'Threshold', a spatial meditation on how minimal gesture can constitute architecture: using Dooor's dividers, designers Eleni Petaloti and Léonidas Trampoukis compose a fully white interior of subtle boundaries. Also in Hangar 1, Supaform's 'Seat in Touch' reinterprets public transit seating as a sofa system, complemented by Mutina's ‘Bloc’ bricks designed by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec.

The other areas – the Stecca, Canonica, Cucina, Lavanderia, Tempio and Casa delle Suore – host independent designers, emerging studios and institutions including Design Academy Eindhoven, the Architectural Association and UMPRUM. Away from the headline acts, it was these humbler corridors that yielded the week's most unexpected pleasures: Jabex Bartlett's pasta-shaped lamps and coffee table; Stella Arion's billowing blue plastic staging to echo her ceramics; and Sister by Studio Ashby's vivid floral interventions – cheerful and unabashed against the complex's weathered bones.

By situating its exhibitions within spaces rich in history, Alcova asks more of both maker and visitor – a formula that continues to work, edition after edition.

Alcova 2026 runs April 20-26. Baggio Military Hospital, via Giovanni Labus 10; Villa Pestarini, via Mogadiscio 2, Milan.

Follow all the latest news from Milan Design Week 2026 with our editors’ live blog.

Chopsticks that split only partway rather than breaking clean in two; chopsticks in the form of twisted fusilli pasta, and chopsticks bent into a U-shape like tweezers. These are some of creations conceived by 11 designers and design studios on view at an exhibition titled ‘Chopstick 箸’, and curated by Yoko Choy, Wallpaper* China editor, during Milan Design Week 2026.

Chopsticks, which originally emerged from the distinct culinary cultures of East Asia, are now a universal eating tool – simple, efficient and easy to clean. While spoons and forks have evolved over history to include decorative designs, the form of chopsticks has remained largely unchanged for centuries, requiring only manual dexterity for effective use. ‘Chopstick 箸’, by S—3, a platform for East Asian design, invites contemporary designers to rethink this familiar tool with thoughtful intervention, while retaining its simple design.

In Japan, a country rich in forestry, wooden chopsticks coated with resin from lacquer trees (a natural substance valued for its durability and natural antibacterial properties) date back as far as the 3rd century. While spoons and forks are commonly shared within households, chopsticks are regarded as personal and often cherished items; some people even carry their own pair with them day to day. At the same time, fast-food culture and Japan’s abundant timber supply have also given rise to disposable chopsticks, or waribashi – literally 'splitting chopsticks' – designed to be broken apart before use.

The Japanese design studio We+ draws on this tension between craft tradition and industrial expendability by removing the very thing that serves both designs: ease of functionality. By coating disposable waribashi in lacquer, their pair of chopsticks can no longer be split, rendering them redundant. The design disrupts their intended purpose while symbolically merging the two cultures. As We+ co-founder Toshiya Hayashi explains, the project explores ‘Japan’s chopstick culture, where the seemingly contradictory values of expensive lacquered chopsticks and disposable chopsticks coexist’.

Another Japanese designer, Jin Kuramoto, has designed ‘pasta chopsticks’ shaped like fusilli and penne, made from wheat flour. ‘Nowadays, chopsticks, spoons and tableware made from edible materials are being developed. Edible cutlery is also being re-evaluated as a technology that addresses environmental sustainability issues, such as reducing plastic waste. With this background in mind, I wanted to explore the potential of the idea of chopsticks made from pasta in Europe, the heartland of pasta culture,’ says the designer. After use, the experience continues: the chopsticks can be cooked and eaten, returning the object from tool to food.

Meanwhile, South Korean designers Kuo Duo have created the 'Seon' chopsticks, merging the linear silhouette of the stick with the gentle contours of a spoon. The concept draws on traditional Korean table settings, where spoons and chopsticks are always paired: the spoon used for rice and soups, and the chopsticks for vegetables, meat, and fish. For reasons of hygiene and ease of cleaning, both utensils have traditionally been made of metal, giving Korean tableware a distinctive character that sets it apart from the wooden utensils commonly found elsewhere in East Asia.

Indeed, spoons only became widely used in Japan from the late 19th century onwards, thanks to the influence of Western dining culture. Seen in this light, Korean dining culture – where chopsticks and spoons have long been used in tandem – can be understood as an early and fluid fusion of Eastern and Western tableware traditions, a balance that the 'Seon' hybrid subtly reinforces.

Another South Korean design duo, Niceworkshop, have completely reimagined the form of the object, moving away from the traditional pair of sticks in favour of a single U-shaped form crafted from curved metal. The design is intended to make chopsticks accessible to anyone, improving grip and control and making it easier to pinch and lift food with precision.

Flipping this idea completely, Chinese designer Mario Tsai has delved into manufacturing process as a means of solving high demand, effectively using the ancestral practice of tool-making as his inspiration. The result is an aluminium ‘chopsticks maker’ that functions much like a large pencil sharpener – simply insert a piece of freshly cut wood, and it is shaped into a pair of chopsticks.

Through the reinterpretation of chopsticks, the exhibition explores how shared traditions can evolve into contemporary narratives that carefully carry forward the cultural heritage of East Asia into a modern design language.

‘Chopstick 箸’, Via Pietro Giannone 3, Angolo Via Bramante 7, 20154 Milano

Follow all the latest news from Milan Design Week 2026 with our editors’ live blog.

Paper. Pleated and compressed. Then waxed, carved, glued, sawn, deconstructed, peeled, moulded – until new expressions of form take shape, from chiselled stools and tree-like benches to ethereal lighting.

A deep exploration of the material possibilities of paper anchors a new research project by Issey Miyake, in collaboration with the Madrid-based architectural practice Ensamble Studio, and is spotlighted during Milan Design Week.

‘The Paper Log: Shell and Core’ is an exhibition at the Issey Miyake Milan flagship store, unravelling its ongoing material investigation into the textures, tones and structural potential of paper – vast volumes of which are created as a by-product of the studio’s signature pleating technology.

Delicate, sturdy, primitive, finely layered and raw, permeated with traces of soft rainbow-toned marbling: these qualities shape the prototypes presented in the exhibition, with Issey Miyake’s ‘Core’ creations (chairs, benches, tables) in dialogue with Ensamble Studio’s ‘Shell’ (deconstructed abstractions, moulded forms, lampshades).

The idea for the project was sparked when Satoshi Kondo, design director of Miyake Design Studio, spotted dense tree-like rolls of paper at one of their manufacturing sites. Sheets of paper are used to protectively sandwich Issey Miyake garments as they are inserted into pleating machines, before being compressed.

'When I first started working at Issey Miyake, this pleated paper is something I would touch almost every day,' Kondo tells Wallpaper*. 'It’s a very unique material – something that could only come from Issey Miyake and its creative process of garment pleating. I always wondered if there was anything more that we could do with it, to give it a new value that goes beyond recycling.'

The compressed paper ‘logs’ are the starting point. Measuring 80cm high with a 40cm diameter, the logs are made up of countless wafer-fine sheets with circular marbling in delicate shades of pinks, blues, greys, yellows.

'These paper logs are like a tree,' says Kondo. 'They contain time and memories – the presence of time passing and the memory of the pleating process. All these different colours are traces of the garments being fed into a pleating machine.'

Kondo’s first exploration was to cut the logs crosswise to create stools, which were used for seating in the Issey Miyake S/S 2025 show in Paris – paving the way for deeper experimentations.

A spectrum of forms, textures and shapes are displayed in the Milan exhibition. For the ‘Core’ installations by Miyake Design Studio and Issey Miyake, one key method explored was to soak the compressed rolls in wax in order to solidify the paper – resulting in sculptural material textures resembling chiselled rocks or time-etched marble, along with a more saturated colour palette.

There are stools with softly curved backrests, treated with glue; wax-soaked benches made from a clean vertical slice down the centre of a 'log', showing its raw inner beauty; and side tables carved from single compressed rolls.

A series of bricks was also created by sharply slicing wax-hardened rolls with a water-jet cutter: while an armchair shaped by bundled layers of unwaxed paper is imbued with a feathery sense of softness, its cloud-like form contained in a clean-lined metal frame.

'Sometimes it looks like wood, sometimes like rock or marble,' says Kondo. 'There is a random, unfinished beauty. It is always unplanned and surprising.'

Meanwhile, the ‘Shell’ element of the exhibition takes another approach. Keen to invite a completely fresh creative perspective on the possibilities of paper, Issey Miyake sent around 20 paper logs to Ensamble’s Madrid studio, with an invitation to freely experiment.

'In Madrid, they didn’t treat the log as solid,' says Kondo. 'They peeled the paper apart like tree bark. It became ephemeral, like a shell. They returned it to its original paper form.’

The studio embarked on a 'moulding exercise'. After deconstructing the rolls, fine paper sheets were draped over furniture, including a Le Corbusier chaise longue, before being hand-painted with hardening agents (resin and latex) in order to 'freeze' every crease, curve, fold in time and place.

The end result is a series of 'shells', translucent and light yet tangible – a 'second skin' embodying the outlines and traces of known objects, from iconic furniture pieces to an ethereal paper lampshade unfurled across the ceiling of the historic architecture at the Issey Miyake flagship.

Across this unfolding dialogue between ‘Shell’ and ‘Core – raw, primitive and never completed – the creations may be diverse in texture, atmosphere, shape and form. Yet there is a connective thread: not only through the infinite possibilities of paper, but also in the creative values that shape Issey Miyake.

'Underlying this project is the spirit of Issey Miyake – both the designer himself and the company,' says Kondo. ‘Core’ is like the human body; and ‘Shell’ is a piece of cloth. And the space between them is unfilled – or ma. The two co-exist and complement each other.'

He adds: 'This is just the starting point. It’s about treating all materials equally, not prioritising one over the other due to convention or given value – but having a fresh, new perspective. I hope people can appreciate the beauty of paper as a material as well as our original pleating process.'

Issey Miyake, Via Bagutta 12, 20121 Milano

When Pierangelo Gallotti and Luigi Radice founded their namesake firm in the heart of Brianza in 1955, the densely industrialised region between Milan and Como was already a hub of carpentry. Supported by abundant local timber and generations of specialised craftsmen, the district had become one of Italy's foremost centres of furniture production. As such, starting a furniture brand was not, in theory, a radical idea. What was radical was the path that they chose: to create a company based on objects wrought almost exclusively in glass.

Gallotti & Radice first operated as a small workshop, producing lighting, mirrors and decorative objects entirely by hand, before expanding its industrial capabilities to materials such as metal and upholstery. Yet its spirit of artisanal experimentation never faded.

Now in its 70th year, the brand marks the milestone with ‘Tales in Glass', an exhibition that will culminate in a group show featuring new work by a global cohort of female designers, including the LA- and Uruguay-based Estudio Persona; London's Miminat Shodeinde; Milan's Valentina Cameranesi Sgroi; Belgian-Dutch designer Ivania Carpio; Tokyo's Fumie Shibata; and the Dubai- and Montreal-based Rania Hamed.

Taking place in the historic Palazzo Meli Lupi di Soragna, the exhibition ‘tells a story in three chapters', says Silvia Gallotti, the brand's second-generation CEO and creative director. The narrative lives within an immersive installation designed by Parisian architect Sophie Dries. ‘The scenography is inspired by crystal, so we're wrapping the walls with fabric and passementerie threaded with raw pieces of reclaimed glass,' says Dries. ‘It will feel quite precious, but, at the same time, the movement is very dramatic.'

Visitors will first encounter the company's earliest creations, for which Dries and Gallotti spent months recovering archive pieces from auctions and vintage dealers. Among them is the 1971 ‘Adam' table – a transparent slab set on curved legs – widely considered the first table made entirely from glass. ‘At the time, they had invented new ways of fusing glass,' explains Dries, who will display an original edition alongside a new version she has reinterpreted in a warmer bronze-tinted finish.

The 1970s marked a turning point for the brand, as it developed a method of joining panes of glass with a simple stainless steel joint, enabling larger and more structurally complex pieces, such as the ‘T35 Trio' – a three-part coffee table set designed by Pierangelo Gallotti in 1975 – now presented in an anniversary edition in bronze-tinted tempered glass and brushed silver travertine.

For the section dedicated to the present, the brand will show selections from the 2026 catalogue, including outdoor furniture by the Milan-based duo David/Nicolas. The company will also present its latest pieces at Salone del Mobile, where Gallotti & Radice will launch new work by Studiopepe, Federica Biasi, and a collaboration between Francesco Meda and David López Quincoces.

Yet it is the latest generation of designers, presented in the exhibition's final chapter, that illustrates the artistic potential of the material. ‘We asked each designer to incorporate their own culture into the work,' says Gallotti. ‘These pieces truly tell a story – both of the designer's background and of the craftsmanship that Gallotti & Radice has cultivated over the past 70 years.'

The new commissions explore glass through a range of artisanal finishes that Gallotti & Radice has developed over the decades. Estudio Persona will present a low table with a fused amethyst glass top set on a base in hand-patinated antique bronze, with an alternative version clad in shimmering aluminium leaf. Shibata worked with tempered extra-light glass, delicately shading its surface by hand into soft gradients of chestnut, pink or yellow. Shodeinde composed a console from thick glass panels that fade gradually from deep black to transparency. Cameranesi Sgroi, meanwhile, experimented with fused glass to create a nesting trio of tables with crackled surfaces and shimmering aluminium-leaf finishes.

‘It's been extraordinary to visit the company's workshops and see how much of the process is still done by hand,' says Dries, whose installation will also feature other archive treasures, including original drawings from the 1960s and 1970s. ‘To find this depth of artisanal knowledge still alive within a family-run company is incredibly rare. It's precisely the reason their work with glass has endured for so long.'

Gallotti&Radice – Tales in Glass, Palazzo Meli Lupi di Soragna, Via Daniele Manin 13, Milan, gallottiradice.it

20-25 April 2026, 10am – 9pm;
21 and 26 April 2026, 10am – 5pm

Follow all the latest news from Milan Design Week 2026 with our editors’ live blog.

An immersive exhibition that celebrates Uzbek craft through a contemporary lens is on show at Palazzo Citterio for Milan Design Week 2026. Commissioned by Gayane Umerova, chair of the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation, ‘When Apricots Blossom' features 12 designers exploring ideas of cultural memory, ecology and loss within the rapidly changing context of the country's Karakalpakstan region.

‘The communities of Karakalpakstan have faced profound environmental change for decades,' explains its curator, Kulapat Yantrasast, founder of Why Architecture. ‘We decided to focus on the Aral Sea, with its ghostly landscape evocative of sadness, but equally to centre a narrative of human resilience and humility of everyday life through the crafted ritual of making bread.'

Across all proposals, a sense of ecological consciousness prevails. Within a traditional context experiencing rapid modernisation and environmental transformation, design is used as a tool of agency and political activism, as each designer explores the brief for a vessel to hold bread and a traditional bread stamp explored through a contemporary rather than a nostalgic lens.

Sarah van Gameren and Tim Simpson, of London-based multidisciplinary studio Glithero, explore loss as the result of past colonial malpractice in the region. In the 1960s, the Aral Sea began shrinking dramatically following the diversion of its feeder rivers for irrigation, causing it to lose more than 90 per cent of its volume, turning one of the world's largest inland lakes into a desert.

Taking this as a line of reflection on how human intervention has led to irreversible ecological disaster, the prevalent iconography of floral motifs within Uzbek tradition is used to cast light on climate change and evolving land-use practices. Looking at the regenerative practice of growing trees – an activity increasingly difficult due to hostile environments – their proposal centres on wood as the primary material: a central elm pillar features carved motifs inspired by local flora.

Counter to the apricot as a traditional symbol of the Karakalpakstan region, and the prevalent white mulberry as an ancient agricultural root of silk and cotton trades, alternative motifs are selected for their ecological significance.

Sorghum – a pigmented reed – is foregrounded, alongside elm for its ability to survive and thrive in increasingly saline conditions, the latter informing material choice for the piece. The accompanying bread stamp goes back to the source, focusing on the hand that presses into the dough, a reminder of the bodies shaping the final outcome. ‘We always want to connect people to a process that has taken place before,' says van Gameren.

Artist and designer Marcin Rusak (who guided us through his studio and process in a recent video) explores cultural memory through the medium of salt. The Aral Sea and its surrounding water bodies are characterised by a high saline content: Rusak proposes a temporal installation engaging audiences with the traces of salt left behind due to evaporation of the sea, exposing the seabed. It plays with the duality of salt being a necessary component to human life (and its central role in culinary traditions) while, at the same time, posing a threat to it due to the difficulty for life to thrive in highly saline environments.

This dichotomy is at the heart of Rusak's concept: a glass pillar containing water with a high salt content, which supports and elevates the bread at its centre. ‘I was fascinated by the preserved state of craft and tradition. Having long evaded the grasp of modernity, it is now grappling with fast-paced growth and commodification,' says Rusak. The rate of transformation, both environmental and cultural, was a point of reference for his stamp, which is designed without a mark. In leaving the bread deliberately unstamped, it highlights a sacred tradition of marking individuality under threat in a fast-changing commodity.

Didi Ng Wing Yin, an artist whose work bridges digital craft, material research and sculptural form, takes a philosophical approach to the same subject, exploring the centrality of bread. ‘In Uzbek culture, bread is symbolically likened to the sun as a source of life,' says Ng. ‘At the same time, it is a humble, everyday food item. This connection between something very grounded and something very high up is where culture exists for me, in the space in between.'

Through conversations with local craftspeople and readings of philosophical texts by French scientist Blaise Pascal, another theme emerged: the reed, through which the relationship between body and craft is explored. ‘The reed is a fragile plant that is subject to collapse. Pascal likens humans to “tough reeds” because of their ability to think and survive,' adds Ng.

His proposal displays the bread on a bed of reeds, each one representative of the human spirit, fragile individually but strong as a collective. Through conversation with artisans, the stem section of the reed was selected for its structural capacity to support the bread at the centre, while the rest of the plant acts as a gently enclosing cushion.

The bread stamp fulfils a pragmatic function, declaring the word for bread – non – in Uzbek. It is abstracted in a way that becomes symbolic, bringing a graphic quality to an otherwise functional design. ‘For me, it is a symbol of what good design should be – practical yet functional,' says Ng.

The collection of works is framed within two larger gestures. On the palazzo's façade, a colourful tapestry, crafted by British designer Bethan Laura Wood in collaboration with Uzbek artisans, transforms the entrance into a richly textured threshold.

Meanwhile, in the garden, a ‘deconstructed' yurt designed by Why Architecture is conceived as a space for gathering. Inspired by the artisanal construction and mobility of traditional yurts from the region, the pavilion speaks to the temporary nature of exhibition space, and the historic Uzbek typology of the caravanserai; offering space for cultural exchange of ideas as well as moments for quiet reflection.

‘When Apricots Blossom' will be on show from 20-26 April at Palazzo Citterio, Via Brera 12-14, Milan, acdf.uz, palazzocitterio.org

Follow all the latest news from Milan Design Week 2026 with our editors’ live blog.

In contrast to the excessive noise that so often defines Milan Design Week, silence shapes Rubelli’s project, which presents an immersive installation in its showroom of the Venetian family-run company of luxury fabrics in Via Fatebenefratelli, created in collaboration with artist and activist Ai Weiwei.

‘Our first encounter dates back to an edition of the Venice Biennale,’ says Rubelli CEO Nicolò Favaretto Rubelli. ‘But it was only last October, when we began thinking about this year’s Design Week, that we reconnected. It was no random choice: he is a figure who has endured immense hardship – I have his most recent autobiography, published not long ago. Exile, humiliation, activism, imprisonment: above all, his mission is to communicate his message.’ Art and design have always been part of Rubelli’s DNA, the CEO adds, citing past collaborations with Paola Navone, Luke Edward Hall and Peter Marino, among others.

The title of Ai Weiwei and Rubelli’s exhibition, ‘About Silk’, is no coincidence: it marks the first time the artist has worked with this material. ‘Silk, one of humanity’s oldest materials, transcends the realm of imagination and lies beyond the scope of ordinary craftsmanship,’ says Ai Weiwei.

‘It is fascinating to me. I am a collector of ancient silks, some of which are over 3,000 years old. Each dynasty’s silk reflects different styles, but they all come from the delicate work of silkworms, making silk as a material both delicate and precious. When creating this artwork, my primary challenge was using silk as a medium to express long-standing themes such as human rights, freedom of speech, and the censorship system. Throughout this process, there were many discussions with Rubelli’.

The first room of the exhibit resembles a fully enclosed box, shielded from street light, where visitors are immersed in an intricate silk lampas. The composition radiates outwards from a central point like a burst of fireworks, with the regularity of a classical, almost Baroque drawing. On closer inspection, a dense weave of symbols emerges, tracing the artist’s history and struggles: surveillance cameras, handcuffs and chains, llamas (for Weiwei, a symbol of freedom and resistance to internet censorship in China), and the Twitter bird – from a time when it still represented digital freedom of expression. The reference is clearly Ai Weiwei’s original design, ‘The Animal that Looks like a Llama but is Actually an Alpaca’.

The warp of the fabric consists of 9,600 silk threads, equally divided between deep red and golden yellow. ‘The inspiration comes from a vase I bought 15-20 years ago in Beijing,’ Rubelli explains, describing a surface created through the interplay of intertwined threads, producing an iridescent effect reminiscent of Chinese ceramics, where colour is never uniform but vibrates with tonal variation. Metallic wefts enhance brilliance and shading, while the combination of five wefts and three shades of gold creates unexpected depth.

At the centre of the room stands a sculptural sofa upholstered in the same elaborate silk lampas. Its geometric backrest reveals subtle variations in depth, creating converging lines that distort perception. ‘Ai Weiwei had dreamed of making a sofa,’ says Rubelli. ‘When we met, he took a block and sketched it out. At first, I did not understand his idea of one part narrowing while another widens. The result is intriguing – more an art object than a sofa.’

The installation continues in a second room dedicated to ‘Finger’, one of the artist’s most recognisable motifs, inviting viewers to ‘raise our middle finger’ against sites of power and censorship. It also serves as a backdrop for two display cases designed by Formafantasma, containing textile documents from the Rubelli Historical Archive and the Rubelli Foundation, highlighting the millenary textile dialogue between Weiwei’s China and Rubelli’s Venice.

On the lower floor, the artist speaks through a black-and-white visual narrative, his voice calm and reflective. The documentary film, created for the occasion by Argentine director Felipe Sanguinetti and filmed between Downing College, Cambridge, and the Rubelli weaving mill in Como, captures the exchanges, sketches and experiments behind the project.

‘In the course of so-called social progress, we have increasingly lost our connection to nature and the inspiration it provides, much of which has been supplanted by new technologies,’ Ai Weiwei explains. ‘Similarly, a lot of modern technology has distanced itself from political, social, and historical discourse. In an era dominated by AI and algorithms, we see a growing narrative of technological control that continuously erases or obscures human nature and craftsmanship. This shift diminishes tactile experiences and emotions on a large scale, which I believe poses a threat to human nature and to historical memory. That is why, in my collaboration with Rubelli, I sought to develop a new approach using silk, a medium that could embody both functionality and complexity.’

Rubelli agrees: ‘We are a Venetian family company working with silk and precious textiles. I’m very glad that, through our work, we can help spread Ai Weiwei’s reflections and message.’

Follow all the latest news from Milan Design Week 2026 with our editors’ live blog.

Venture into Bottega Veneta’s Via Sant’Andrea store during Milan Design Week 2026 and you’ll find a twisting mass of green and black leather cords suspended from the ceiling. Arranged across the store’s windows and swooping around its first-floor water feature like vines above a lake, some are woven into basket-like forms that conceal softly glowing LEDs.

Called ‘Lightful’, the sculptural, site-specific installation is the work of Korean artist Kwangho Lee, marking his third collaboration with the brand under creative director Louise Trotter.

Lee, whose work draws on traditional weaving, basketry and 'chilbo' (a traditional Korean enamelling craft meaning 'seven jewels'), is known for his experimental material palette, having worked with aluminium, marble, copper, enamel, steel, bundled rice and even garden hoses.

With Bottega Veneta, what began as an invitation to create lamps for the brand’s S/S 2026 runway led to the inclusion of his work in its ‘Weaving the World: The Language of Intrecciato’ exhibition in Seoul (June 2025). Now, through this installation in Milan, the collaboration shifts into a spatial context, continuing Lee’s ongoing exploration of materiality, weaving and illumination.

Created in close collaboration with artisans at the house’s Montebello Vicentino atelier, Lee’s signature forms become light sculptures hand-woven from Bottega Veneta fettucce leather in bespoke green, selected by Trotter. 'When I got this material in my studio in Seoul, I was really surprised because it’s very detailed and well made,' Lee told Wallpaper*. 'It’s very soft, so it’s better for making specific shapes.'

The pieces sit somewhere between control and improvisation, extending the brand’s traditional woven language into a more irregular, experimental form. Made in situ, Lee created the composition in reaction to the space. ‘When I came here two days ago and started working in the space, I started very freely, communicating with this new space,’ he explains. ‘It’s quite intuitive, just like playing.’

Displayed alongside the lamps are Lee’s ‘Ghost in the Shell’ chairs, made by wrapping a frame in knotted sponge pipes and nylon rope. Coated in multiple layers of polyurethane, the chairs take on a chrome-like finish that belies their soft, improvised construction.

For Lee, the project serves as both inspiration and reassurance that he is on the right path. ‘When I saw the artisans working, I received great inspiration from them,’ he recalls. ‘I realised that the way they work is actually pretty similar to my way, so I got conviction in what I was doing.’

Follow all the latest news from Milan Design Week 2026 with our editors’ live blog

Milan Design Week 2026 is in full swing (follow our live blog to keep up). With the preeminent industry event now marked by an increasing number of exhibits, it’s often necessary for visitors to take a break at some point in the day, even if just for a few minutes. With all the kilometres walked, quick conversations had, emails checked, and Instagram posts perused, a reset is essential to keeping one’s spirits high. And while a coffee and pastry stop, or an aperitivo towards the end of the afternoon can do the trick, it’s not always the healthiest option.

An alternative this year is heritage Swiss furniture brand USM’s ‘Renaissance of the Real’ installation, produced in partnership with international architecture firm Snøhetta and imagined with Swiss-born, New York-based experience designer Annabelle Schneider. Presented in the courtyard of the storied Fondazione Luigi Rovati, the project is both sculpture and space.

Constructed using the USM Haller modular furniture system as a full-scale exoskeleton, the pavilion-like structure bubbles over as membrane fabric – parachute-grade polyurethane – inflates outward from within the metal tube and connector ball structure, creating a soft environment inside.

‘Guests are invited to slow down, [turn off their phones], take a break, go in, take shoes off, lay down and see what the breathing space does to them,’ Schneider says. ‘I think we’re living in an over-stimulated world where we’ve lost connection to ourselves; to what it means to be human. I think art and design have the power to bring us back to the physical and slow us down for a moment.’

Snøhetta was instrumental in determining the sequencing of the interior Adding a level of perceptible drama, the spaces get progressively smaller. The at-times sharp contrast in proportion helps hold the attention, keeping visitors in the moment. The hope is that phone usage is reduced.

As part of Schneider’s well-refined neuroaesthetic approach – the psychology of how visual and sensorial encounters influence our wellbeing and mood – the experience activated all of the senses. As guests arrive, they're given a hot towel. As they move through the installation, scent and sound are carefully calibrated as guiding forces. The use of a pale pink tone throughout was not arbitrary but also carefully deployed to help change perception. She has mounted similar installations at events such as New York Design Week and with similar intent: to help overwhelmed visitors take a much needed pause and re-engage with their immediate surroundings.

The intimate yet perhaps shared experience ends back outside, within the center of the courtyard; the ultimate environment for quiet contemplation. ‘We can’t just be fluid, passive in life,’ Schneider says. ‘We need a bit of guidance and framework as well. We need a balance of both.’

Fondazione Luigi Rovati, Corso Venezia 52, 20121 Milan, Tuesday 21 April – Sunday 26 April 2026, 10am-7pm daily

Lebanese-born, Paris-based architect Lina Ghotmeh has built a reputation for immersive, site-responsive work, most recently with her winning AlUla Contemporary Art Museum, conceived for the Saudi desert landscape, and Hermès’ Workshops, the leather production facility opening in Louviers, Normandy, France, exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale, exploring craft and time. Now she has created one of the most anticipated installations of Milan Design Week at Palazzo Litta, transforming the historic building's courtyard into different pockets of calm, culture and conversation during a frenetic week.

Milan Design Week 2026: Lina Ghotmeh at Palazzo Litta

The location holds centuries of stories, having hosted parties for European royalty and Napoleon himself. Ghotmeh builds on this heritage, drawing on the courtyard's historic role as a space of welcome and reception. This week new conversations and stories will be told in an installation that’s actively encouraging participation. ‘At a time when the world is bombarded from several standpoints, I wanted a place that cherishes joy and human connection. It is a setting that gently slows people down and allows them to engage with one another and with the place around them,’ she explains.

The first thing that draws you in is the vibrant hue, which contrasts sharply with the baroque architecture of the 17th-century palazzo. ‘I have chosen these colours for their emotional and perceptual qualities,' Ghotmeh explains. ‘Culturally, pinks may echo love, compassion, femininity, as well as playfulness and youth. Colour is also a way to guide perception and shape how people move through space,’ Ghotmeh says. ‘The palette is meant to create an atmosphere that feels soft, gentle, immersive, and slightly unexpected within the historical context of the courtyard.’

Measuring 17m per side and composed of 18 modules, ‘Metamorphosis in Motion’ follows the existing geometry and lines of the palazzo’s courtyard. The installation is built from MDF planks and finished with Milesi’s colour coatings in varying shades of pink and using textured surfaces. The modular set-up has been deliberately chosen to help create this pink maze, with different sections designed to accommodate multiple occupants simultaneously and comfortably.

Pathways guide you around the sections and informal soft seating by Avalon Italia is set alongside a dedicated talk space. There’s a meditative zone, and an immersive sound area, all combined with an olfactory experience curated by Scent Company. Notes of cypress, olibanum, and cedar diffuse around the space, evoking memories of Lebanon – Ghotmeh's homeland.

Community is at the heart of this work with zones dedicated to movement and rest, too. Together they create a rhythm that encourages visitors to linger rather than simply pass through. A food tasting area features products from Italian companies Tre Marie and Vitavigor, a pop-up bookshop by Frab's Magazine invites people to sit a while. ‘Rather than imposing a rigid structure, the sections create rhythm, symmetry, and visual views towards the façades. It was important for us that the space is experienced and lived, rather than just seen.’ In a week that’s full of spectacle, Ghotmeh invites visitors to participate in the show.

Mosca Partners present ‘Metamorphosis in Motion’, 21 - 26 April, Palazzo Litta, 24 Corso Magenta, Milan

Follow Wallpaper* editors’ live updates from Milan in our Design Week blog

Welcome to Milan Design Week 2026

Milan, we're back! From 20-26 April our team is taking on the biggest design event of the year

This year, Salone del Mobile will embrace collectible design with Salone Raritas, an initiative that will open the fair to limited-edition design and high-end creative manufacturing, and a new contract focus led by OMA.

Meanwhile, back in the city our kiosk is up and running (20-24 April) to present the new Wallpaper* Travel Guides, and we will be traveling across the city to discover design launches, new openings, installations and exhibitions that take over historical palazzos, courtyards and private apartments, including an array of new locations that have never been seen at Milan Design Week before.

Don't forget to fuel up: for the occasion, we put together a map of the best coffee in Milan according to the industry's leading creatives.

To make it easier for you to navigate, we've pinned a few of our highlights for what to see at Milan Design Week 2026 on this map below.

Meet the editors

Touch down in Milan!

The team has landed in Milan and the finishing touches are being put on our Wallpaper* kiosk which will sell the relaunched Wallpaper* Travel Guides from Monday-Friday, 10-7pm.

We also have a fun treasure hunt running throughout the week. Starting Monday, if you collect four free asterisk pin badges from different locations around Milan, you can show them at the kiosk to receive a free guide. The locations are:

Pasticceria Cucchi
10 Corso Como
Oslo Made In Heaven
Frab's Magazines

The Wallpaper* kiosk is at Via Tivoli, corner Via Rivoli

A morning at the Travel Guides kiosk

The design crowd gathered for the opening of our Travel Guides kiosk this morning. Here's Design Director, Rosa Bertoli, and long-time contributor Nick Vinson ready to make the first sale.

Writer Charlotte Gunn

The Wallpaper* Kiosk is at Via Tivoli, corner Via Rivoli

An exclusive Alcova preview with the founders

Milan design week is back, and to kick off the week Wallpaper* visited one of the hottest tickets in town, @alcova.milano. A platform for emerging designers, Alcova has since 2018 set up shop in unlikely yet architecturally significant locations in Milan. This year, the exhibition returns to one of it's former locations, Baggio military hospital – a large, former military hospital and complex that has since been largely reclaimed by nature. The military hospital is joined by a second site this year – Villa Pestarini, the rationalist masterpiece by Franco Albini..

Speaking to co-founders Valentina Ciuffi and Joseph Grima, Wallpaper* got an exclusive preview at the location and the projects on show, which all investigate the future possibilities of design – an endeavour largely about ‘making beautiful things but with a good spirit’.

Inside Nike Air_Lab at Dropcity

At Dropcity, Nike has taken over five disused railway tunnels to create Air_Lab: an exploration of air as a design material.

Throughout the space, visitors can explore the Nike Air archives, attend workshops that spotlight air-driven design processes and see how Nike is innovating with new garments for extreme conditions. Read more about Air_Lab

Writer: Charlotte Gunn

Nike Air_Lab, Via Sammartini 72, 20125, Milan

Can you spot our Fiats around the city?

To mark the return of the beloved Wallpaper* Travel Guides, we've partnered with Fiat to dress four Topolino cars up to match the books. If you see them around Milan this week, take a picture and tag us on Instagram @wallpapermag

Writer Charlotte Gunn

Alcova takes over two of Milan’s most extraordinary venues

Design platform Alcova stages its annual showcase across two remarkable sites in Milan. First, Villa Pestarini – the only private residence designed by Franco Albini – is an essential pilgrimage for fans of Italian modernism. Alcova animates it with a series of interventions, including Patricia Urquiola’s installation for Haworth and Cassina and a debut furniture collection by Boccamonte celebrating architect Luisa Castiglioni.

At the Baggio Military Hospital, large-scale, site-specific works fill hangars, courtyards and a newly accessible church. The latter hosts an immersive installation by Leo Lague and Versa exploring design and spirituality, and is one to seek out.

The venues do a lot of the heavy lifting – especially the Baggio Military Hospital, whose vast, abandoned scale and slightly haunted atmosphere make it well worth the detour. What Alcova does so well, though, is the other half – staging thoughtful, rather than merely decorative, engagement. Read more about the new locations in Milan

Writer Anna Solomon

Villa Pestarini, Via Mogadiscio 2/4, 20146 Milan
Baggio Military Hospital, Via Giovanni Labus 10, 20147 Milan

Discover the launch of Kelly Wearstler's H&M Home collection

At Palazzo Acerbi for the launch of Kelly Wearstler H&M Home, with a multisensory set design by Studio Boum.

Palazzo Acerbi hasn't been seen before (one of the reasons Kelly Wearstler chose it for the launch), the details are insane throughout- make sure you look up AND down!

Writer Rosa Bertoli

Corso di Porta Romana, 3, 20122 Milano MI, Italy

Yinka Ilori injects joy into Veuve Clicquot’s world

For Milan Design Week, Veuve Clicquot has transposed its vibrant yellow branding into a limited-edition drinks accessories collection, developed with Yinka Ilori. The British-Nigerian designer draws on his heritage to create a world of optimistic motifs – hands cradling the sun, celestial forms, natural symbols. The calabash-inspired Sun Totems are the standout, grounding the collection in something more meaningful than surface-level exuberance (the fruit is traditionally used as a drinking vessel in West Africa), while upcycled materials and 3D knitting techniques give the collection a contemporary edge. Ilori was a smart choice: his instinct for colour maps naturally onto a brand whose identity is built around a joyful shade of yellow.

Writer Anna Solomon

Mediateca Santa Teresa, Via della Moscova 28, 20121 Milan

Come for the brews, stay for the views

Atop the majestic Torre Velasca, find some calm amidst the mayhem of Milan Design Week in Cromo's secret tea house. The structure is inspired by the Vietnamese Rong House which were traditionally built as ceremonial structures. A collaboration with Milan-based designer Bogdan Martoiu, the teahouse is designed from reflective utilitarian materials which mirror its surroundings. Don't leave without a cup of matcha on the roof, taking in views of the city.

Writer Charlotte Gunn

Cromo Tea House, Piazza Velasca, 3/5, 20122 Milan

Discover Kvadrat's tribute to Frans Dijkmeijer

Frans Dijkmeijer- Silent Pioneer by Kvadrat at Triennale is a touching tribute to the late textile designer featuring prototypes and personal collections.

The exhibition also features contemporary artworks that respond to Dijkmeijer’s work and personal passions, including this aural video installation by Francesco Tosini, titled 'to see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower'. Read more about the wonderful world of Frans Dijkmeijer here

Writer Rosa Bertoli

Viale Emilio Alemagna, 6, 20121 Milano MI, Italy

Loro Piana's ode to plaid

Loro Piana presents 'STUDIES CHAPTER I: ON THE PLAID' located on Via Moscova 33. Check out our visual gallery above to see the ode to plaid within interiors.

Writer Olly Mason

Via della Moscova 33, 20121 Milano, Italy

Step inside Dimoregallery's new location

Dimoregallery opens its new location on Via San Vittore al Teatro, just steps from Piazza degli Affari, in the historic and cultural heart of Milan. Over two floors within a building that formerly housed a bank, and still retains its original vault, is now reinterpreted as a device for depth and atmosphere.

Writer Olly Mason

Via San Vittore al Teatro

Aesop illuminates with first ever table lamp

Aesop marks its first-ever foray into artificial lighting with the launch of Aposē, a beautifully handcrafted, limited edition table lamp. The piece is presented in an informative and highly atmospheric bespoke installation in Brera, designed by Australian architect and founder of March Studio, Rodney Eggleston. Set in the Santa Maria del Carmine church cloister, the space is made using circular construction methods and building site components. A series of videos tells the story of the product’s making. At the end of the video sequence, experienced in immersive, moody lighting, Aposē is seen alongside two further potential future iterations of the design - a ceiling and a floor light. Aesop’s, Marianne Lardilleux, told me: ‘The ‘Factory of Light’ installation is designed as a manifesto: a tribute to the creative process as much as the result. We wanted to expose the alchemy of artisanal savoir-faire, proving that the beauty of a piece like Aposē lies in the journey of its making. Its making is showcased both tangibly—through projections showing the artisans at work—and poetically, through the architecture, with interplay of light, textures, and scents.’

Writer Ellie Stathaki

Santa Maria del Carmine, Piazza del Carmine, 2, 20121 Milano MI,

Edward Barber & Jay Osgerby at Triennale Milano

‘Our work emerges gradually through studies of folded structures, movement, space, distortion, time and scale,’ reads a quote from Edward Barber & Jay Osgerby at the entrance of their exhibition ‘alphabet’ at Triennale Milano. The display of prototypes shows the breadth of the studio’s output and the precision with which they conceive all of their designs through time.

Writer Rosa Bertoli

Triennale Milano, Viale Emilio Alemagna, 6, 20121 Milano MI, Italy

Bang & Olufsen take audio outdoors

As part of a long-term collaboration with Italian natural stone house Antolini, Bang & Olufsen make their first foray into outdoor speakers. Due for release in autumn, the fully customisable speakers are in the final stages of being all-weather tested, ensuring they stay true to the brand's cradle to cradle ethos.

Writer Charlotte Gunn

Piazza Fontana &, Via S. Clemente, 20122 Milano MI, Italy

A killa’ villa

I just touched down from my New York to Milan red eye but HAD to make a beeline for Alcova’s presentation at Villa Pestarini, jet lag be damned! The building was designed in the rationalist style by Franco Albini in 1939, and has never been open to the public until now. The house is a gorgeous exercise in light, transparency and geometry, and the works presented inside pay homage to those principals. Patricia Urquiola’s collab with Haworth and Cassina is an obvious showstopper, but —as a house museum obsessive— I became obsessed with the vintage appliances, putty pink accents and wavy glass cabinets that hint at what it was like to inhabit a masterpiece.

Writer Anna Fixsen

Via Mogadiscio, 2/4, 20146 Milano MI, Italy

Inside a yurt space inspired by Uzbekistan’s Aral Sea

Craft rich and evocative, architect Kulapat Yantrasast’s show 'When Apricots Blossom' took inspiration from Uzbekistan’s Aral Sea. The region’s cultural legacy and its stories are told through a series of bread stamps he curated. The items are crafted by international designers in collaboration with local creatives. A specially constructed yurt space is the culmination of the exhibit and provides space for activities.

Writer Ellie Stathaki

Palazzo Citterio, Via Brera, 12. Milan, Italy

Build your own Eames House with this new kit

The Eameses’ legendary case study house is now a prefab architectural system that you can buy. The exhibition at Triennale Milano features a selection of parts, archival imagery and texts, as well as a few configurations and colour options to inspire you. ‘The actual plan is personal within the structural system’, Ray Eames wrote in a 1949 handwritten note. Read more about the new Eames House kit here.

Writer Rosa Bertoli

Viale Emilio Alemagna, 6, 20121 Milano MI, Italy

CC-Tapis gives Fornasetti’s symbolism textile form

CC-Tapis translates the symbolic universe of Fornasetti into handcrafted rugs, a pairing that immediately makes sense – the Italian brand's trompe-l'oeil sensibility translates naturally to the woven format. Each piece merges illusion, irony and storytelling in refined textures; Himalayan wool, merino and silk are selected to enhance optical nuance. One of the most quietly convincing collaborations of the week.

Writer Anna Solomon

Piazza Santo Stefano 10, 20122 Milan

‘La Casa Magica’ is Nilufar’s twisted vision of home

‘La Casa Magica’, presented at Nilufar’s Via della Spiga gallery, is curated by Alcova co-founder Valentina Ciuffi with creative direction by her studio, Studio Vedèt, and set design by Space Caviar. In a separate part of the complex which houses the gallery, ‘Le Pied-à-Terre Cosmopolite’ unfolds: the space is immediately recognisable as domestic, yet becomes fantastical: a bed frame twists in chrome, a mirror fractures – as though splattered – across the wall. Familiar objects become strange, producing an atmosphere that does indeed have a touch of magic about it.

Writer Anna Solomon

Ciuffi is one of Milan’s busiest curators this week, with projects across Alcova, Delvis Unlimited and Nilufar Gallery, where ‘La Casa Magica’ can be found. The showcase brings together an international roster of designers to explore the home as a symbolic and ritual space. Moving beyond function, it considers domestic interiors as sites of belief, storytelling and protection, where objects act as contemporary talismans rooted in cultural archetypes. A particular highlight is the spellbinding Murano glass ‘Boswellia’ lamp by Christian Pellizzari.

Writer Ali Morris

Via della Spiga 32, 20121 Milan

Interni Venosta inhabits a postwar Borsani apartment

One of the best things about Milan Design Week is the unprecedented access to some of the city’s most incredible spaces. Interni Venosta has opened an apartment designed by Osvaldo Borsani between 1947 and 1948, never before seen by the public.

A sculptural room divider and bas-relief fireplace anchor the space, and Interni Venosta responds with brass and steel vases, lacquered wood and burl, and champagne-toned seating.

What's impressive is how the collection avoids blending in too submissively or asserting itself too loudly: where Borsani worked in warmth and craft, Interni Venosta introduces just enough cool contrast.

Writer Anna Solomon

Via Bigli 21, 20121 Milan

Head to the Wallpaper* Kiosk

Don't forget to stop by the Wallpaper* kiosk at Via Rivoli, corner Via Tivoli to pick up one of our relaunched travel guides to Milan, London, New York and Paris. Buy all four guides and get a free bag.

The Wallpaper* Kiosk is at Via Tivoli, corner Via Rivoli

A near-spiritual experience at Palazzo Isimbardi

Walking into 16th century Palazzo Isimbardi for Rimadesio’s ‘Becoming’ installation is a near-spiritual experience. For the company's 70th anniversary, Swiss audio-visual artist collective, Encore studio, has created an oversized light box that represents the sound and light of memories.

Using 100 layers of standard office grade electro chromic films, the artists took lighting installations out of their usual dark boxes and placed them under the blue Milanese sky.

Writer Rosa Bertoli

Palazzo Isimbardi, Corso Monforte 35

Step into the design world of Lella and Massimo Vignelli

Lella and Massimo Vignelli, inseparable in life and work, were among the leading figures of twentieth-century design and graphic communication. Active from the 1950s onward, they worked for more than half a century, developing a rigorous and immediately recognisable visual language applied across graphic design, product design, furniture, and communication.

Writer Olly Mason

Triennale Milano, Viale Emilio Alemagna, 6, 20121 Milano MI, Italy

A family of furniture

Unifor and Herzog and de Meuron worked on a family of office furniture - looking elegant and clad in cork leather. Set in the Herzog and de Meuron designed Fondazione Feltrinelli building where the Unifor showroom is. There's even a ping pong table.

Writer Ellie Stathaki

Viale Pasubio, 5, 20154 Milano MI, Italy

Theatrics meets furniture

Last night Salone del Mobile invited us to Teatro La Scala: we had dinner on stage, among sets and lighting equipment, and the atmosphere was magical. In her welcome speech, Salone del Mobile President Maria Porro (who had a theatre background before moving to furniture) invited us to look up, to the rigging loft: ‘it’s a fantastic work of architecture, design, craftsmanship and respect for tradition.

Writer Rosa Bertoli

V. Filodrammatici, 2, 20121 Milano MI, Italy

A waterfall in Milan

Swiss architecture and design studio atelier oï created a waterfall for Geberit, to demonstrate how water flow can connect design and function. The installation represents the bathroom company's approach to water from a technical and innovation perspective, to create precise function behind an aesthetically convincing form. For the installation, 300 stainless-steel springs are stretched across the space, from which water droplets glide on defined paths, creating tension between precision and freedom.

Rosa Bertoli

Opificio 31, Via Tortona 31, 20144 Milan, Italy

Polish Modernism 16 floors up

Back at Torre Velasca, the Visteria Foundation and curators Federica Sala and Anna Maga stage 'Polish Modernism: a struggle for beauty', an overview of the ways modernism has developed throughout Polish Design history and connecting old and contemporary works to demonstrate the continuous inspiration of the movement for the country’s creatives.

Rosa Bertoli

Torre Velasca, Piazza Velasca, 3/5, 20122 Milano MI, Italy

Energy raising with Belmond x LaDoubleJ

We took a welcome break atop the ‘star quarters’ of LaDoubleJ, where the terrace is transformed into a Tuscan garden to celebrate the brand’s upcoming collaboration with hoteliers Belmond. Villa San Michele, a Belmond Hotel, Florence, is set to reopen next week following a refurbishment and has partnered with the Italian label on a first-of-its-kind project, creating custom-designed LaDoubleJ spaces alongside a curated programme of ‘energy-raising’ wellness experiences, from breathwork and yoga to sound healing.

During the sunset event, guests sipped lavender and butterfly pea tea Tom Collins while a healer moved through the space performing smudging — a ritual that involves burning sage or palo santo to cleanse the space and those within it.

Writer Ali Morris

Via Vigevano 18, Milan 20144

Toogood goes to town with tone and texture at Tacchhini

At Tacchini, British designer Faye Toogood plundered the brand’s material archives to create a series of nine spaces, each defined by a distinct tonal palette – from deep, restorative greens to calming stone. In true Toogood fashion, the installation also goes to town with texture – an installation that has to be touched, as much as it is seen, inviting visitors to engage with the surfaces, finishes and tactility.

Writer Ali Morris

Largo Treves 5, 20121 Milan

Aperitivo and Finnish flowers with Marimekko

In a canny design week move, Finnish brand Marimekko has taken over the garden courtyard and restaurant at the Hosteria Grand Hotel, renaming it for the week ‘Osteria Fiori di Marimekko’. Here guests can enjoy a welcome aperitivo served in the brand’s ceramics by staff dressed in its newest floral designs, ‘Kukasta Kukkaan’ by Erja Hirvi. This is brand immersion at its finest.

Writer Ali Morris

Via Ascanio Sforza 75, 20141 Milan

Range Rover transports us to the River Tay in Scotland

Range Rover is back in Milan this year with an equally ambitious installation, setting out the staggering level of detail behind the brand’s bespoke offering. Here, the marque has partnered with spatial designer Robert Storey of Storey Studio — whose previous collaborators include Loro Piana and Hermès — to create a multi-sensory, sequenced experience.

It begins with a film directed by Paris-based Argentinian filmmaker Felipe Sanguinetti, and continues with illustrations by four artists, translated into intricate embroidery by the brand’s in-house team. The experience culminates in the reveal of the ‘Pearl of Tay’, a one-of-a-kind Range Rover Bespoke commission inspired by the freshwater pearl of Scotland’s River Tay.

Conceived as a landscape, the space is flanked by mirrored vitrines housing 14 objects curated by Wallpaper*’s own Hugo Macdonald of Bard.

Writer Ali Morris

Galleria Meravigli, Via Meravigli 5, 20123 Milan

Off to the races

The 64th edition of the Salone del Mobile furniture fair just kicked off at Fiera Milano Rho on the outskirts of the city. Apart from the huge offering of international exhibitors, this year has tons in store, including the biannual kitchen exhibition, Eurocucina, and for the first time, a collectible design showcase, Salone Raritas. I’m just about to dive in — please send a spritz in case of emergency!

Writer Anna Fixsen

Fiera Milano Rho

New designs inspired by nature at Palazzo Molteni

Palazzo Molteni features all of the company’s new designs by Christophe Delcourt, Gam Fratesi, Cristian Mohaded , Vincent van Duysen, Studio Klass and Naoto Fukasawa. This year’s collection is defined by textured materials and colours referencing nature.

The top floor hosts the Molteni Gallery, dedicated to temporary art exhibition. This week, the space features an exhibition of sculptures by Michele De Lucchi. Titled ‘The Architect’s Relief’, the exhibition is dedicated to sculptures made of wood sewn with metal wire and they are made by the architect as a way to escape from the scale and constrictions of the structural work. The sculptures are accompanied by drawings and sketches.

Writer Rosa Bertoli

Via Alessandro Manzoni, 9, 20121 Milano MI, Italy

Inside a secret garden

At Garden Senato, Molteni worked with Elisa Ossino to create a hidden garden in the heart of the city. Titled ‘Responsive Nature’, the installation comprises six gardens that frame the companies outdoor design collections, interacting with foliage, flowers, water and architecture.

Writer Rosa Bertoli

Via Senato, 14, 20121 Milano MI, Italy

‘Gucci Memoria’ sees Demna reimagine the house’s 105-year history as a series of tapestries

Gucci creative director Demna marks his first Milan Design Week with a playful presentation at Chiostri di San Simpliciano, seeing the Georgian designer reimagine the Italian house’s 105-year history through a series of Renaissance-inspired tapestries (he even makes a cameo in the final tableau, clad in a leather jacket and baseball cap). Also in the 15th-century cloisters are a series of Gucci-branded vending machines – drinks dispensed have names like ‘Fashion Icon’ and ‘Drama Queen’ – while a bucolic garden of wildflowers recalls the house’s signature Flora motif.

‘Gucci’s history in the 105 years since it was founded is filled with ups and downs. It has such a colourful past with lot of stories to tell,’ Demna tells Wallpaper*. ‘This being my first Fuorisalone, I wanted to tell the entire story of the house from the beginning, so we made these tapestries that take inspiration from the style of Botticelli to tell Gucci’s story. You see all the different eras of Gucci represented in these scenes, either literally or symbolically. The good times, the bad times, the drama; and the scenes are super elaborate, there are lots of symbolic details that tie back to Gucci’s codes.’

Writer Jack Moss

Gucci Memoria’ is open to the public from 21 to 26 April 2026 at the Chiostri di San Simpliciano, Piazza Paolo VI, 6, Milan. Registration is available on Gucci.com

At Rossana Orlandi, 70 makers rethink the door

RoCollectible, Galleria Rossana Orlandi’s annual showcase, takes the door – threshold, boundary, passage, barrier, however you see it – as its conceptual starting point. Over 70 designers, artists and architects respond, curated by Rossana Orlandi and her daughter, Nicoletta Brugnoni.

It’s a richer premise than it first appears, and the breadth of contributors prevents repetition. Highlights include Roberto Sironi’s ‘Future Memories’, produced with Japanese carpentry workshop Sansui, using reclaimed timber from traditional kominka houses. Other interpretations, such as Atelier L’Inconnu’s sculptural rattan works, are more oblique – but Orlandi’s strength is allowing work to breathe without over-explanation.

Writer Anna Solomon

Via Matteo Bandello 14, 20123 Milan

A rugged adventure in ceramic with Hannes Peer

‘Terrain’, designed by architect Hannes Peer in conversation with Officine Saffi Lab, presents as a large-scale ceramic high relief. Aggregated tiles of varying shapes and glazes – soft blues, reds, and sand – form a meticulous yet uneven surface, with the reverse revealing a more fragmented, exposed composition. A must if you find yourself in Zona Sarpi.

Writer: Gabriel Annouka

Fondazione Officine Saffi, Via Giovanni Battista Niccolini 35a, Milan

Design meets technology at Istituto Marangoni Milano Design

At Istituto Marangoni Milano Design, ‘Design Awakens’ explores objects that perceive, spaces that respond, and systems that adapt to human presence. Across the Via Cerva hub, installations in collaboration with brands such as Alessi, Poltrona Frau, Cappellini and Jaipur Rugs result in a vision of design that shifts from static objects to evolving relationships between people, technology, and space.

Writer: Rosie Cave

Via Cerva 24, 20122 Milano

The Wallpaper* Milan Treasure Hunt

Across four of our favourite Milan locations – all referenced in our new Travel Guides – we have placed unique Wallpaper* pin badges. Move from one stop to the next, collect each badge, and complete the set.

Once you have them all, return to the Wallpaper* Kiosk, at Via Tivoli, corner Via Rivoli, to receive a free copy of one of our brand new travel guides.

The locations:
(1) Frab's bookshop (@frabs_magazines)- Via Giuseppe Sirtori, 11, 20129 Milano MI, Italy
(2) Cucchi x Marni (@pasticceria.cucchi) - Corso Genova, 1, Milan, Italy 20123
(3)10 Corso Como (@10corsocomo) - 20154 Milano MI, Italy
(4) Oslo Made in Heaven (@oslo_madeinheaven) - Via Filippo Corridoni, 1, 20122 Milano MI, Italy
(5) Wallpaper* Kiosk - Via Rivoli, corner Via Tivoli

Alcova's synergy between architecture and design

There is synergy between architecture and design at Alcova. Objects of Common Interest’s installation offers a fun spatial moment (the design studio founders Eleni Petaloti and Leonidas Trampoukis have strong architecture roots). ARP founder and Wallpaper* Architects' Directory alumna Argyro Pouliovali creates a family of tables using Thassos marble to striking effect. The Architectural Association school from London presents a never seen before show of objects in its exhibition, 'Coalescence'.

Writer Ellie Stathaki

Lavanderia Space L3, Centro Ospedaliero Militare, Milan

studioutte & De Troupe's installation is a nod to a private club

Camera Fissa is a project by studioutte and De Troupe, presented at the studioutte headquarters in Milan. For this exhibition, studioutte used the codes of a private club to create
full decor within a textile environment developed with Dedar. The title, 'Camera Fissa', references the cinematic term for a fixed camera: a pace experienced from a single, centred viewpoint, framed by curtains. Defined by a controlled decorative monumentality, the interior appears still yet dynamic, while architecture, light, and surfaces shift through inhabitation.

Writer Olly Mason

Via Volturno, 45, 20124 Milano MI, Italy

Five studios, five cities, one palazzo

Artemest returns to Palazzo Donizetti for the fourth edition of L’Appartamento, this year themed around Italian grandeur. Five international studios – Sasha Adler Design, March and White Design, Rockwell Group, Charlap Hyman & Herrero and Urijowan Interiors – each reinterpret a cultural capital: Venice, Florence, Rome, Naples and Palermo.
The framework brings clarity to a showcase that could otherwise feel unwieldy, while the diverse studios produce genuinely distinct atmospheres.

Writer Anna Solomon

Palazzo Donizetti, Via Gaetano Donizetti 48, 20122 Milan

High Baroque meets high street at Kelly Wearstler x H&M

After our design director attended the press preview yesterday, I couldn’t resist also popping in to see Kelly Wearstler’s furniture collaboration with H&M Home, which launches across 28 markets this week, presented within Palazzo Acerbi, a 17th-century Baroque palace long closed to the public. Chairs, tables, lamps and tabletop pieces sit beneath soaring frescoed ceilings – a juxtaposition that is both incongruous and inspired.

The modular constraint imposed on each piece is interesting, given Wearstler’s typically exuberant style, though anyone familiar with her Proper hotels will recognise her distinctive touch. H&M knows how to scale; Wearstler knows how to make a room feel alive, and here, the two click.

Writer Anna Solomon

Palazzo Acerbi, Corso di Porta Romana 3, Milan

6:AM fills a swimming pool with glass, sound and repetition

6:AM presents ‘Over and Over and Over and Over’ at Piscina Romano, a 1929 public swimming pool and one of Milan’s most striking venues. Repetition is the guiding principle: lamps form luminous sequences, glass modules build walls and singular objects scale into architectural systems.

New works include ‘Batch’ – blown glass cubes first created for Bottega Veneta’s S/S 2026 runway – alongside limited editions developed with Hannes Peer. A standout is Invernomuto’s sound installation ‘Triton’, which transforms data from a living ecosystem of amphibians in northern Italy into a sonic composition.

Writer Anna Solomon

Piscina Romano, Via Giuseppe Zanoia 2, 20131 Milan

60 books, 60 perspectives’: Jil Sander opens a ‘Reference Library’

For his first Milan Design Week at the house, Jil Sander creative director Simone Bellotti drafted Studioutte to create a ‘Reference Library’ in the brand’s Milanese headquarters. In the low-lit, hushed space – a recording of a voice shushing recalled tetchy librarians – 60 books sat on specially lit plinths, with guests handed white gloves on entry to peruse the various volumes. Each of the books had been selected by notable figures selected by Jil Sander and Apartamento (the magazine collaborated on the installation), from musician Lykke Li to Sofia Coppola, as well as figures from the world of design. ‘I chose for this library – improvised and temporary, as a gift to the city of Milan for just a few days,’ says Bellotti.

Writer Jack Moss

Reference Library runs until April 24, 2026 at Via Luca Beltrami 5, Milan

Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance’s lamps for Dior are inspired by haute couture silhouettes

Set amid an intricate scene constructed from woven bamboo comprising flowers, wheat, insects and bees, Dior chose Milan Design Week to present a new collection of lamps created by the French interior designer Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance. Spanning various sizes, the table lamps – some of which are portable – are constructed from either hand-blown Murano glass or Madame bamboo (the latter made by craftspeople in Kyoto, Japan) and are designed to evoke the house’s cannage quilting or haute couture silhouettes. Namely, the contours of the Corolle skirt, part of Christian Dior’s 1947 nipped-waist Bar suit, the contours of which would revolutionise mid-century fashion.

Writer Jack Moss

Palazzo Landriani, Via Borgonuovo, 25, 20121 Milan

Inside the new permanent Milan gallery The Line

New permanent Milan gallery The Line launches its activities with a show during design week. The exhibition brings together seven international architects and designers such as Marcio Kogan, AAU Anastas, Kengo Kuma and Bernard Khoury. The theme is 'survival' and the pieces on display, made in natural stone by Casone and atmospherically illuminated by PSLab, each have the same starting point - an identical block of African black stone.

Writer Ellie Stathaki

Via San Giovanni alla Paglia 6, Milan

Checkmate

An oversized chessboard brings Harry Nuriev's bold take to Milan. The immersive installation, titled 'Transformism', was created with perfumer Clive Christian (Nurriev's Crosby Studios also designed the brand's London flagship). The piece, which draws on the Clive Christian perfume bottle, is set on a terrace at Museo Bagatti Valsecchi.

Writer Ellie Stathaki

On the terrace at Museo Bagatti Valsecchi, Via Gesù, 5, 20121 Milano MI, Italy

Rugs on the rooftop

On the rooftop of Convey, Ege Carpets presents its new collection ‘Common Ground’. Curated by creative director Gabriella Khalil, these new designs showcase Khalil’s bold style, with four new earth-toned designs (titled Ribbon, Imprint, Swell and Maze). Writer: Rosie Cave

Via San Senatore 10, 20122 Milan

Convey by Simple Flair returns for 2026

Following its debut last year, group show Convey took over a historic building at Via San Senatore 10 in Milan. Designed by Ottavio Cabiati and Luigi Brambilla in 1958, the six-floor space played host to a mix of international designers and brands curated by Milan-based creative studio Simple Flair.

Big enough to feel like a destination, but not so sprawling to overwhelm, we particularly enjoyed ‘Something Blue’ by London brand Completed Works, Joshi/Greene’s rail system and Chiara Lionello’s ceramic and aluminium vases.

Writer Ali Morris

Via San Senatore 10 Milan, Italy

Where Swiss design comes with coffee

Promoted by Pro Helvetia, Shared Matter brings together projects by emerging Swiss designers, spanning realised works and ongoing research. Thoughtful curation, striking type, and complimentary coffee at Spaziovento.

Writer: Gabriel Annouka

SPAZIOVENTO Via Pinamonte da Vimercate 4, 20121 Milano

A shop of luxury ‘essentials’

Magniberg and NM3 stage a residential installation that doubles as a shop of exclusive essentials – its title, ‘What Money Can Buy’ is the clearest statement of intent. It's a match made in heaven. Writer: Rosa Bertoli

Kvadrat Residential showroom, corso Monforte 15 (through the courtyard)

A landscape inspired by '2001: A Space Odyssey'

At Flos, Konstantin Grcic imagined a landscape inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey to be inhabited by his Nocturne collection . The lamp is shown among furniture printed on glass, like ghost shadows of familiar designs, and on an illuminated floor that gives an artificial glow to the setting. ‘The space feels more imagined than real,' reads a note introducing the exhibition. ‘Like the lamps themselves, it exists somewhere between presence and illusion-simple, quiet, and open to interpretation.’

Writer Rosa Bertoli

Corso Monforte 15

Erwan Bouroullec’s 'Maap' for Flos

Erwan Bouroullec’s 'Maap' for Flos is presented as a wall of light in the company’s showroom. See the creative home where Erwan Bouroullec's designs come to life, below.

Writer Rosa Bertoli

Corso Monforte

Discover emerging Catalan designers

Dos Mil Quatre-Cents Setanta Grams. Una Mostra di Design Catalano presents 12 pieces by emerging Catalan designers at Ventana, each set to 2470 grams. A single, calculated weight, drawn from averaged measurements of IKEA furniture and lighting, sets the terms across ceramics, textiles, metal and glass within a compact display.

Writer Gabriel Annouka

VENTANA, Via Plinio 37

Discover Aldo Cibic's ceramic landscapes

'Aldo Cibic: Small Ritual Landscapes' at Antonia Jannone Disegni di Architettura presents ceramic landscapes conceived as architectural fragments, formed through slab construction. Alongside the 11 sculptures, original drawings tracing each work are also on view.

Writer Gabriel Annouka

Antonia Jannone Disegni di Architettura, Corso Garibaldi 125, 20121 Milano

Bottling sunshine with Yinka Ilori

This morning, I popped by a panel discussion hosted by Wallpaper* and Veuve Clicquot set within Yinka Ilori's cheery installation, Chasing the Sun. The chat, hosted by Wallpaper*'s Milan editor Laura May Todd, delved into creativity and how design, by centering storytelling and optimism, can be a force of good in the world. Ilori's mission? To 'touch people through joy.' Cheers to that!

Be sure to pop by the space, which includes an outdoor Veuve Clicquot cafe and gift store filled with Ilori-designed merch, while you still can!

Read more about the Yinka Ilori' x Veuve Clicquot collaboration here

Writer Anna Fixsen

Mediateca Santa Teresa, Via della Moscova 28, 20121 Milan

Nieuwe Instituut explores sustainability and community through design

Rotterdam's museum for architecture and design, Nieuwe Instituut, is in Milan again this year, presenting CIVICITY at Villa Mirabello. The exhibition (new director Yesomi Umolu's first) zooms into the sustainability, social and spatial challenges of global fairs and takes the form of a dynamic creative residency for the duration of the festival. Designers Demo-practice and Ned Kaar are the two main, new participants this year – the output includes the notion of pizza as a key cultural element that brings together local and migrant communities.

Writer Ellie Stathaki

Via Villa Mirabello, 6, 20125 Milan

Salone del Mobile’s first Contract Forum

One of Salone del Mobile’s big announcements this year was its dedicated Contract Forum day, which aims to kick-start a discussion and offer a taste of what Salone Contract 2027 will offer in a year’s time. During a day of panels and lectures at the main fairground’s Drafting Futures Arena, lead architects Rem Koohlaas and David Gianotten of OMA guided a conversation around what contract means, who is it for, and what we can expect from the first-ever Salone focus on contract furniture and spaces.

Writer Ellie Stathaki

Drafting Futures Arena (Pavilion 14) at the Fiera Milano, Rho fairgrounds

Antoine Billore presents an apartment of curiosities

A heady scent emanating from a leafy courtyard in Milan’s Loreto neighbourhood this week is the only indication of the treasures that lie within. Step inside to find a ground-floor apartment furnished by ‘off-beat’ antiques dealer Antoine Billore – one of this year’s under-the-radar highlights. Conceived by Billore as a cabinet of curiosities, the home is filled with antiques he has sourced, shown alongside his own small furniture collection featuring wooden marquetry.

‘L’appartement’ taps into a growing appetite for more attainable, imperfect interiors in an industry often dominated by high polish, while capturing the feel of nosing around someone’s private home – which, if we’re honest, is every design enthusiast’s guilty pleasure. The scent, meanwhile, comes courtesy of L’Artisan Parfumeur, which partnered with Billore on the show to celebrate its 50th anniversary.

Writer Ali Morris

Via Giovanni Lulli 2, Milan 20131

Nina Yashar imagines a collector’s apartment at Via della Spiga

Nilufar’s ‘Le Pied-à-Terre Cosmopolite’, curated by Nina Yashar, transforms part of the Milanese gallery into a 70 sqm apartment imagined as the home of a worldly collector. Devoid of windows, atmosphere is built through carefully placed lighting and rich colour. As Yashar puts it, it is ‘a compact space yet intensely lived in, where every object tells a story and design becomes a natural part of everyday life.’

Writer Ali Morris

Nilufar Gallery, Via della Spiga, 32, 20121 Milan

Pierre Frey’s ‘Allegory of the Loom’ lands in Milan

Conceived as a scenographic showcase by art director and designer Johanna de Clisson, Maison Pierre Frey’s ‘Allegory of the Loom’ is an immersive installation celebrating the house’s textile expertise. Housed within a structure designed to resemble a newly landed spaceship, lengths of patterned fabric unfurl across platforms and seating, revealing the material, process and craftsmanship behind the collection. Beyond the installation, pieces are arranged within the showroom’s wood-panelled interior, picking up the colours of the ceiling mural above.

Writer Ali Morris

Via Fatebenefratelli, 3, 20121 Milan

Laila Gohar’s delightful vegetable carousel

If there's one thing that broke our Insta feeds this Milan Design Week, it was the whimsical veggie carousel Laila Gohar created for Scandinavian lifestyle brand Arket. Even though it was ubiquitous on my socials, the experience of taking a spin on a gigantic radish proved to be the highlight of my week. It was sheer joy to watch design creatures, parents and bambini alike queue up to give the carousel a whirl — all with huge grins on their faces. Read more about Laila Gohar's carousel for Arket here

Anna Fixsen

Giardino delle Arti, Via Aldo Palazzeschi, 00137 Rome, Italy

A peek inside Piero Fornasetti’s former residence

A private tour of Casa Fornasetti was a welcome surprise at a dînatoire hosted by PR agency Alpha Kilo and investor Daniel English. The former home and studio of the legendary designer remains in family ownership, housing his archive, atelier and the offices of his foundation. Long familiar to the international design community for its annual Salone gathering – a fixture of the week’s closing celebrations. Overflowing with art, objects, books, colour and pattern at every turn, it is a maximalist’s dream.

Visits by appointment only.

Writer Ali Morris

Salone del Mobile highlights: Knoll

At the fair, Knoll presented a mix of its historical icons by the likes of Mies van der Rohe and Eero Saarinen, alongside contemporary pieces by Willo Perron and Dozie Kanu, demonstrating the strength of its portfolio that successfully merges design tradition, innovation, and modernity.

Writer Rosa Bertoli

Fiera Milano Rho, Strada Statale del Sempione, 28 20017 Rho (Milan)

Salone del Mobile highlights: Gufram, Memphis and Meritalia

Gufram, Memphis and Meritalia’s shared booth is a brilliant effort to showcase how you can live with radical design in a domestic environment, with iconic reissues including Masanori Umeda’s Ring for Memphis and new works by Faye Toogood, Philippe Malouin and Objects of Common Interest for Meritalia.

Writer Rosa Bertoli

Fiera Milano Rho, Strada Statale del Sempione, 28 20017 Rho (Milan)

Salone del Mobile highlights: Minotti

At Minotti, Orion by Giampiero Tagliaferri is a modular constellation of seating based on an aluminium frame, while his Doheny shelving system is based on a central track (inspired by Doheny Drive in LA).

Writer Rosa Bertoli

Fiera Milano Rho, Strada Statale del Sempione, 28 20017 Rho (Milan)

Salone del Mobile highlights: Minotti

Elsewhere at the Minotti stand, the company displays a showcase of the breadth of its expertise with upholstered furniture, with a diverse offering including pieces by GamFratesi, Nendo, Hannes Peer and Marcio Kogan.

Writer Rosa Bertoli

Fiera Milano Rho, Strada Statale del Sempione, 28 20017 Rho (Milan)

Salone del Mobile highlights: B&B Italia

B&B Italia’s stand by Formafantasma instantly suggests the company’s new vision, defined by clarity and dedicated to elevating the pure furniture designs by Vincent Van Duysen, Ronan Bouroullec and Michael Anastassiades.

Writer Rosa Bertoli

Fiera Milano Rho, Strada Statale del Sempione, 28 20017 Rho (Milan)

Salone del Mobile highlights: B&B Italia

Richard Sapper’s Nena, a 1984 folding design, is brought back in a delicious velvet palette. Originally designed for B&B Italia, it is equipped with a hook and imagined to be hung in a wardrobe for storage.

Writer Rosa Bertoli

Fiera Milano Rho, Strada Statale del Sempione, 28 20017 Rho (Milan)

Salone del Mobile highlights: Tacchini

Entering Tacchini’s booth, one has the impression of stepping into a 1980s-inspired house – Faye Toogood’s Butter seating system appears in different material interpretations, a mix of extreme comfort and versatile design.

Writer Rosa Bertoli

Fiera Milano Rho, Strada Statale del Sempione, 28 20017 Rho (Milan)

Celebrating 40 years of Technogym’s Unica

Forty years ago, Nerio Alessandri’s Unica transformed gym equipment into a one-stop-shop piece of design. The Technogym showroom installation celebrates this milestone by looking back at the personalities – from sport to pop culture – who have been Unica users throughout its history, starting with Sylvester Stallone.

Writer Rosa Bertoli

Technogym Milano, Via Durini 1, 20122 Milan,

Giobagnara Art Editions and Gary Hume collaborate

Among the week’s most inspiring collaborations is this series of limited edition pieces by Giobagnara Art Editions and Gary Hume: cast aluminium and leather marquetry referencing the British artist’s work on trays, boxes, room dividers, and a drinks cabinet. The collaboration was orchestrated by the always brilliant Wallpaper* Quality Maniac at Large, Nick Vinson.

Writer Rosa Bertoli

Via della Spiga 33, Milan

Chopsticks are at the heart of this showcase

At S-3 Site, ‘Chopsticks’ explores the object as a vessel of memory and tradition, with 16 East Asian creatives reinterpreting it through their own cultural lens.

Writer Gabriel Annouka

Via Pietro Giannone 3, Milano

New works by LS gomma

The doorman almost didn't let us into the building but we are very happy we managed to persuade him and were able to see these new works by LS gomma, a design studio working in mesh wire ‘painted’ with rubber.

Writer Rosa Bertoli

Address: by invitation only

Casa NM3 explores domestic opportunities with their designs

Casa NM3 is an opportunity for the Milanese studio to showcase the domestic opportunities of their products. Based on simple modular models, their metal sheets become display units, tables, seating and beds, and the new works include a marble-topped table and a lamp created in collaboration with 6:AM.

Writer Rosa Bertoli

Via Carlo Farini 93

A reimagined Frankfurt kitchen

This tiny, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it underground space hosts Antwerp studio Soft Baroque’s interpretation of the Frankfurt kitchen. Titled ‘Ghost Kitchen’, the installation is ‘an attempt to inject energy, deserialise and fantasise about the standard chipboard material’ that is often used in standard kitchens nowadays,

Writer Rosa Bertoli

Via Leone Pancaldo 12

Singapore designers showcase problem-solving prowess

DesignSingapore Council returns to Milan this year with a new exhibition titled ‘Prototype Island’. Curated by Hunn Wai, co-founder of Lanzavecchia + Wai and assistant curator Eian Siew, the exhibition explores Singapore as a living prototype nation, showcasing 15 evolving, optimising and future-proofing designs from Singapore-based designers. Writer: Rosie Cave

10 Corso Como becomes a crossroads for contemporary visions

An iconic destination for Fuorisalone, the concept store 10 Corso Como becomes a crossroads for contemporary visions, with collective showcases across fashion, design, and jewellery.
Moncler takes over the Gallery to present its new summer collection, while the Project Room hosts 'Fluid Re-Collection' by Linde Freya Tangelder in collaboration with Cassina. In the Pop-Up, Visionnaire presents a capsule design NM3, and the Mezzanine features an installation by Imperfettolab. In the store, KINRADEN unveils its new 'Stilos' collection alongside a selection of high jewellery with an architectural design.

See our image gallery above featuring Moncler’s ‘Have A Puffy Summer’ giant inflated octopus on top of the building, Visionnaire’s collaboration capsule with Milanese studio NM3, including a daybed, table, lounge chair and stools, and the 'Fluid Re-Collection' by Linde Freya Tangelder in collaboration with Cassina.

Writer Olly Mason

Corso Como, 10, 20154 Milano MI, Italy

Flaer’s nature-inspired worlds debut in Milan

For its Milan Design Week debut, Flaer staged its furniture across three immersive rooms where its new collections inhabit natural scenarios enriched by the light of the desert and the sea.

Writer Rosa Bertoli

Via Fatebenefratelli 5, Milan

Cassina’s curiosity cabinet

Cassina under the creative direction of Patricia Urquiola is always a cabinet of larger-than-life curiosities. Among the company's new launches is the new Ardys sofa by Urquiola, an embodiment of the designer's ongoing research into the way classic upholstered furniture can be innovated through new materials and techniques, and 1980s chairs by Gaetano Pesce that make it into the catalogue for the first time (they had strictly been a collector's item until now). Elsewhere in the showroom, Ronan Bouroullec's Treflo table features a four metre long glass top, the longest possible for the material ('for a piece of glass, it is an honour to get to this dimension,' Urquiola poetically explained). It was also great to see new lighting designs by Mario Tsai among the company's offering.

Cassina's ongoing celebrations of I Maestri, the masters of mid century design, is taking a new turn as the company prepares to celebrate its first century next year. Upholstered in bright yellow velvet, iconic designs by Le Corbusier and Afra and Tobia Scarpa are presented in a theatre-like setting on the showroom's top floor. 'I don't want to be nostalgic, or use the word "timeless": I believe in a transformative approach to design that transcend time,' Urquiola told us.

Writer Rosa Bertoli

Via Durini 16, Milan

Dedar presents Versi Liberi

The uniqueness of textile customisation encounters the immediacy of a ready-made product.

Versi Liberi emphatically reinvents the traditional textile genre of the placed motif, popular from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries: its refinement and expressive force are combined to bring it into the world of contemporary interior design. Thanks to elaborate embroidery and printing techniques, which confer a marked three-dimensionality, Versi Liberi fabrics give interiors a strong identity.
The placed fabrics are accompanied by the large-scale panels for curtain use.

Through this new format, Versi Liberi broadens its visual scope and revisits the idea of flounce fabrics, bringing it decisively into the contemporary context. Each of these large panels combines two fabrics from the collection to create a wide expanse of colour. A special faux embroidery technique provides the joining stitch between them, producing a subtle gradation.

Versi Liberi is expressed through a visual and tactile language that spans time: the past is reconciled with the present, revealing the full transformative power of textile within space. Embroidery, freed from any form of affectation, becomes an essential mark.

Writer Olly Mason

Versi Liberi, Via Lazzaretto 15, Milan

Margraf x Hannes Peer

La Casa Di Marmo, the immersive installation presented by Margraf on the occasion of Milan Design Week, created in collaboration with Hannes Peer. The project explores the dialogue between material and design, placing Santafiora stone, Margraf’s new exclusive material, at the centre of a narrative that redefines the relationship between natural stone and architecture. The space transforms a private underground garage into an immersive and serene space.

Writer Olly Mason

Spazio Cernaia, Via Cernaia 1, Milan

Rubelli presents ‘Ai Weiwei – About Silk’

Exploring the boundaries of art and textiles, the Venetian textile company Rubelli presents an immersive installation at its Milan showroom featuring two original designs by Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei. 'The Animal that Looks like a Llama but is Actually an Alpaca' and 'Finger' feature bold motifs such as surveillance cameras, chains, and the Twitter bird that trace the artist's history and struggles. For the first time, Ai Weiwei entrusts his message to silk – a material that connects his homeland to Rubelli's craft and expertise in Italy. The installation, under the creative direction of Formafantasma, will also showcase a collection of historical artifacts and an original documentary film about the project created by Argentine director Felipe Sanguinetti.

Writer Olly Mason

Via Fatebenefratelli 9, Milan

Taxi for Wallpaper*!

Have you seen these cars? A fleet of Fiat Topolinos has been whizzing about Milan, each car custom-dressed in a livery to match one of our four new Wallpaper* Travel guides – to Milan, Paris, New York and London – which we launched in the city this week. Small truly has been beautiful, especially when it came to getting up close to the city’s landmarks for a bit of four-wheeled sightseeing. If you’ve spotted this cute quartet around Milan this week, post your pictures and tag us on Instagram @wallpapermag

Its Muller Van Severen's birthday! Blow out the candle(holders)

Muller Van Severen celebrate its fifteenth anniversary with an exhibition of giant candle-holders made of aluminium, and alluding to some of the shapes that are recurring in the pair's work. The exhibition, in collaboration with Apartamento, Tim Van Laere Gallery, and BD Barcelona (who have also created small version of the candle-holders, available to buy on-site), also marks the debut of the studio's monograph, titled A Lot of Work chronicling the designer's visual universe.

Writer Rosa Bertoli

Ordet ​, Via Filippino Lippi 4, 20131 Milan

'The Private Lives of Objects' at Flexform

At Flexform, an exhibition titled 'The Private Lives of Objects' featured new furniture including new chairs by Patrick Norguet and a table by Sebastian Herkner. The pieces were shown against a backdrop of larger-than-life illustrations bringing a playful approach to the space, featuring popular games reproduced in pastel colours, from Checkers to Jenga.

Writer Rosa Bertoli

Via della Moscova, Milan

Reimagining heritage at Barovier & Toso

The Barovier & Toso showroom in Milan offered a masterclass in innovating a historical glass brand. Under Luca Nichetto's art direction (which among other things features a newly launched brand identity by Studio Blanco), the Venetian glass company presented new and exciting work by the likes of Claesson Koivisto Rune, Studio Lani, Keiji Ashizawa and García Cumini.

Writer Rosa Bertoli

Via Durini, 5, 20122 Milan

Even dogs love Edra's new releases

Milan is a city of great dogs, but our favourite last week was Blu, Edra co-founder and vice-president Monica Mazzei's Australian shepherd. He made for a fun accompaniment to the Tuscan company's new collections, which included extruded polycarbonate lamps by Jacopo Foggini welcoming us into the courtyard (pictured), and a sofa by Francesco Binfaré defined by movement.

Writer Rosa Bertoli

Via Durini, 24, 20122 Milano MI, Italy

Dragons of Walton Street fiery new collection

Marking the launch of Dragons of Walton Street's first collection under the new creative director, Carlo Colombo, a presentation hosted in collaboration with Vitale Barberis Canonico, introduces a new chapter for the brand and showcases the brand's latest design collection: 'The Dragon’s House' . This includes the 'Twinkle Vanity Unit', 'Dragon Sofa', 'Little One Chair', miniature directors chairs, and a textured dragon stool.

Writer Olly Mason

Spazio Vitale Barberis Canonico, on Via Solferino 23A

Slow down and reflect in Italy's oldest bookshop

Milan Design Week this year was a paradise for book lovers. Among the literary pop-ups across the city was Davines' literary salon at legendary Libreria Bocca, Italy's oldest bookshop dating back to 1775. Twice daily during the week, the pop-up offered readings and sessions dedicated to poetry, literature and conversations based on caring for nature and humanity through culture. As the brand framed it, it was 'an opportunity to slow down, reflect and feel part of the harmony and wonder that the natural world offers us.'

Writer Rosa Bertoli

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II

Nike’s return to Milan Design Week arrives with an unusual proposition: to centre an exhibition on something you can’t see. Taking over five disused railway tunnels in Dropcity, the brand has created Nike Air_Lab – an exploration of air as a design material.

Each of the tunnels draws on Nike's 50-year experience in designing with air but also considers its wider usage in design and manufacturing. 'Air is this magical ingredient,' Nike Chief Design Officer, Martin Lotti tells Wallpaper* two days before the Lab's grand opening. 'And what I love is that it's invisible – so how do you make the invisible visible?'

From a showcase of inventor Frank Rudy’s original experiments, a filing cabinet full of Air Max grails and everything in between. The latest athlete innovations are joined by nearly 100 never-before-seen, future-forward prototypes. Cutting-edge machinery and a curated selection of reading materials are on offer, with talks, listening sessions and hands-on workshops held daily.

Visitors are taken on a journey through the multiple spaces, shifting in tone and tempo. From a stark white NASA-like workshop featuring heavy machinery through the Air archives and into the Air Library: a chill-out space which turns a gigantic air bubble into furniture, the Lab is a sensory and interactive experience, as opposed to a standard exhibition.

'There's probably one too many exhibitions already,' says Lotti of the format. 'The spirit is definitely more of a lab.'

Crucially, the Air Lab is intended to continue beyond Milan Design Week. 'We will invite the creative community to come and work here and use the machinery,' Lotti explains. 'This is not like a circus that comes in town and then leaves – which I think is often what happens during Design Week,' he notes. 'We handpicked all of the machinery specifically and it will stay at Dropcity to be used by students and professionals in the future. So it's something that has a lasting contribution.'

That emphasis on longevity is matched by a willingness to show process over polish. 'I'm not showing just finished projects, but a view behind the curtain,' Lotti says. An expansive table of protoypes from early shoes to the latest in cooling technology is laid out on a specimen table for visitors to examine.

For Lotti, the project also marks a broader return to Salone. 'Nike is a design company at its core,' he says, positioning the brand within a wider creative context. 'And Milan is like the Oscars for design. It felt crazy to me that we haven't been here for all this time.'

First returning to the city for the Winter Olympics in January, to unveil the Therma-FIT Air Milano Jacket, it felt authentic for Nike to come back 'with a different lens and opening up the aperture to a different audience.'

The future is already beginning to take shape in how Nike is rethinking and expanding its use of air. For decades, it has been contained within the sole of a shoe; now it is moving across the body. The result is a new generation of Nike garments that use air to adapt to extreme conditions: pieces that inflate, deflate and adapt as the body moves.

Where the Therma-FIT allows athletes to regulate warmth without adding or removing layers, using air itself as the insulating medium.

Another – Radical AirFlow – takes the opposite approach, channelling air to cool the body in extreme conditions. 'It’s capturing the air differently,' Lotti explains, 'We've created a long sleeve garment, with holes built like little cyclones. It's like having an air conditioner with you.' This activewear is put to the test in the lab, with athletes running in place in front of a heater while a heat sensor monitors their temperature. The unique technology – a simple idea, based on geometry – has already helped the all-conditions racing department athlete, Calen Olson, achieve first place in the Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run. He described the experience of wearing Radical AirFlow as 'stepping into a fridge'.

The timing is not incidental. With the 2028 Summer Olympics on the horizon – expected to be among the hottest on record – these experiments are preparatory. 'Just think about the problems the athletes will face.' In that context, air is harnessed as a tool being reworked in response to climate, performance and the limits of the human body.

Seen this way, NikeAir_Lab is about reframing how innovation is understood. 'It's a peek behind the curtain – exploring an ingredient, showing the process, and showing failures,' Lotti says. 'As an innovation company, you go four steps forward and three step backwards. So the lab is a very honest assessment of what the design process looks like.'

Nike Air_Lab is at Dropcity. Via Sammartini 72 20125, Milano.

Amid the din of design news that clamours for our attention each April, the arrival of a new member of the Salone del Mobile family dedicated to collectible design deserves pause for thought.

This year, pavilions 9-11 at the Fiera Milano fairground have been given over to Salone Raritas, which will play host to 25 international exhibitors in a lantern-like space designed by Formafantasma. One might skim over this news as just another cultural activation by the Salone juggernaut, but there is much to be said about what Salone Raritas represents in a microcosmic sense about our industry as a whole.

Industrial design fairs are in decline: IMM Cologne cancelled its 2025 edition, while the Stockholm Furniture Fair will return as a biennial event from 2027. Conversely, events for collectible design have great momentum behind them, not just in number but in economic potential and ‘engagement and reach'.

They are fun, cultured places to be. Hitch your wagon to Collectible in New York, Fog in San Francisco, Unique Design X in Mexico City or the travelling Nomad, and you will find storied environments, where curated furniture sits comfortably with contextual resonance and you will be surrounded by well-dressed people enjoying themselves. And if you're not able to join this jolly circuit in person, fear not: you can follow along on Instagram, because these design pitstops are catnip for celebrities and influencers alike.

Is collectible design the most successful realm of design today? Does the arrival of Salone Raritas at the world's greatest design fair suggest that the industrial complex, and its broader promises of progress, are waning, in favour of a design market that behaves more like the art one? The whole notion of ‘rare' design sits in opposition to the post-war premise of industrial manufacture enabling better things for more people. Value was a consequence of efficiency, function and form; scarcity was never the goal.

Salone del Mobile's president Maria Porro is characteristically frank and buoyant when discussing the integration of limited-edition design into the fair. ‘We are living in a post-disciplinary creative culture,' she says. She breezily mentions Carlo Mollino and Andrea Branzi as maestri who enjoyed playing with the balance of industrial and collectible design, ‘like acrobats balancing on a tightrope'.

She goes back further to William Morris, founder of the Arts and Crafts movement, who, she notes ‘produced both patterns and unique pieces for interior environments. Industrial and one-off designs have been part of the interior design toolkit for well over a century. Salone Raritas is a response to understanding what our audience wants. It's time to give space to collectible objects, showing antiques and craft alongside contemporary industrial design. For us, it's a way to underline the role of research and experimentation and craftsmanship at the base of industrial production.'

Porro suggests that Salone's audience of interior designers, architects and developers are looking for a layer of collectible design to add to their projects as a special sauce. For Porro, the market is expanding as traditionally siloed fields become ever more porous; one sector is not growing at the expense of another.

Salone Raritas is curated by Annalisa Rosso, an anthropologist by training with an interesting insight into our shifting demands for design. ‘It's not only about money, rarity and exclusivity; it's about identity,' she says. ‘After years of being able to travel anywhere and stay in a hotel that has the same furniture, whether you are in New York or New Delhi, means that today we want things to reflect people and place. We express our individuality through design; it has the power to reflect who we are and where we come from.'

Specificity is certainly a buzzword in design these days. You might also call it craft and, as Rosso suggests, this realm responds to our greater desire for meaning in interiors as in life. If we want emotional connection with our design, then the workshop is an easier wellspring than the factory.

Nina Yashar, of Nilufar, is one of the 25 inaugural exhibitors at Salone Raritas. Her presence is a mighty vote of confidence in the new venture, given that Yashar has two sought-after venues of her own in Milan. She does not need the floorspace at the fairground for visibility. ‘Salone Raritas is a wonderful opportunity because it allows us to place our approach to collectible design within a larger, institutional context,' says Yashar. ‘Via della Spiga and Nilufar Depot are our own intimate ecosystems, where we can experiment freely. Raritas doesn't replace these spaces – it amplifies them, giving us a wider stage.

‘Both the fairs we participate in and the market for collectible design have evolved enormously since 2016,' Yashar continues. ‘The audience has become younger and more diverse. Fair programmes now include talks, special visits, and openings of historic houses; food and beverage experiences have also become central. The challenge remains to preserve authenticity and a deep connection to artistic expression while offering these richer, more immersive experiences.'

Dan Thawley is artistic director of the wildly successful upstart Matter and Shape in Paris, where collectible and industrial design sit comfortably side by side. What is his take on whether the furniture fair of old is a thing of the past? ‘I am convinced that it is the format and the context that is the problem, not the quality of industrially produced design, nor that there is a perpetual hunger for niche collectible design,' says Thawley. ‘Formats need to adapt to the new reality of their audience and consider the atmosphere and service that go with it.'

In the case of Salone Raritas, there is only so much immersion that is possible in the hangar-like halls of the Rho-Pero fairground, even with Formafantasma's magic wands. With a strong commitment from the Salone team that Raritas is here to stay, it will be interesting to see whether future iterations depart the fairground in favour of a more culturally immersive home. One thing's for sure, though: collectible design is no longer just for collectors, it is now a mainstream venture.

Salone Del Mobile 2026 returns from 21-26 April, Fiera Milano, 20017 Rho

salonemilano.it

At Wallpaper*, there is a decided buzz leading up to Salone del Mobile and Milan Design Week.

We discuss it all year long, we plan our routes weeks in advance, we spend our days talking to our Milanese and international friends about their plans, their projects, and their installations.

To make things easier, we have created this map of some of the exhibitions we are most excited about visiting, ranging from celebrations of design history giants to creative installations by new-guard pioneers. If you want to find out more of our must-see moments, pick up a copy of the Wallpaper* May issue, and follow us on Wallpaper.com, where our team will be sharing their findings in a live blog throughout the week.

And our love for this city is such that we have dedicated one of our inaugural Travel Guides to Milan. Find us via the star on the map, and make sure you come and say hello.

The Wallpaper* Kiosk. Via Rivoli, corner Via Tivoli

Wallpaper* Kiosk

Wallpaper* takes over a traditional Milanese kiosk to mark the return of our Travel Guides, the essential companion for today’s design lover.

Drop by to pick up a copy of one of our new series covering Milan, Paris, New York City and London, and to check out our DWA-designed kiosk alongside new furniture by NM3.

Via Rivoli, corner Via Tivoli

Nilufar Grand Hotel

Gallerist Nina Yashar’s Nilufar Depot is Milan’s ultimate treasure trove of modern and contemporary furniture. This year, this gigantic dollhouse-like space becomes the set for an immersive grand hotel, with bedrooms by David/Nicolas, Filippo Carandini, Bethan Laura Wood and Allegra Hicks.

Viale Vincenzo Lancetti 34

Salone del Mobile

This year, Salone embraces the world of collectible design with the launch of Salone Raritas. Taking place in a space designed by Formafantasma, the exhibition will open the fair up to unique pieces, limited editions and ‘outsider’ objects. Salone also debuts a new programme, led by OMA, dedicated to contract furniture.

Fiera Milano Rho

Triennale Milano

The city’s leading cultural design institution presents a line-up of creative excellence, including a solo exhibition of Barber Osgerby’s work, celebrations of Danish design by Fredericia and Kvadrat, Kettal’s Eames Pavilion System, and an overview of the work of Lella and Massimo Vignelli.

Viale Emilio Alemagna 6

Alcova

Design platform Alcova is showing at two locations: a former military hospital and a rationalist gem designed by Franco Albini. Projects include an initiative honouring the legacy of architect Luisa Castiglioni (at Pestarini) and works by leading European architecture and design schools (at Baggio).

Villa Pestarini / Baggio Military Hospital

Dropcity

Located in the arches of Milan’s Central Station, the Andrea Caputo-designed centre for design and architecture research comes to life during Milan Design Week when more than ten studios, showcasing ceramics, textiles, woodworking, model making, 3D production and more, will be open to the public.

Via Giovanni Battista Sammartini 60

Hermès

Don’t leave Milan without popping into Hermès: the French maison’s takeover of La Pelota, a venue in the heart of the Brera design district, regularly enchants and excites with larger-than-life installations whose inspirational concepts merge culture and history with pieces from its home collections, old and new.

Rosewood

Curated by Wallpaper* contributing editor Deyan Sudjic, ‘Rosewood: Objects that Speak. A Conversation Continued with Andrea Branzi’ is an exhibition honouring the influential Italian designer’s legacy. On display are Branzi’s signature paper lamps, a result of his research into ‘unrepeatable sequences’.

Via Carlo de Cristoforis 1

Veuve Cliquot

Artist Yinka Ilori has collaborated with Veuve Clicquot on a limited- edition collection, ‘Chasing the Sun’, on show at Mediateca Santa Teresa. It includes a reinterpretation of the Clicquot arrow, as well as a Champagne bucket and a series of portable drinking vessels that are more akin to sunlit sculptures.

Via della Moscova 28

Fiat

Join the car brand that continues to redefine urban mobility for a look back and a leap forward. This exhibition traces how Fiat has evolved design-wise while still remaining faithful to its roots. Also on show are a series of new visions for the future, shared by leading Italian design schools.

Via Tortona 15

Sima Glazed Bar

Our Milan Travel Guide Insider Massimiliano Locatelli is the creative behind this takeover of the Sima Townhouse, which is housed in a building dating back to 1590.

Featuring hand-painted ceramic tiles made in Vietnam using traditional techniques, the project includes mosaics of bottles and cocktails.

Corso di Porta Vigentina 12

Polish Modernism

The 16th floor of the landmark Torre Velasca hosts this multilayered exhibition presented by the Visteria Foundation. ‘Polish Modernism: A Struggle for Beauty’ explores the country’s post-war legacy through a mix of historical and contemporary works to highlight the role of beauty as cultural resistance.

Torre Velasca, Piazza Velasca 3-5

Marni

One of Milan’s most fashionable pasticceria, Cucchi provides a striking setting for Marni’s unique celebration of the city’s rich design culture. More than a pop-up, the project was designed with interior design studio Red Duo to create a multisensory experience lasting more than three months.

Cucchi, Corso Genova 1

Lina Ghotmeh

Architect Lina Ghotmeh takes over the courtyard of Palazzo Litta, with ‘Metamorphosis in Motion’, a bold-hued labyrinthine installation based on her ‘archaeology of the future’ philosophy and inspired by the history of the location and the courtyard’s role as a public space of reception and representation.

Palazzo Litta, Corso Magenta 24

Miu Miu

The fourth edition of Miu Miu’s literary club, ‘Politics of Desire’, explores themes of sexuality, desire and consent through the work of Nobel Prize-winning French author Annie Ernaux and Ghanaian writer, politician and academic Ama Ata Aidoo, alongside a programme of lectures and performances.

Circolo Filologico Milanese, Via Clerici 10

When Apricots Blossom

Architect Kulapat Yantrasast curates this immersive show commissioned by the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation. Inspired by the country’s intricate bread stamps, flora and suzani tapestries are contemporary interpretations by the likes of Nifemi Marcus-Bello, Marcin Rusak and Raw-Edges.

Palazzo Citterio, Via Brera 12

Reference Library by Jil Sander

Jil Sander and Apartamento asked 60 creatives from across the globe to contribute a book to this immersive library. Presented like illuminated art objects on lecterns through an installation by Studioutte, the library invites a moment of pause, as guests are given a pair of white gloves and invited to browse, read, and discover the ideas on display.

Via Luca Beltrami 5, Milan

Kelly Wearstler H&M Home

Kelly Wearstler, queen of the maximalist interior, will be at Milan Design Week 2026 to launch a new furniture collection designed in tandem with H&M Home. The collection includes chairs, tables and lamps, as well as a series of tabletop items, ranging from wooden vases to drinking glasses, and will be presented through an installation by Studio Boum at Palazzo Acerbi, a 17th-century baroque palace that has long been closed to the public.

Palazzo Acerbi, Corso di Porta Romana 3, Milan

Bethan Laura Wood for Baccarat

After a decade of absence, Baccarat makes its grand return to Milan Design Week, debuting a starry collaboration with Bethan Laura Wood, who took the crystal brand’s classic ‘Zénith’ chandelier as her starting point. The designs will form part of ‘Crystal Crypt’, a sci-fi-inspired experience devised by artist and curator Emmanuelle Luciani, who viewed Baccarat as ‘a temporal bubble, a vessel-cathedral of unique craftsmanship’.

Via Marco Formentini 10

As much as Milan Design Week is about the discovery of the industry’s latest ideas, it also offers an opportunity to explore unknown corners of the city itself. Known for hiding its architectural treasures behind unassuming façades, Milan opens its doors once a year and invites visitors inside. Many of these locations are familiar by now — favourite exhibition places include the Rationalist Villa Necchi Campiglio and Palazzo Litta, a Baroque palace — but there are still surprises to be found.

This year, a number of organisers have secured access to spaces that the Design Week-going public will be experiencing for the first time. From public swimming complexes to richly decorated private apartments, here is a selection of never-before-used locations to discover this week.

Fuorisalone 2026: new locations to discover at Milan Design Week this year

Villa Pestarini - Alcova

The Modernist-style villa by the Italian architect Franco Albini has remained a private family home since its completion in 1939, so it’s a rare opportunity that the founders of Alcova have secured its use as one of the fair’s two locations (the other is at the nearby Baggio military hospital). From the outside, it appears as a pure rectangular volume: the street façade is defined by a large glass block panel punctuated by vertical windows, while the garden side opens into broader glazed surfaces. Originally conceived across two floors, the villa was expanded in 1949 with a third level clad in white corrugated metal. Visitors will find Albini’s interiors reanimated through installations by Patricia Urquiola for Haworth and Cassina, alongside projects by Luisa Castiglioni, Kiki Goti, Sophie Dries and others.

Via Mogadiscio, 2/4

Convey Building - Convey

Following their takeover of an entire street in Porta Venezia for their annual design showcase, Convey — led by Riccardo Crenna and Simona Flacco of the creative agency Simple Flair — will occupy the entirety of a Modernist apartment building from 1958 by Ottavio Cabiati and Luigi Brambilla as it awaits redevelopment. Set over five storeys and crowned by a 360-degree rooftop terrace, the building is a quintessential Milanese apartment block, with a ceppo di Gré façade at street level, terrazzo flooring and a monumental entranceway. The building will host brands, events and activations throughout Milan Design Week.

Via San Senatore 10

Palazzo Acerbi - Kelly Wearstler H&M Home

Scandinavian retail giant H&M Home is making its Design Week debut with a new collaboration with the LA-based designer Kelly Wearstler — and has chosen a suitably historic setting. The 17th-century Palazzo Acerbi will open during Design Week for the first time, offering visitors a chance to experience its baroque frescoes and richly decorated interiors up close. Located on Corso di Porta Romana, the palazzo is defined by a sober exterior that gives way to an ornate internal courtyard and elaborately frescoed rooms, typical of Milanese baroque architecture.

Corso di Porta Romana, 3

Piscina Romano - 6:AM glass

Set in the leafy Città Studi district, named for its concentration of faculties of the Politecnico di Milano, the Piscina Romano swimming complex directly neighbours a cluster of university buildings designed by Gio Ponti in the 1950s. Built by Luigi Secchi in 1937, the exhibition will be installed within a Rationalist-style pavilion that is still used as the complex’s changing rooms. Defined by a soaring barrel-vaulted ceiling, 6:AM plan to take advantage of the vertical volume to build architectural-scale, site-specific glass works within the space.

Via Giuseppe Zanoia, 2

Palazzo Olivazzi - Interni Venosta

Originally constructed in the 18th century, the neoclassical Palazzo Olivazzi on via Bigli remains home to some of Milan’s oldest and most established families, meaning its private apartments are as lavish as they are discreet. Britt Moran and Emiliano Salci — co-founders of the Milan-based Dimorestudio — have managed to briefly crack open the doors of one of the building’s most prestigious spaces to present their latest collection for Interni Venosta. Set within a residential apartment designed in 1936 by a young Osvaldo Borsani, the largely intact space was conceived as a Gesamtkunstwerk, with Borsani designing the architecture, furniture and fittings, including built-in cabinetry, seating and lighting.

Via Bigli 21

Crespi Bonsai Museum - Kengo Kuma x Jaipur Rugs

Founded in 1991, the Crespi Bonsai Museum houses one of the world’s most extensive bonsai collections outside Japan, with around 200 specimens exhibited in seasonal rotation. The collection includes rare and historic trees, some over a century old, alongside a reconstructed tokonoma, antique Japanese furnishings and a Zen garden. For Milan Design Week, Jaipur Rugs presents Faces, a 16-piece collection by Kengo Kuma inspired by the layered façades of his architecture, translated into handwoven rugs in natural tones and graphic patterns, shown in dialogue with the living collection.

SS33 del Sempione, 37, San Lorenzo di Parabiago, MI

At a moment when thermal bathing and sauna culture are experiencing a global resurgence, and as the biennial Salone Internazionale del Bagno returns to the Rho Fairground, we are fully expecting Milan Design Week 2026 to be awash with design-led bathing concepts. One such exhibit is The Flamingo Estate Bathhouse by Kohler, a serene collaboration between two American names: Richard Christiansen, founder of the 'pleasure-obsessed' Los Angeles-based lifestyle brand Flamingo Estate, and design-led kitchen and bathroom company Kohler.

Set within a leafy courtyard of the Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea during Fuorisalone, the multisensory installation will be anchored by a brutalist bathhouse made by Kohler and inspired by the one found on Christiansen's Los Angeles estate. The bathhouse was one of the first structures Christiansen built after he bought the seven-acre hillside site in 2013. Based on a photo of an Alamut fortress in ancient Persia – a place where soldiers would be taken to bathe and rest, described as 'a temple of pleasure' – Christiansen's three-storey bathhouse sits at the bottom of the estate's garden, where birdsong fills the air, and features a fireplace and a poured-concrete tub that orients toward the sunrise.

'It's a place of ritual – somewhere I go to slow down, reconnect, and be fully present with myself and with nature,' Christiansen tells Wallpaper. 'It’s deeply personal. Reinterpreting it in Milan is about translating that feeling into an entirely different context – bringing a sense of nature-infused calm into the heart of a highly energetic environment. It’s less about replicating the original structure, and more about capturing its spirit and sharing that with a large audience on the other side of the world.'

Surrounded by wild flowers, the Milan bathhouse will be clad in an intonachino plaster finish – an Italian architectural coating that mimics the mineral texture, softness, and weight of concrete but without the mass. Inside, large stained-glass windows and over 200 wall-mounted Flamingo Estate candles will create a calm, almost church-like interior. Here, visitors will find a new polished-copper edition of Kohler's freestanding enamelled cast iron bath.

Outside, four one-of-a-kind pollinator baths will be dotted throughout the wild garden – conceived by Christiansen, designed by Kohler's design director, JB Han, and cast in the brand's historic Wisconsin foundry. Each one has a brutalist cast iron form but simple geometric patterns forged across its interior surface. The patterns, Han says, are inspired by natural habitats – textured, patterned, and scaled to support birds, bees, and insects.

'At Kohler, we’ve been thinking deeply about how design can reconnect people to elemental experiences, water, light, material,' says Han, reflecting on the project's beginnings. 'When we encountered Richard’s world at Flamingo Estate, it felt like a natural alignment. There’s a similar reverence for nature, ritual, and sensory living. This project became an opportunity to translate that shared mindset into something spatial and experiential.'

For Christiansen, Kohler’s ability to operate at an industrial scale while retaining a sensitivity to material and making was significant – a balance that mirrors Flamingo Estate’s own ethos. The project in Milan, the pair hope, will encourage visitors to slow down and reconnect with their surroundings, while showing how design can actively participate in nature rather than sit apart from it.

'It’s about creating objects that serve a living purpose – supporting the circulation not only of water, but of life – reinforcing the idea that design can extend beyond human use to actively support ecological systems,' Han explains. '[The design process] required a shift in perspective, from designing for humans to designing within an ecosystem. Instead of focusing on ergonomics and human-centred use, we began thinking about coexistence, how form, material, and surface could support other living beings.'

In California, the water from the Flamingo Estate bathhouse runs directly into the garden and irrigates the plants below – something that led Christiansen to create his first line of shampoos and body washes made from regeneratively grown ingredients.

'In this day and age, there’s so much focus on newness, and this installation is a reminder that the most meaningful experiences often come from slowing down and engaging with the natural world,' reflects Christiansen. 'If people leave thinking a little differently about their relationship to nature, then we’ve done our job.'

The Flamingo Estate Bathhouse by Kohler runs from 20-26 April 2026 at Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Via Palestro, 14, 20121 Milan, Italy

Check our guide to Salone del Mobile and Milan Design Week 2026 ahead of and during the fair

Having trained in Nancy within a milieu of metalworking, Jean Prouvé preferred the title constructeur, which accounts for the name of Fondation CAB’s exhibition: not Jean Prouvé, architecte, but inventeur de maisons (‘Jean Prouvé, Inventor of Houses’ runs until 31 October 2026)

Designed in 1944, the 6x6 demountable house belongs to the first phase of France’s reconstruction, when bomb damage across Lorraine and Alsace left hundreds of thousands without shelter and the newly established Ministry of Reconstruction and Urbanism began commissioning housing that could be produced quickly and in volume. Prouvé’s answer was a house that could be brought in parts and raised by hand, without disturbing the ground more than necessary.

Jean Prouvé at Fondation CAB

At Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Fondation CAB occupies a midcentury building, a Mediterranean modernist villa. Its programme brings together minimal and conceptual art with 20th-century design – and it has a Jean Prouvé 6x6 house in the garden; the exhibition, organised with Laffanour Galerie Downtown, positions the 6x6 demountable house as part of a longer sequence of making and construction.

Inside, a chronological wall sets out Prouvé’s work with the clarity of a workshop record: forged iron doors for the 1925 Exposition des Arts Décoratifs; entrance grilles produced for Robert Mallet-Stevens; the founding of the Ateliers Jean Prouvé in Nancy in 1931; the Maison du Peuple in Clichy (1935), where folded steel sheet becomes structural; wartime barracks and the axial frames developed for SCAL in Issoire (1940); the aluminium structures of the Maison Tropicale (1949), with a double roof and brise-soleil regulating air before it enters the interior; and, later, the modular petrol stations developed for Total (1969-70).

Prouvé’s 6x6 demountable solution for emergency shelter reduced the house to a frame and a set of panels, dimensioned for easy transport and assembly; it could be put up in a day by three people, or four if you wanted to move quickly. Prouvé furnished his houses as carefully as he made them, not as an afterthought but to suggest how a life might be enjoyed inside them; his father, Victor Prouvé, belonged to the École de Nancy, and functional things, in his view, still had to please the eye.

Hubert Bonnet, founder of Fondation CAB (whose programme extends into Les Maisons CAB as a set of houses and rooms available for stays), describes the attraction: 'What first struck me about him was this rare ability to reconcile constructive rigour with formal clarity. In Prouvé’s work, the structure never hides; it becomes the very language of the object or the architecture. That honesty, almost radical, spoke to me immediately.'

A second Prouvé house from 1958 is being prepared for installation at Clos Saint-François in Saint-Paul de Vence, a property that includes a 19th-century farmhouse formerly owned by the family behind La Colombe d’Or and is now part of Les Maisons CAB’s network of places to stay. The house is the first prototype in a series developed with Claude Prouvé between 1958 and 1962, with the Maison Gauthier among its later examples.

Bonnet describes that continuity in terms close to Prouvé’s own: 'Over time, that attraction became a conviction. His approach –at once industrial, functional, and deeply human – resonates strongly with the way I conceive places. It is not simply about design, but about a way of thinking through use, durability and precision.'

'Within the houses we present today through Fondation CAB, this influence is present in a natural way. Not as a fixed reference, but as a spirit,' he concludes. That spirit has less to do with homage than with taking art and design out from behind glass, widening its company.

More than 70 years after the 6x6 house was first assembled, the force of Prouvé’s work still speaks to a desire for self-reliance, especially at a moment when so much of daily life is engineered and outsourced for ease and low resistance. Bonnet’s wager feels unexpectedly exact: that people still want contact with things that ask something of them, and forms of hospitality that return art and design to the grain of ordinary life.

What Les Maisons CAB offers, in that sense, is not fantasy but re-entry; a chance to sleep, sit and eat among works meant for lived experience. In Saint-Paul-de-Vence, that promise runs from the Prouvé house in the garden to Charles Zana’s guest rooms and the restaurant, into Charlotte Perriand’s furniture.

Prada and Formafantasma announce the fifth edition of their collaborative symposium. Prada Frames will take place from 19 to 21 April 2026 during Milan Design Week, and this year's theme is 'In Sight'.

What is Prada Frames?