With Milan Design Week expanding every year, and more and more to see, every seasoned traveller needs a clear action plan before they embark on the city. We’re drawn to the festival’s most spatial installations and those celebrating modernist mavericks, as well as unlocking some of the city’s architectural landmarks. Here’s what we’re seeing this month.
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Library of Light by Es Devlin
Among the most anticipated installations at this year’s Salone del Mobile is a special commission by multi-award-winning British set designer Es Devlin, who’s conjuring a magical library inside the Cortile d’Onore courtyard at the Pinacoteca di Brera to mark the return of biennial lighting festival Euroluce.
Inspired by Umberto Eco’s quote, ‘Books are the compass of the mind, they point to countless worlds yet to be explored,’ Devlin concocted the Library of Light as she climbed the tall shelves of the Braidense National Library, which is connected Pinacoteca di Brera and the Academy of Fine Arts via the 17th century courtyard. The installation promises a luminous rotating library of 2,000 books and will host collective readings during the week, including a recording by actor Benedict Cumberbatch. Even better, the exhibition is open until 21 April, meaning you can revisit once the crowds have dispersed.
7-21 April at Cortile d’Onore, Pinacoteca di Brera, Via Brera 28, Milan.
Casa Cork by David Rockwell
David Rockwell’s well-known flair for the theatrical takes a tactile turn at Casa Cork, which explores the possibilities of natural cork. Tactile, sustainable, and inherently warm, the material will be used to create an environment showcasing products and students’ projects and hosting talks, workshops, and winetastings. The experience is developed in collaboration with Cork Collective and cork producer Corticeira Amorim.
8-12 April 2025 at 31 Via Solferino, 20121 Milan
Alcova
Every year, off-site fair Alcova pushes its way to the front of the pack. Founded by Valentina Ciuffi of Studio Vedèt and Joseph Grima of Space Caviar in 2018, the fair offers an exciting alternative to the commercial booths and brassiness of the main fair. Alcova decamped to Varedo and the historic Villa Borsani and Villa Bagatti Valsecchi in 2024, and they’re back this year with organising, adding Pasino Glasshouses to the offering, previously one of Europe’s largest white orchid cultivations, and the former SNIA factory. Alcova brings together emerging and established designers, inviting them to stage site-specific installations that engage with their enigmatic surrounds.
7-13 April at Villa Borsani, Via Umberto I 148,Varedo
Snia factory, Via Umberto I 69, Varedo
Villa Bagatti Valsecci and Pasino Glasshouses, Via Emanuelle II, Varedo
Making the Invisible Visible: Lachlan Turczan and Google
Every year, Google Design Studio competes with itself to create an unforgettable experience at Milan Design Week, enlisting a series of artists and designers to create artworks and installations that challenge the senses. For 2025’s collab, the tech giant has joined forces with light and water artist Lachlan Turczan on ‘Making the Invisible Visible’. The installation will take over the interior of Garage 21 event space and promises to ‘shine a light on art and design as acts of alchemy that bring ideas to life,’ by giving abstract concepts tangible forms. Expect dramatic (and highly Instagrammable) light sculptures that attempt to give the fundamental phenomenon physical form.
7 – 13 April 2025 at Garage 21, Via Archimede, 26, 20129 Milan
SPACETIME, Lapalma for Architects and RIVIERA
At Fuorisalone, Lapalma presents SPACETIME: A journey through time inspired by timeless design on Via Gorani. Reimagining an iconic architecture studio, the installation whisks visitors on a journey through design history, from geometric vintage forms to sleek futuristic curves, visualising in one space changing sensibilities and generational shifts.
Within the exhibition is Jamie Wolfond and Simple Fair’s show, 24HOURS, which features 24 wall clocks designed by international creatives. Though made ‘obsolete’ through the rise of smartphones and watches, wall clocks continue to have an enduring retro appeal, making them a popular staple of home decor and an ongoing muse for designers, as this presentation demonstrates.
7-13 April, 5Vie Design District, via Gorani 4, Milan
L’appartamento by Artemest
Italian home decor platform Artemest is celebrating its 10th anniversary by transforming the interiors of the storied Palazzo Donizetti on Via Gaetano Donizetti 48. Six rooms will be made-over for the duration of Milan Design Festival by six acclaimed interior design studios, 1508 London, Champalimaud Design, Meyer Davis, Nebras Aljoaib, Romanek Design Studio and Simone Haag, showcasing the best Italian furniture, lighting, decor, as well as Artemest’s community of artisans and artists.
8-13 April, via Gaetano, 48, Milan
Kia: Opposites United – Philippe Parreno and A.A. Murakami
Kia Design Team’s Opposites United festival returns for its third edition, exploring the theme ‘Eclipse of Perceptions’ and the dynamic of oppositions at the Museo della Permanente. Headlining the 2025 offering is French visual artist Philippe Parreno and AA Murakami (Azusa Murakami and Alexander Groves).
Parreno’s site-specific installation is inspired by 1950s cinema signage, with interactive lighting that reacts in real-time to live performances and talks at the festival. Meanwhile, AA Murakami’s ephemeral sensory experience Beyond the Horizon gets its European debut. Delicate automata breathe giant bubbles that swell, drift, and dissolve into clouds, while accompanying installation, The Cave, brings together the primeval and tech.
7-14 April at Museo della Permanente, via Turati 34, Milan
Intersection: Studio KO x Beni Rugs
Part of Milan Design Week’s appeal is that it unlocks buildings and locations frequently out of bounds to members of the public, and even revisits some of their former lives. Studio KO has collaborated with Beni Rugs for its 2025 showing, presenting 10 rugs from its Intersection range fittingly within the confines of a former textile shop. The rugs showcase the Rabat weaving method and spotlight the craftsmanship behind the finished product.
101010: LAYER
Benjamin Hubert’s design studio LAYER is turning 10, and to mark this significant milestone, the London-based designer is hosting an expansive retrospective at gallery 10 Corso Como. The showcase brings together a decade of LAYER’s most popular and celebrated furniture designs, while offering a glimpse of the future by presenting six futuristic prototypes that hint at what’s to come.
7-13 April at 10 Corso Como Project Room
Saint Laurent – Charlotte Perriand
Saint Laurent creative director Anthony Vaccarello celebrates the legacy of French modernist Charlotte Perriand during Design Week, bringing four of the designer and architect’s unseen maquettes into physical form for the first time. The four pieces were originally conceived between 1943 and 1963 and have been reproduced by the French fashion house as a limited edition series. These personal designs include the full-size realisation of her Table Mille-Feuilles, designed for Perriand’s home.
8-13 April at Padiglione Visconti, Via Tortona, 58, 20144 Milan
Audacious Modernism: from Oscar Niemeyer to Claudia Moreira Salles
Charlotte Perriand is not the only modernist icon being celebrated during Design Week. Brazilian architect and designers Oscar Niemeyer and Claudia Moriera Salles are the subject of a joint showcase of their Italian works, curated by Lissa Carmona. Audacious Modernism presents a selection of Neimeyar’s furniture (reissued by ETEL) alongside a retrospective of Moriera Salles’s furniture designs, connecting a red thread through their careers and artistic expression.
7-13 April at Via Maroncelli, 12 and 13, 20154 Milan
Playful Sculptures by Jakuets and Naoto Fukasawa
Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa has created a series of ‘playful sculptures’ at the Milan Triennale, which are designed as ‘imagination triggers’ for kids. The functional artworks have open forms and no presupposed function, leaving them open to interpretation and interaction by their young users.
Triennale Milano, Viale Emilio Alemagna 6, Milan
