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Twenty must-see installations and exhibitions at Milan design week 2025
The Dezeen team has compiled key highlights from the overwhelming amount of things on show at Milan design week 2025, including a play about modernism, Muji's "manifesto house" and urns designed by Daniel Libeskind and David Chipperfield. Milan design week is centred around Salone del Mobile, the world's most significant furniture fair, where highlights this The post Twenty must-see installations and exhibitions at Milan design week 2025 appeared first on Dezeen.
The Dezeen team has compiled key highlights from the overwhelming amount of things on show at Milan design week 2025, including a play about modernism, Muji's "manifesto house" and urns designed by Daniel Libeskind and David Chipperfield.
Milan design week is centred around Salone del Mobile, the world's most significant furniture fair, where highlights this year include an installation by filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino and the return of bi-annual lighting fair Euroluce.
Alongside the fair, the city will host what feels like an unprecedented number of events, from monumental installations by BIG and Es Devlin to group exhibitions by emerging designers – including one that will see participants live and sleep in a gallery throughout the week.
Below, we've rounded up the key things not to miss. For details of the hundreds of other events taking place across the city, check out Dezeen Events Guide's guide to Milan design week 2025.
Staging Modernity by Formafantasma for Cassina
Design duo Formafantasma is staging a theatrical performance and installation in Milan's historic Teatro Lirico throughout the week that promises to offer a "provocative interpretation of the legacy of modernism".
Produced in collaboration with opera director Fabio Cherstich, the show celebrates 60 years since Cassina put the most iconic furniture pieces of the modernist movement – the tubular steel seating of Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand – into production.
Nearby, Formafantasma is also unveiling its first furniture collection for the Italian heritage brand in the Cassina showroom.
Teatro Lirico Giorgio Gaber, Via Larga 14, Milan – booking required
The Capsule Plaza exhibition at gallery Spazio Maiocchi has quickly become one of the key events of the Milan design week calendar. Now in its third year, the show has expanded beyond its usual home to encompass several satellite venues in Porta Venezia, including a former gym and garage.
Highlights to look out for in the star-studded lineup include product launches from Sabine Marcelis, Misha Kahn and Swedish gallery NoGa, as well as a squishy new Hem sofa by Philippe Malouin.
Last year's popular Hydro exhibition is also returning to Capsule Plaza with pieces made in a 100-kilometre radius by the likes of Cecilie Manz and Keiji Takeuchi, while Danish silverware company Georg Jensen is hosting a pop-up ice cream parlour serving gelato and natural wine (above).
Via Achille Maiocchi 3-5 and 7-8, Milan
Via Achille Maiocchi 23, Milan
Piazza Risorgimento 8, Milan
Romantic Brutalism: A Journey into Polish Craft and Design
There is a groundswell of exciting, young designers coming out of Poland. And the inaugural show from the Visteria Foundation for Polish crafts and collectible design aims to introduce the world to some of these new faces.
The exhibition, with theatrical scenography by Kraków export Paradowski Studio, marks exactly 100 years since Poland showed at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris that would give rise to art deco.
To celebrate the centenary, the show will trace the continuing impact of the 1920s design movement on the Polish design language, alongside other historical influences like brutalism, romanticism and folk culture.
Viale di Porta Vercellina 11, Milan
Ever-popular design show Alcova is back for its seventh year and it's bigger than ever, spread across four different venues in Varedo, plus the pop-up bar and restaurant VOCLA in a former slaughterhouse on the other side of town.
Modernist Villa Borsani and 19th-century Villa Bagatti Valsecci are once again opening their doors to visitors, who will find the results of Indian design residency Shakti, archival Noritake ceramics hand-painted by Faye Toogood and a collaborative exhibition by much-hyped New York designers Office of Tangible Space and Kiki Goti.
Nearby, the glasshouse of Villa Bagatti Valsecci will host biodegradable sculptures by Marcin Rusak and a large-scale installation celebrating Greek marble by design duo Objects of Common Interest.
And the former factory of Italian weapons and chemicals manufacturer Snia (above) will host a Habitare exhibition of work by Finnish designers and companies exploring the future of materials.
Villa Borsani, Via Umberto I 148,Varedo
Snia factory, Via Umberto I 69, Varedo
Villa Bagatti Valsecci and Pasino Glasshouses, Via Emanuelle II, Varedo
Garçonnière by Giuseppe Porcelli
More and more apartment takeovers are popping up at Milan design week every year.
This year, there is the Brera Design Apartment designed by Zanellato/Bortotto studio and Artemest's L'Appartamento, which drew giant queues in 2024 and is this year taking over the historic Palazzo Donizetti.
But the underdog addition is Garçonnière – a pied-à-terre in Città Studi that has been transformed into an "intimate homoerotic space" to display the inaugural furniture collection of Italian architect and designer Giuseppe Porcelli.
Via Attilio Deffenu 7, Milan – by appointment only
To celebrate the return of Euroluce, Salone del Mobile has commissioned British set designer Es Devlin to create a monumental installation inside the 17th-century Cortile d'Onore courtyard of the Pinacoteca di Brera.
Shaped like a luminous rotating library of more than 2,000 books, it will host a series of collective reading sessions throughout the week, including a recording of British actor Benedict Cumberbatch reading a book on quantum gravity theory by theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli.
Cortile d'Onore, Pinacoteca di Brera, Via Brera 28, Milan
Italian kitchenware brand Alessi will show a collection of urns created by renowned architects and designers including Daniel Libeskind (above), David Chipperfield and Audrey Large.
The collection consists of eleven urns for humans and six for pets, each offering a unique interpretation of the connection between pots and urns.
Biblioteca Ostinata, Via Osti 6, Milan
ASUS and Dezeen will bring the Design You Can Feel showcase to Milan Design Week this year, featuring an interactive installation by design practice Studio INI.
Housed beneath the curved glass ceiling of the 1920s Galleria Meravigli, the installation dynamically responds to visitors as they walk through it, their presence activating wing-like, semi-transparent panels that open and close behind them.
Galleria Meravigli, Via Gaetano Negri 6, Milan
Muji Muji 5.5 by Muji and Studio 5.5
Japanese brand Muji has collaborated with Paris design firm Studio 5.5 to create a "manifesto house" inspired by Japanese architecture.
Designed to explore the concept of serenity in busy urban settings, the modular structure features recycled textile insulation, a rainwater harvesting system and a heat-reducing white roof.
Corso Garibaldi 89/A, Via Tommaso da Cazzaniga, Milan
Against War: 7 Designers for Emergency
An exhibition at the Triennale museum will bring together work by seven different designers, grappling with the fact that the world is now wracked with more violent conflicts than at any point since world war two.
Among the critical projects are mirrors by Donata Paruccini, shaped like human shooting targets to allow people to see themselves in their enemy, and a small post office for sending letters of reconciliation by Giulio Laccetti.
"We designers, architects, planners, rarely express ourselves on these issues," Laccetti, who initiated the project, told Interni Magazine. "And yet, design has always played a role in war: it has improved weapons, made them more efficient, exactly as it does with any other object."
Triennale Milano, Viale Alemagna 6, Milan
Civicity by Nieuwe Instituut and cheFare
How can design weeks actually help make their host cities become better places to live, rather than contributing to rising living costs, local pollution and over-tourism?
This is the question at the heart of a new multi-year residency programme from Rotterdam's Nieuwe Instituut in collaboration with Italian non-profit cheFare.
The first two designers in residence, Pete Fung and Studio-Method, have been living in two different districts of Milan since March and will be presenting the initial findings of their research at Alcova's Villa Bagatti Valsecchi on Wednesday, 9 April.
But if you want to see their final projects, you'll have to return for Milan design week 2026.
Villa Bagatti Valsecchi, Via Vittorio Emanuele II 48, Varedo
Michael Anastassiades at the Danese Foundation
London-based designer Michael Anastassiades has created a collection of modular lights that will be displayed at the recently reopened Jacqueline Vodoz and Bruno Danese Foundation, marking the institution's return after 20 years.
The installation will feature three new designs, including a portable lamp designed and produced in collaboration with Italian homeware brand Alessi.
Fondazione Danese, Via Santa Maria Fulcorina 17, Milan
All the things we do in bed by Marimekko and Laila Gohar
A giant bed will take over the foyer of Teatro Litta as part of an installation by Finnish design brand Marimekko and artist Laila Gohar.
Curated by Gohar, the space will celebrate the rituals and activities that unfold in bed to celebrate the launch of a capsule collection of bedding, pyjamas and sleeping masks.
Teatro Litta, Corso Magenta 24, Milan
In an early 20th-century Milanese house in Brera, furnituremaker Tacchini is opening its first dedicated showroom.
The retail space preserves the classical layout of the original residence and, for the occasion of Milan design week, will be used to present assorted novelties including the Butter sofa and serving tray by British designer Faye Toogood.
Meanwhile, at Salone, Tacchini is reprising its collaboration with designer Michael Anastassiades to present the minimalist Klotski chair.
Largo Treves 5, Milan
Type-XIII project by A-Poc Able Issey Miyake and Atelier Oï
Fashion brand Issey Miyake's experimental arm A-Poc Able is set to debut its first lighting collection during Milan design week in collaboration with Swiss design studio Atelier Oï.
The resulting pieces explore how a piece of cloth and a piece of wire can be combined to create a range of sculptural lighting.
Issey Miyake, Via Bagutta 12, Milan
British design studio Layer is celebrating its anniversary with an exhibition showcasing key projects from the past decade alongside six objects that aim to address key global issues such as urban density, resource scarcity and climate resilience that humanity will grapple with in the coming ten years.
Highlights include a rainwater harvesting tower and a garment that adapts to extreme weather conditions.
Project Room Gallery, Corso Como 10, Milan
Playful Sculptures by Jakuets and Naoto Fukasawa
Japanese designer and educator Naoto Fukasawa has created a series of sculptural play objects for children that will be shown as part of an installation at the Triennale.
Designed with open-ended forms and no predefined function, the pieces serve as "imagination triggers" and encourage children to explore, interact and interpret the pieces in their own way.
Triennale Milano, Viale Emilio Alemagna 6, Milan
The Theatre of Things by Delvis(Un)Limited
Designer Laurids Gallée, Brussels collective Espace Aygo and Dutch designer Linde Freya Tangelder are among seven studios that will take turns living and sleeping in a shop window in Brera throughout the week as part of an exhibition-cum-performance art piece curated by the team behind Alcova.
Alongside some of their personal belongings, their temporary home will be furnished with collectible design pieces made by the participants to explore how we can live with these objects, which often border on the non-functional.
The space will evolve organically from day to day as it is inhabited by different people, who will eat, sleep, exercise and finally wake up to have an informal, public conversation about the experience each morning with a different journalist, critic or curator – including Dezeen's editorial director Max Fraser.
Delvis (Un)Limited gallery, Via Fatebenefratelli 9, Milan
Set within the historic Cloisters of San Simpliciano, fashion label Gucci's exhibition explores bamboo and its applications in contemporary design.
Curated by interdisciplinary studio 2050+ and its founder Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli, the exhibition features seven contemporary designers reinterpreting bamboo in diverse ways.
Chiostri di San Simpliciano, Piazza Paolo VI 6, Milan
Cross-cultural collaborations are at the heart of this year's House of Switzerland exhibition.
Among the 25 projects on show is a light informed by Japanese furikake seasoning from Flavia Brändle and London-based Rio Koboyashi, home objects made from sand-cast, recycled aluminium from Antonio Severi and Beirut's Exil Collective and a biotextile made from fungus and bacterial cellulose by Finnish designer Mari Koppanen and textile weaver Estelle Bourdet.
Visitors will also be able to get a sneak peek of the Hug chair (above), designed for the Swiss Pavilion at the 2025 Osaka World Expo by graduate students at Lausanne design school ECAL and Japanese furniture brand Karimoku New Standard.
Casa degli Artisti, Via Tommaso da Cazzaniga, Corso Garibaldi 89/A
See our Milan design week 2025 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.
The post Twenty must-see installations and exhibitions at Milan design week 2025 appeared first on Dezeen.
