Milan Design Week 2025: curated guide for architects

Milan Design Week 2025 is a global celebration of design in its most expansive sense. From Brera to Tortona, internationally renowned architecture firms join the conversation, turning the city into a dynamic dialogue between diverse materials, visionary urban concepts, and rich cultural narratives.

These striking installations transcend mere aesthetics, delving into the evolving role of architecture in shaping society, championing sustainability, and envisioning the cities of tomorrow. In 2025, Milan Design Week highlights that architecture encompasses far more than buildings—it’s about interconnected systems, immersive sensations, and compelling stories.

Through thoughtful installations and innovative exhibitions, global firms position design as a catalyst for cultural reflection and meaningful urban transformation, reinforcing Milan’s status as an essential hub of creativity, innovation, and imagination.

If you’re an architect overwhelmed by the vast array of events, showroom showcases, and installations during Milan Design Week 2025, this guide is exactly what you need.

Città Paradiso by Mario Cucinella Architects

At the Corriere della Sera headquarters, Solferino28 and Mario Cucinella Architects present Città Paradiso, an immersive reflection on the cities we long for. Suspended between dream and reality, the installation challenges visitors to reimagine the urban landscape through a lens of creativity, technology, and collective desire. At its core is an open conversation about artificial intelligence and its role in reshaping how we live, move, and connect in the city.

Corriere della Sera, Living, Abitare — Via Solferino, 26, Milano

Connected Scenarios by Valcucine

Architecture meets smart living at Valcucine’s Brera showroom, where Connected Scenarios becomes a platform for critical discourse. Valcucine, inside the showroom designed in collaboration with international architecture firms Neri&Hu, i29, and ARRCC, explores the kitchen as an epicenter of innovation, social connection, and ecological responsibility. The Speakers’ Corner lineup—featuring architects like Lyndon Neri, Vaisakh Varkey Mathunny, Martins Hermansons, Eszter Radnóczy and Luca Molinari—adds depth, positioning the installation as both stage and salon for contemporary design thought.

Valcucine Showroom: Corso Garibaldi, 99, 20121 Milano 

Growing Matter(s) by Henning Larsen

On the terraces of Via Bonardi 9, the installation “Growing Matter(s)” featuring 100 mycelium spheres, created by Henning Larsen Architects, and the Politecnico di Milano, will be on display. At Milan Design Week 2025, “Growing Matter(s)” explores a new design paradigm in symbiosis with Nature, embracing its imperfection and revealing its authenticity, uniqueness, and intrinsic beauty. The ever-evolving installation is rooted in the natural rhythms of life, inviting a sensory and contemplative reconnection. This immersive artwork unfolds within a regular architectural structure, inhabited by a hundred mycelium spheres. While similar in shape and size, each sphere exhibits its own texture and material identity, celebrating the variability and richness of this extraordinary living material.

Politecnico Milano, Via Bonardi 9, Milano

Bruther at Dropcity

Starting Thursday, April 3rd at 7:00 PM, Dropcity will unveil its new exhibition spaces, featuring two groundbreaking research projects. The first, Prison Times: Spatial Dynamics of Penal Environments, occupies over 1,500 square meters and explores the intricate relationship between time and space within detention centers. The second exhibition, *Bruther.fbx*, presents the work of Bruther, a Paris-based architecture and research studio, for the first time. Both exhibitions are part of a broader program that includes installations, conferences, and workshops.

Drop City, Via Sammartini 38-60 20125 Milano

Casa Cork by Rockwell Group

In a compelling fusion of tactility and environmental consciousness, Cork Collective and the Rockwell Group introduce Casa Cork. Nestled in Via Solferino, the installation invites visitors to physically engage with cork—a material reimagined through architecture, student work, and storytelling. Through curated workshops, talks, and wine tastings, the project offers a sensory journey into sustainability and craftsmanship, underscoring how material choices shape experience.

Casa Cork, Via Solferino, 31, Milano

The Amazing Plaza by MAD for Amazon

The Amazing Plaza represents an architectural experience built on discovery and reflection. The installation unfolds across multiple levels, drawing visitors into a whirlwind of colors and possibilities. It is enhanced by lighting elements created by Artemide, which interpret light as a means of interaction between the environment and the individual, creating plays of presence and absence that transform the perception of space.

Cortile d’Onore dell’Università Statale Via Festa del Perdono n. 7, Milan

Tetras by SOM – Skidmore, Owings & Merrill 

Located in the east loggia of Ca’ Granda’s historic courtyard, the installation by SOM and Artemide explores how light signaling can shape dynamic and engaging environments. Centered on the modular Tetras lighting system—designed by SOM for Artemide—the installation highlights its iconic cross shape, flexibility, and energy efficiency, offering customizable solutions with uniform illumination and high visual comfort.

 Università Statale Via Festa del Perdono n. 7, Milan

A Beat of Water by BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group for Roca

The installation by BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group for Roca, set in the Courtyard of Honour at the University of Milan, reveals the normally hidden water cycle. Through interactive valves, visitors can engage with the flow of water, gaining a visual understanding of the journey of this precious resource. The project encourages reflection on the responsible use of water, demonstrating how architecture and design can raise awareness of environmental issues through engaging and educational experiences.

Cortile d’Onore dell’Università Statale Via Festa del Perdono n. 7, Milan

Bjarke Ingels at Politecnico Milano

On Wednesday, April 9th, at 5:00 PM, in the Aula Magna of the Milanese university, the Guest Editor of Domus 2025 and founder of renowned architecture firm BIG Bjarke Ingels Group, architect Bjarke Ingels, will give a speech dedicated to “Revisited Materialism” – discussing materials as the foundation of design and materialism that goes beyond passive consumption – followed by a dialogue with Walter Mariotti, Editorial Director of Domus, and Emilio Faroldi, Vice Rector of Politecnico di Milano.

Edificio Trifoglio, Campus Leonardo, Via Edoardo Bonardi 9, Milano

Fosbury Architecture at Nilufar Depot

Under the visionary curation of Nina Yashar, Nilufar Depot celebrates its 10th anniversary with a five-act exhibition that traverses time, craft, and technology. Among its highlights, the Fosbury Architecture Collective offers a sculptural interpretation of metal as a material of memory and modernity. It’s a study in contrast—between art and utility, weight and lightness—within one of Milan’s most iconic design venues.

Nilufar Depot, Viale Vincenzo Lancetti, 34, 20158 Milano

“Design is Courage” by by Michele De Lucchi, Francesca Balena Arista and Marco De Santi

The exhibition “Design is Courage”, curated by Michele De Lucchi, Francesca Balena Arista and Marco De Santi, with organizing coordination by Nicolò Chierichetti and video by Francesco Clerici, shows a selection of “environmental object” designed by the students of the Landscape and Interior-Spatial Design Studio. The exhibition is part of the Moscapartners Variations project which this year explores the theme of migrations as an engine of connection and cultural innovation, going beyond its purely geographical meaning. The exhibition aims to express the dialogue between different worlds, places and generations, made possible by the cultural exchange of our globalised age. The migrations of ideas and experiences fuels innovation, research and development, generating positive solutions for the future.

Palazzo Litta, Corso Magenta, 24, 20121 Milano

Charlotte Perriand Revisited by Saint Laurent

Curated by Anthony Vaccarello, Saint Laurent – Charlotte Perriand is an ode to architectural elegance. Set in Padiglione Visconti, the exhibition unveils rare furniture designs by the legendary architect, brought to life for the first time in decades. Minimal, radical, and deeply human, these pieces affirm the enduring dialogue between fashion and architecture—and between historic visionaries and today’s audiences.

Padiglione Visconti, Via Tortona, 58, 20144 Milano

Sottsass at Triennale Milano

In Ettore Sottsass: Architectures, Landscapes, Ruins, Triennale Milano, during Milan Design Week 2025, pays tribute to the post-Memphis mind of Ettore Sottsass. The exhibition, grounded in sketches and writings, invites us into his philosophical approach to architecture—not as visual spectacle, but as a vessel for life. Located in Sala Sottsass, beside the reconstructed Casa Lana, it’s a space where memory, imagination, and built form converge.

Triennale Milano, Viale Emilio Alemagna, 6, 20121 Milano