9 Must-See Installations at This Year’s Milan Design Week

1. “Temporal” at Università degli Studi di Milan

A must-visit destination during Milan Design Week is always the city’s Università degli Studi di Milano, which this year put on a Fuorisalone spettacolo throughout its 14th-century building, Ca’ Granda, and its colonnaded internal courtyard. Especially riveting was a unique showcase highlighting contemporary Brazilian furniture design called “Temporal,” which translates to both storm and transitory in Portuguese. Featuring 50 Brazilian designers and brands, the exhibition was part of a wider emphasis on furniture made in Brazil this year that also included installations at iSaloni and the Etel Carmona Gallery.

Curated by São Paulo-based architect and designer Bruno Simões, “Temporal” features an array of established and emerging talents who are utilizing sustainable materials as well as reinventing time-honored symbols in imaginative ways. Inspired by the popular fishing rafts from the coastal Brazilian state of Ceará, designer Leo Ferreiro crafted the Caré Armchair with Andiroba wood and leather held together with a system of nautical rope and wooden dowels that can be easily assembled and disassembled. Designer Bia Rezende, meanwhile, took inspiration from a witty Portuguese saying to craft a cheeky porcelain sugar bowl and teapot in the shape of a bulbous fish on a hook. And Brazilian architect Fabiano Salbego’s Pampa coffee table, crafted in green quartzite and carbonized Grapia wood, features shapely contours that are almost topographic in nature. The entire show offers a peek at the exciting future of Brazilian design.

2. Poliform Takes Over the cloisters of San Simpliciano

A refuge amid the bustling streets of Milan, the tranquil cloisters of San Simpliciano were the perfect setting for Poliform’s latest launch, a chic collection outdoor furnishings by Marcel Wanders, Jean-Marie Massaud, Emmanuel Gallina, and Soo Chan. (Also showcased was Poliform’s first outdoor kitchen, Land, an elegant solution for al fresco cooking.) The 15th-century architecture was further activated by Italian composer Caterina Barbieri, whose meditative live symphony put visitors in a dreamlike state.

3. OMA x SolidNature Exhibition

Following a successful collaboration at last year’s Milan Design Week, stone brand SolidNature has teamed up with architect Ellen van Loon, a partner at renowned firm OMA, and her colleague Giulio Margheri for an installation that showcases the journey of natural stone—from quarry to finished product. Occupying the lower-level and garden courtyard of the 19th-century Casa Maveri in Brera (the city’s design district), the exhibition features a dreamy sequence of rooms sheathed in colorful marble and onyx slabs, as well as furnishings crafted specially by invited designers, among them Sabine Marcelis. “The installation gives a taste of the different potential treatments, applications, and approaches of designing with natural stone,” says Margheri.

4. Alcova

A must-stop for any design lover during Fuorisalone, Alcova is the brainchild of Joseph Grima and Valentina Ciuffi, who founded the itinerant platform five years ago as a way to nurture emerging and established talents doing experimental work within the industry. Each year, the showcase features several dozen design practices in a new location, with the 2023 edition being held at an erstwhile slaughterhouse on Via Molise. Highlights include avant-garde creations by lighting designer Lindsey Adelman, plus a collaboration between two female-led brands, Art & Loom and Bea Pernia, which both recently opened showrooms in the Miami Design District. Here, they’ve teamed up to present “The Art of Formation,” a collection of geological-inspired handmade rugs and unique furnishings whose shapes and surfaces seem to have a topography of their own.

5. Buccellati

Two materials that have a long and storied history in Italy—glass and silver—have come together at the Via Brisa headquarters of jewelry house Buccellati, which is debuting an installation to showcase its new collaboration with the historic glassmakers at Venini. Designed by Milan architecture and design studio AMDL CIRCLE, “Buccellati Rosso Maraviglia” was expertly curated by Federica Sala, who also tapped acclaimed landscape artist Lily Kwong to conjure a dazzling garden filled with carnivorous plants—think pitcher plants and Venus fly traps—wrapped in a red envelope inspired by the Pantheon’s dome.

6. Faye Toogood’s Collection for Maison Matisse

Paris design house Maison Matisse, founded by the fourth-generation of Henri Matisse’s family, is unveiling its new collaboration with British designer Faye Toogood, known for her playful yet refined furnishings and objects. The London-based talent drew inspiration from the iconic artist’s Dessins: Thèmes et Variations tome to conceive the artful Esquisses collection, which features an array of living room and bedroom furnishings including a cocktail table, side table, armchair, rugs, and a blanket.

7. Kohler’s 150th Anniversary Installation at Palazzo del Senato

As a part of Kohler’s 150th anniversary, the storied kitchen and bath brand commissioned American artist Janet Echelman to craft an installation that takes over the Palazzo del Senato, the site of Daniel Arsham monumental display last year. (Notably, Echelman is an alum of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center and Kohler Co.’s residency program, Arts/Industry.) Here, she’s installed a massive hanging sculpture, Noli Timere, above the colonnaded courtyard, where a selection of Kohler products—the Numi 2.0 smart toilet, Brazn sink, and Brazn bathtub—have been reinterpreted by boundary-pushing artists Ananda Nahú, Wang Ziling, Pushpa Kumari, and Elle, as part of Kohler’s “Come All Creators” initiative. These painterly products will be produced in a limited-edition capacity, with just 150 being made of each in honor of the anniversary.

8. Ralph Lauren

Ralph Lauren’s Via della Spiga flagship is sporting a new look just in time for Milan Design Week. The all-American brand has decked the façade is a kicky patchwork quilt of patterns from the Ralph Lauren Home fabric collection, including florals, stripes, and block prints. The bar inside the store is also offering a speciality cocktail created just for the occasion: the RL, a lavender-infused gin sour.

9. Tom Dixon for Cosentino

Perennially busy designer Tom Dixon is not just debuting his own collection of robot-influenced lighting designs at Salone del Mobile, but he’s also debuting a sensory installation for sustainable surfaces brand Cosentino in the Brera district. Dubbed “Metamorphic,” the installation features the company’s Dekton compact stone material in a variety of self-contained bath settings that showcase the material’s versatility. Inspired in part by Roman baths, the display occupies a historic brick building and includes sound, video, and running-water components—so bring a jacket!