The best of Milan Design Week 2025 including exhibitions at Fuorisalone
Lexus Designer Team's 'Discover Together' encouraged us to create and release our own unique virtual butterfly to illustrate the transformative power of small actions
Milan Design Week is an exuberant celebration that transforms every nook and cranny of this vibrant Italian city, renowned for its design, style and fashion. Originating in 1961 as the Salone del Mobile—a fair aimed at promoting Italian furniture exports—it has since blossomed into a global beacon of creativity. Complementing the main fair, the Fuorisalone emerged spontaneously in the 1980s, extending the festivities beyond the exhibition halls into boutiques, showrooms and pop-up spaces throughout Milan. This dynamic duo not only showcases innovations from furniture to fashion but also effectively kick-starts the global creative season, drawing design aficionados from around the world.
The vast scale of Milan Design Week makes it simply impossible to experience everything. Yet, being on the ground in person offers a unique flavor of the global design discourse. This year, the festival chimed with the theme 'Thought for Humans,' exploring our identity in this ever-accelerating machine age (although as a side note, I couldn't help but reflect on how we're faring on a human-to-human scale.) Through various installations, exhibitions and talks, the event examined how design can navigate the man-machine relationship through human-centered approaches that prioritize well-being and sensory engagement. This naturally led to numerous thoughtful, sustainable and innovative designs in almost every gallery and showroom I had the chance to visit.
'Prada Frames: In Transit' is curated by Formafantasma and held quirkily abroad Gio Ponti's ultra cool Arlecchino train
'Prada Frames: In Transit' encapsulated the theme well. Launched in 2022 by the design duo behind Formafantasma, Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin, the symposium is an antidote to the sheer speed and (at times) lightness of Fuorisalone, instead fostering interdisciplinary conversations that challenge and expand our understanding of the infrastructures shaping contemporary life. This year, academics, artists and designers gathered at the Padiglione Reale, the former waiting room of the Italian royal family at Milano Centrale station, and aboard Arlecchino, the ultra-cool 1950s Gio Ponti train. The choice of venues added urgency (and a touch of stylish theatre—this is Milan after all) to discussions on how generative AI is shaping the environment, the infrastructure of borders, and the complex choreography of global systems and exchange.
In one session, artist Hito Steyerl and curator Natalia Grabowska explored the nuanced ways surveillance technologies are embedded in modern infrastructure, and what this means for personal freedoms. Elsewhere, MoMA senior curator Paola Antonelli and journalist Nicola Twilley reviewed the sensory aspects of infrastructure, and how design and food systems intersect to influence our human experience.
A favourite at Milan has to be Nilufar Gallery and founder Nina Yashar's commitment to championing emerging designers as well as pushing the boundaries of contemporary design. This year, 'Repertorio' explored the relationship between art and craft, nature and artifice, and history and the present across the gallery's two venues: Nilufar Depot on the city's edge and Nilufar Gallery in Milan. At the former, celebrating metal's aesthetic qualities, 'Atto I: Silver Lining,' conceived by Fosbury Architecture, transformed the space into an environment inspired by 1970s aesthetics.
Benjamin Hubert's design studio, LAYER, presented '101010' at 10 Corso Como
Meanwhile, addressing pressing global challenges such as urban density, resource scarcity, and environmental resilience, Benjamin Hubert's design studio, LAYER, presented '101010' at 10 Corso Como. The exhibition unveiled a collection of six prototypes developed in collaboration with brands like Andreu World, Bitossi Ceramiche, Kvadrat, MDF Italia, Muuto, RÆBURN and Orrefors, each reflecting the studio's commitment to human-centered, sustainable design. Highlights included 'Host,' a modular bee home created with Andreu World to promote urban biodiversity, and the algae-powered oil lamps 'Lights' with Muuto, offering renewable, off-grid illumination.
Another highlight was at Lexus, where the Japanese carmaker took over Superstudio to showcase two exhibitions, both aiming to explore how design can ease the tension between man and machine. The main installation, 'A-Un,' by Tokyo-based creative agency Six and design studio Studeo, delves into the Japanese concept of A-Un no Kokyū or harmonized breath—a traditional notion where two entities instinctively synchronize their movements and emotions. Using the Black Butterfly motif from the latest Lexus LF-ZC concept car, it featured a vast butterfly-shaped screen crafted by hand over three months using woven threads made from about 35 kilometers of bamboo fiber. As we approach the installation, the structure comes to life, responding to our heartbeats; as the heartbeat synchronizes with fluctuations sampled from nature, we witness the seamless connection between people, society and the world.
When I spoke with the creators, Takeshi Nozoe of Six and Tatsuki Ikezawa of Studeo, they offered this explanation: 'Big Data is not living. It's inorganic. We are expressing it as if it's a living thing: sensing the visitors' heartbeat, the color changes from blue to yellow, and then red for fast. We wanted to express A-Un no Kokyū, one of the very important Japanese aesthetic philosophies about human-to-human connection. In Japan, we find beauty in that connection—something that is invisible.'
Lexus "A-Un" installation created in collaboration with creative agency Six and design studio Studeo introduced emotion to technology
Elsewhere on the stand, three installations invited visitors to participate in creating their own butterfly. In 'Earthspective' by Bascule Inc, participants' spoken words became imprints on a digital Earth, emphasizing our collective impact on the planet. Northeastern University's 'Our Energy Nexus' visualized real-time air pollution data, with visitors' interactions symbolically contributing to environmental change. My favorite though was from the Lexus Designer Team and their 'Discover Together' which encouraged us to create and release our own unique virtual butterfly as a way of illustrating the transformative power of small actions.
'A-Un,' by Tokyo-based creative agency Six and design studio Studeo, delves into the Japanese concept of A-Un no Kokyū or harmonized breath
And finally, this being Milan, it would be remiss not to mention fashion's contributions to Fuorisalone. All the big Italian names were naturally present. Gucci's 'Bamboo Encounters' in the Cloisters of San Simpliciano explored the material's legacy and contemporary relevance through designs by several outside creatives. Jil Sander collaborated with heritage furniture maker Thonet to introduce JS.Thonet at Galleria Il Castello, a minimalist reinterpretation of Marcel Breuer's timeless S64 chair. Loewe's 'Teapots' was all about championing the art of craft, featuring 25 artists and their interpretations of the classic teapot to blur the line between function and art. Louis Vuitton unveiled its latest products and furnishings from the 'Objets Nomades' series at Palazzo Serbelloni—a more straightforward presentation compared to its peers.
Charlotte Perriand, La Banquette de la Résidence de l'Ambassadeur du Japon à Paris, 1967 by Saint Laurent
More interestingly perhaps was Saint Laurent's exhibition on via Tortona which spotlighted the legendary designer Charlotte Perriand. It featured four of her creations from 1943 to 1967 which had previously existed only as prototypes or sketches. Under the creative direction of Anthony Vaccarello, Saint Laurent has meticulously reproduced and reissued these pieces in limited editions, offering a rare glimpse into Perriand's visionary work.
Saint Laurent and Charlotte Perriand's 'La Bibliothèque Rio de Janeiro' made in 1962 for her husband Jacques Martin
The collection includes 'La Banquette de la Résidence de l'Ambassadeur du Japon à Paris,' a striking monolithic five-seat sofa of rosewood, cane and Thai silk that gives the impression of floating on air which Perriand designed originally in 1967 for the Japanese ambassador in Paris. Also reproduced is 'La Bibliothèque Rio de Janeiro', conceived to display works of art alongside books and originally made in the 60s for her husband Jacques Martin from solid Brazilian rosewood.
And finally, a favorite concept from the fashion crowd comes via Prada, a designer with an impeccable eye for art, architecture and design (a visit to Milan is incomplete without at least half a day lost and found in Fondazione Prada). At Miu Miu, the designer hosted a salon-style event as part of the fashion house's Literary Club. Titled 'A Woman's Education,' it explored girlhood and love through the works of Simone de Beauvoir and Fumiko Enchi and featuring performances and discussions with authors Lauren Elkin and Naoise Dolan.
The Salone del Mobile and Fuorisalone 2025 take place throughout Milan from April 7 to April 13, 2025.
See what's happening at the 24th Triennale Milano starting in May here, and read my 2024 year in art. For more articles on art and design, visit my page here.
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