Skoda @ Porta Venezia Design District – Courtesy of Skoda.
Design. Archipanic is a proud media partner of Porta Venezia Design District during Milan Design Week 2026. From 20–26 April, this elegant neighbourhood transforms into a creative epicentre, with a diffused festival of exhibitions spilling across Art Deco palaces, galleries, museums, stunning courtyards and wonderfully unexpected locations. This year’s overarching theme, Design is Act, draws inspiration from the reflections of Tomás Maldonado, a defining figure of 20th-century design thinking.
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L’Appartamento by Artemest returns to Palazzo Donizetti – Courtesy of Artemest.
Maldonado held that design is never merely a formal exercise, but an act of responsibility and awareness. “We want to bring design back to its most authentic dimension: that of a cultural act capable of transforming reality,” explained Carlo Barbarossa, co-founder and Creative Director of Porta Venezia Design District, organised by NONSOLOLOFT and WUNDERPLACE STUDIO. With that spirit in mind, we’ve selected fifteen highlights worth putting in your diary.
SWIMMING WITH DESIGN
OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND VOER by 6:AM – ©Tommaso Mariniello.
Piscina Romano hosts 6:AM‘s OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER. Glassmaking is built on repetition — rituals, gestures and processes performed endlessly to produce objects that are always, somehow, different. In an era of constant change and infinite choice, that repetition offers something grounding. Central to the show is Batch, a series of blown-glass cubes made for the Bottega Veneta Summer 2026 runway, now arranged, for the first time, into an architectural form. Via Ampere 24, Map.
The INSIEME Installation by Jr at Piscina Cozzi will bring together the faces of Milanese artisans, such as Artieri atelier, pictured. Photo by Enrico Costantini.
Staying poolside, French artist JR wraps the 1930s Cozzi public swimming pool with the faces of local artisans, rendering visible what usually stays hidden within the production chain. The façade becomes a sweeping visual narrative honouring the people behind Milan’s craftsmanship heritage. Titled INSIEME and curated by Sabato De Sarno, the installation is the debut project of Archivio Italia — a new cultural and editorial project powered by Vanity Fair Italy. Viale Tunisia 35, Map.
DESIGN MINDFULNESS
Courtesy of USM.
Stepping away from digital acceleration, the Luigi Rovati Foundation hosts Renaissance of the Real — a multisensory installation by Swiss artist Annabelle Schneider, developed through a collaboration between modular office-furniture brand USM and architecture firm Snøhetta. Anchored by the iconic USM Haller modular system, the work considers how thoughtfully designed physical spaces can restore presence, perception and genuine human connection in an age of digital saturation. Corso Venezia 52, Map.
Photo by Electrolux Group.
In a similar vein, Electrolux Group offers a restorative retreat with The Swedish Home by Electrolux — a space conceived to slow down, breathe, and reconnect with time lived more consciously. An indoor garden hosts Yoga, Pilates and Sound Meditation sessions followed by a traditional Swedish breakfast, whilst the Auditorium runs Design Talks curated by industry experts, framed as open conversations on the most pressing themes in contemporary living. Via Melzo 12, Map.
Visual by Eccentrico.
Rounding out this meditative chapter, Sara Ricciardi‘s The Sensory Lab for ceramic brand Eccentrico places material and perception at centre stage. Visitors are encouraged to pause and reconnect through surfaces, colours and everyday rituals woven around speciality coffee culture. Ceramics here are not merely a surface covering but an activator of emotion and spatial relationships. At the heart of it all is Kilim, Eccentrico’s new porcelain stoneware collection, drawing on Moroccan zellige tiles and kilim rug aesthetics. Via Malpighi 7, Map.
SAVOUR & DREAM
© IKEA.
Hungry for design? IKEA serves up Food For Thought at Spazio Maiocchi, blending furniture, food and aperitivo culture alongside a preview of a new flagship collection. The space is reimagined as a Swedish saluhall — a traditional indoor food market — co-created with architect Midori Hasuike, spatial designer Emerzon, and a roster of international chefs and interior designers. Through interactive installations and live cooking, visitors are nudged to consider how design can nourish wellbeing and a sense of belonging. Via Maiocchi 7, Map.
Photo by ARTISIA.
On a more playful, dreamy note, the innovative Barilla brand ARTISIA — the world’s first 3D-printed pasta — invites visitors to look at Italy’s most beloved ingredient through a design lens. Studio Yellowdot‘s Edible Reveries expands the simple act of tasting into something far more immersive, with oversized pasta-inspired seating and dedicated tasting sessions. It’s part tasting experience, part concept, and entirely worth the detour. Via Melzo 34, Map.
DRIVE WITH STYLE
Photo by Skoda.
Škoda Auto joins Porta Venezia Design District with Ooooh, that’s EpiQ! — an exclusive preview of the all-new EpiQ, the youngest member of Škoda’s electric family. The historic courtyard of Palazzo Senato is reimagined as a sculptural landscape of soft volumes and mouldable surfaces, evoking flexibility and transformation. The project was developed in collaboration with Ricardo Orts, founder of Ulises Studio, a Spanish digital artist with over a decade of experience in design and visualisation. Via Senato 10, Map.
Photo by Geely Auto, Jameel Motors.
Not far away, Jameel Motors‘ automotive brand Geely Auto partners with Dot Dot Dot to present Anima Mundi. A Visionary Impulse at Milan’s Institute for Blind People. Five monumental veils shift and respond to visitors’ physical presence, generating images and soundscapes that blur the boundary between the physical and the digital. The new Geely E2 makes its Italian debut during Milan Design Week, slipping seamlessly into the fabric of the installation. Via Vivaio 7, Map.
DESIGN! DESIGN! DESIGN!
Responsive Nature by Molteni&C – Artwork by Brooke DiDonato, courtesy of Galerie Wilm.
Molteni&C presents Responsive Nature, a site-specific project by Elisa Ossino Studio built around the brand’s new outdoor collection. Visitors move through a sequence of distinct botanical worlds, each framed within its own architectural setting, encountering pieces by Vincent Van Duysen, Rodolfo Dordoni, Yabu Pushelberg, Gio Ponti, Ron Gilad and Elisa Ossino — a journey in which greenery shifts in language, density and behaviour throughout. Via Senato 14, Map.
LPalazzo Donizetti – Courtesy of Artemest.
At Palazzo Donizzetti, the fourth edition of L’Appartamento by Artemest pays homage to the Italian Grand Tour — that grand 17th-century journey undertaken by Europe’s cultural elite — celebrating Italy’s artistic legacy, architectural language and fine craftsmanship. Five designers interpret Italian cultural capitals through a contemporary lens: Sasha Adler Design conjures Venice in the Entrance and Reading Room, Rockwell Group channels Naples in the Dining Room, and March and White Design pays tribute to Rome in the Living Room. Via Gaetano Donizzetti 48, Map.
Oasis by Rick Tegelaar – Image by Amber Zeekaf.
Dutch designer Rick Tegelaar presents OASIS, his first solo show in Milan. Set across 270 square metres, the exhibition presents a living environment where objects breathe, shift and respond to the quiet energy of handmade things. Tegelaar calls it a ‘biotope of creativity’ — a curated gathering of works spanning his career, joined by new pieces made expressly for the occasion. It’s intimate, considered and well worth making time for. Viale Abruzzi 13, Map.
Courtesy of DEORON.
DEORON returns to Porta Venezia Design District with an 800-square-metre exhibition held within a former ball-bearing factory, newly repurposed as a cultural space. The 2026 edition gathers an international roster of 50-plus designers, brands and independent studios spanning furniture, lighting, homeware, technology and lifestyle. A curated sound programme with high-fidelity listening sessions runs throughout, while a bar, seating areas and daily events keep the conversation flowing well past opening hours. Via Padova 11, Map.
MAKE SOME NOISE
UNBOXING at Spazio Viruly – Courtesy of Spazio Viruly.
Porta Venezia Design District is also about sound and design exploration. Spazio Viruly presents UNBOXING: A Room as Instrument by Rotterdam-based designers Matthijs Koerts and Merijn Haenen. Koerts suspends open speaker anatomies from the ceiling — membranes, coils and magnets fully exposed — turning the room itself into a resonance body. Haenen’s light works, assembled from urban infrastructure elements such as neon tubes and connectors, add a sculptural tension. Listening sessions and live performances punctuate the week. Via Eustachi 40, Map.
The Meanwhile Club by Park x Le Cannibale – Photo by Nicola Colella.
Bringing everything to a resonant close, Park — an interdisciplinary collective of architects, designers and researchers — presents The Meanwhile Club at Park Hub, with a public programme curated by Le Cannibale, a platform with a fifteen-plus-year history rooted in Milan’s club culture and sound experimentation. Rather than a polished installation, the project takes the form of a critical provocation: an architecture of the “meanwhile” that asks what lingers once the spotlight moves on. The studio becomes a listening room, a temporary club, where suspended time is the material. Via Garofalo 31, Map.
