Design Highlights of Milan Design Week 2025

Milan Design Week 2025 Shines with Cultural Depth, Innovation, and Sustainability

Milan Design Week 2025 has once again proven to be a global hub for design, showcasing an impressive lineup of events and installations. Co-curated by Capsule founder Alessio Ascari and architect Paul Cournet, this year's event features design favourites such as Faye Toogood, Philippe Malouin, FormaFantasma, Max Lamb, and Sabine Marcelis.

One of the top picks is Lea Ceramiche’s immersive installation, "Connection Matters – The Layers of Creativity" in the Brera Design District. The installation showcases dynamic ceramic surfaces combining material, light, and perception, with collections such as Intense, Waterfall, and Masterpiece featured prominently across key venues like the Chiostro Piccolo and Chiostro Grande di San Marco.

Hermès presented unique and stylish home decor and innovative design creations that drew attention for their creativity and craftsmanship. Major cultural installations accompanied the Salone del Mobile 2025, including Robert Wilson’s immersive experience, Mother, inspired by Michelangelo’s Pietà Rondanini, which combined light, sound, and space at Castello Sforzesco.

Sustainable design was prominently featured with exhibitions like The Wave of Sustainable Design, which included works by Elisa Sighicelli reinterpreting antique Venetian glass, Palomba Serafini Studio’s 30 years of sustainability and innovation, and Mario Ceroli’s exhibition focusing on tradition and sustainability.

Additional notable pieces such as Samantha Senia’s Florence Round Coffee Table from her Milan Collection 2025 also garnered praise for combining timeless elegance with bold design.

South African furniture maker Lemon has secured not one but two coveted spots at Alcova, presenting its first outdoor furniture and lighting collections in a showcase called 'A Room with a View'. Salone del Mobile has unveiled a packed programme of masterclasses, workshops, talks, round tables, and site-specific installations, including a new work by renowned American artist Robert Wilson.

'Tactile Baltics' brings together design talents from the Baltic region, offering a fresh perspective on the region’s evolving creative identity. Jamie Wolfond, together with Simple Flair and with support from Lapalma, has corralled 24 designers and studios to each create a wall-mounted clock that fits into a 50x50x50 cms box.

Hosoo, a 337-year-old Kyoto-based textile maker, in collaboration with Milan's Dimore Studio, presents Hemispheres, a new textile collection drawing from Hosoo’s archive of over 20,000 traditional obi patterns. The Material Alchemists showcase at the Triennale Milano features a global group of 20 individuals and studios whose material transformations have been noticed over the past 12 months.

Lara Bohinc presents three new collections across two locations. At Alcova’s Villa Bagatti Valsecchi, she transforms her allocated space into a landscape of rolling hills with the sculptural Anima collection, which includes seating upholstered in alpaca wool, the 'Dark Woods' table, and hand-blown glass sculptures called 'Wild Lands'.

Cassina is reissuing limited editions of their first four furniture designs put into production by the brand for the 60th anniversary of the Collection Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, and Charlotte Perriand. Alessi presents 'The Last Pot' - a collection of thoughtfully designed funerary urns created under 'Il Tornitore Matto', Alessi’s experimental platform for exploring new creative expressions.

Studio KO x Beni Rugs have collaborated on a collection of ten rugs called Intersection. The range features five weaving methods including Rabat, a reinterpretation of the intricate R'bati carpet. 'Romantic Brutalism' by the new Visteria Foundation and curated by Federica Sala, examines Polish cultural identity through design, taking Poland’s involvement in the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris as a springboard.

Oscar Niemeyer, together with a selection of his furniture (reissued by ETEL) and a retrospective of the furniture design by Claudia Moreira Salles, traces a line of modernity through the work of both figures. At Nina Yashar’s original location, Nilufar is showing an exhibition exploring 'the spirituality of wood' through the works of George Nakashima. Elsewhere in Nilufar’s multiverse, Yashar has curated 'Ex Terrā', a collective exhibition of new works by Andrea Mancuso, Maximilian Marchesani, and Etienne Marc, examining the dichotomy of humanity and nature.

IKEA's 30th at the fair with a sprawling, immersive exhibition at Tenoha, a concept space housed in a renovated 1930s industrial building in Milan's Navigli district. Interni Venosta, a collaboration between Emiliano Salci and Britt Moran (with Fabbri Services), has a third drop at Phillips, with 'Welcome to the Blackout' being an transporting installation by the visionary duo.

LAYER has pulled out all the stops with a blockbuster retrospective exhibition at Milanese gallery 10 Corso Como, bringing its diverse body of work together under one roof. Capsule Plaza's third edition in 2025 expands across four venues, including Spazio Maiocchi, a former gym and pool designed by ASA studio, and two satellite spaces.

Bocci is celebrating 20 years since launch with the introduction of a new pendant. The 141 invokes the courageous spirit of experimentation that we heartily admire in the Vancouver brand. Zanellato/Bortotto Studio is the designer of this year’s Brera Design Apartment, a showcase space in the heart of Milan’s Brera district.

These highlights reflect Milan Design Week 2025's focus on cultural depth, innovation, craftsmanship, and sustainability spanning ceramics, furniture, and immersive artistic installations.

The fashion-and-beauty sector was represented by Hermès, who showcased unique and stylish home decor, exhibiting creativity and craftsmanship at Milan Design Week 2025.
The education-and-self-development sector was highlighted through the Material Alchemists showcase at the Triennale Milano, featuring a global group of individuals and studios whose material transformations have been noticed over the past 12 months.
The food-and-drink industry found a spotlight in IKEA's immersive exhibition at Tenoha, a concept space housed in a renovated 1930s industrial building in Milan's Navigli district.
General news and entertainment were interwoven throughout the event, with notable highlights such as Robert Wilson's immersive experience, Mother, and Samantha Senia's Florence Round Coffee Table garnering praise for their creative expressions. The sports sector was not directly mentioned, but the overall athleticism and dedication demonstrated by the event organizers and participating designers can be seen as a metaphorical representation of sports.