Alcova Returns to Milan, Revealing an Unexplored Franco Albini Villa

Valentina Ciuffi and Joseph Grima have a fondness for what lies beyond the beaten path. The two designers and curators frequently scout obscure yet architecturally momentous sites to stage Alcova, the itinerant design showcase they launched in 2018 to champion vanguard makers of experimental works who didn’t quite fit into the commercial mold of Salone del Mobile or the increasing swell of extravagant installations popping up at Milan Design Week. Previous editions have seen the duo transform offbeat venues like a former abattoir and a desacralized church, as well as Osvaldo Borsani’s legendary Villa Borsani, an hour north of town.

This year, the presentation returns April 20–26 with a staggering 120 exhibitors at a familiar site—the World War I–era Baggio Military Hospital, where Alcova last showed in 2022—and will unearth an equally rarefied venue previously inaccessible to the public: Villa Pestarini, the only Milanese residence designed by architect Franco Albini. Completed around 1939, the structure embodies a rigorous expression of Italian rationalism through its white rectangular structure, glass-block facades, and marble staircase, which have been preserved with exacting dedication by its owner. The house will open for the first time under Alcova’s stewardship.

Though departing such a rarefied setting like Villa Borsani may seem difficult, Grima and Ciuffi rarely stay in one place for too long. “We tend to relocate every two editions, so the decision to move again came naturally,” the duo tells Galerie. As did revisiting the c, a vast 50-acre complex dotted with low-slung neo-Renaissance pavilions among tree-lined courtyards and gardens, which the founders liken to a city within a city. “During earlier editions, we had already glimpsed the extraordinary number of spaces we hadn’t been able to activate. Those were the two post-pandemic editions, which were inevitably more contained.” This year’s edition will reveal previously unexplored sites within the sprawling grounds, such as a historic church and former rectory.

Villa Pestarini, contrarily, is a single-family house. “Access will be limited,” the duo notes, “and the experience will unfold gradually, room by room, through a sequence of intimate spaces.” One example will see Patricia Urquiola conceive an installation of Albini-designed furniture reissued by Cassina—where she serves as creative director—in the entry and living area. Among the featured pieces are the double-sided Veliero bookcase, whose glassy build operates as a “furnished window,” and the Poltrona Luisa chair, distinguished by a slender minimalism that occupied Albini for 15 years. Another space will honor architect Luisa Castiglioni, one of the few women practitioners in midcentury Milan, who began her career as Albini’s assistant before forging her own path. Her pieces will be on view in the basement through Boccamonte.

Other exhibitors include Parisian fabric house Issé with architect Sophie Dries, who will explore textiles made of raw plant fiber, and Tbilisi collective Around the Studio, which will reinterpret Georgian vernacular materials through contemporary objects. Greek designer Kiki Goti is also investigating materials intertwined with her heritage, debuting carved furniture developed with Thessaloniki-based Marble Sachanas to evoke the draped surfaces of ancient Greek statues of female figures. “I was really drawn to Villa Pestarini’s colors—the pink, yellow, and green palette feels incredibly distinct,” explains Goti of the home’s pastel interior accents, which informed the marble varieties she selected. “At a moment when so much architecture defaults to beige, it’s refreshing to engage with a space that uses color in such a considered and sophisticated way.”

The Baggio Military Hospital, meanwhile, will operate as an incubator of material experiments. Andrea Claire will present a totemic array of gilded luminaires wrapped in hanji, a traditional Korean mulberry paper, stacked into vertical compositions on slender brass armatures. Studio Lugo will reveal one-off pieces fashioned from peeled-back and blossoming layers of alpaca metal, also known as German silver, whose exposed construction and reflective surfaces lend jewelry-like presence. Sten Studio will stage a wedding of eye-catching stone totems—complete with an abstracted bride and groom—in the hospital’s abandoned chapel. There will also be ample immersive experiences including a reconstruction of VOCLA/Design, the temporary club Alcova staged last year, by Henge and designer Ugo Cacciatori.

Ciuffi and Grima hope relocating to Milan proper will not only attract more foot traffic but also encourage visitors to take their time and absorb the mind-bending work at a slower pace than the frenetic Milan Design Week typically demands. “The exploration,” they note, “can easily take two to three hours, especially if one lingers on what’s presented in each room, within the spaces of a church, and across the industrial hangars.”