Design

In Milan, outdoor furniture once again sought to blur the lines between the home and the garden. With CORA, however, Unopiù does not simply transpose indoor living room codes to the outdoors. The Italian brand prefers to view the terrace as a fully-fledged living space, with its own materials, uses, and unique relationship with time.

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Entrusted to Federica Biasi, the new collection is based on a balance the designer has cultivated since her debut: combining the precision of industrial production with the sensitivity of artisanal craftsmanship. The teak structure creates a sober, almost understated architecture, while the polypropylene rope weaving softens the lines. One builds, the other connects. Their meeting gives rise to a collection whose identity lies less in a formal effect than in the accuracy of its proportions.

THE FABRIC OF COMFORT

The merit of CORA is precisely that it does not confuse generosity with heaviness. Armchairs and sofas feature deep seats, accompanied by cushions in natural tones, yet they retain a certain visual lightness. The weaving allows for breathability within the structure, while the horizontal lines establish a calm presence in the landscape.

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This pursuit of enveloping comfort is expressed through a chair and a round table for dining, an armchair, a two-seater sofa, a single or double sun lounger, and a sunbathing island. More than just a succession of typologies, CORA composes a true vocabulary for accompanying the different moments of the day: eating, entertaining, reading, or simply doing nothing. The collection is thus aimed at both residential spaces and hospitality projects, where outdoor furniture must now combine hospitality, durability, and architectural coherence.

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CORA is part of a broader collective project presented by Unopiù in Milan, conceived as a "Travel Journal" in which several designers are invited to take a personal look at the publisher's heritage. Federica Biasi delivers a restrained and tactile interpretation, faithful to her taste for vernacular craftsmanship as well as the brand's Mediterranean culture. It is a way of reminding us that outdoor furniture does not necessarily need to impose itself to take its place in the landscape.

In La Baule-les-Pins, Les Cimes Bleues has just opened in a seven-story contemporary building with curved facades designed by ASA Gimbert, an agency founded in 1982 by Joël Gimbert. As the first address for La French Collection, the hotel brand of Groupe Giboire, the establishment features 101 rooms, a spa, a bar, and the Scapa restaurant. It is a scale large enough that the decor cannot rely on mere gimmicks.

Dorothée Delaye is not from La Baule. This is undoubtedly what allowed her to observe the resort with the right amount of distance, avoiding both postcard clichés and indifference to the location. She focuses less on its most obvious signs and more on what truly structures its lifestyle: sports, clubs, show jumping, sailing, tennis, and golf. These are codes familiar to both locals and visitors, transformed into a vocabulary rather than decorative accessories. "Sport chic" serves as the project's common thread, yet each space offers its own interpretation.

La Baule in the background

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In the lobby, the social heart of Les Cimes Bleues, the interior designer creates the atmosphere of a contemporary La Baule clubhouse. The plant-filled atrium softens the height of the space, while the curves of the furniture, leather-wrapped columns, stone, glass paste, and bronze tables, and Pierre Frey and Élitis textiles compose a dense, yet never ostentatious, landscape. Golf ball motifs, stripes, and a few marine evocations (including a monumental chandelier punctuated with mooring buoys) are present enough to tell the story of La Baule, yet quirky enough to never mimic it.

This same grammar changes its accent at Scapa. Originally conceived as an extension of the clubhouse, the restaurant took on a more Italian tone as its menu was finalized. Dorothée Delaye envisioned a sort of Milanese-Bauloise brasserie, inspired by the Italy of the 1970s and Carlo Scarpa. Terracotta, chocolate tones, wood, ceramic, and almost kinetic patterns warm up a building that could have felt cold due to its large windows. The space is enveloping, fragmented into different perspectives and banquettes, so that one quickly forgets its actual dimensions.

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In the rooms, the sports theme becomes more graphic. Wimbledon green, Atlantic blue, and clay-court orange distinguish the different atmospheres. The headboards, lighting, tables, and storage units were all designed specifically for the project. The closet doors evoke the lines of a tennis court, while some shelves freely mimic the shape of greens. The process could have become systematic, yet it remains light, held together by a subtly charming palette and the precision of custom craftsmanship.

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Because almost everything here was designed specifically for the space. Dorothée Delaye relies on three designers within her studio to draw chairs, banquettes, headboards, and lampshades. This dedicated production certainly meets the economic realities of the hotel industry, but above all, it serves as a tool for uniqueness: the pieces created for Les Cimes Bleues will not be moved to another address six months later.

Finally, at the Alaena spa, the narrative moves away from sports fields to reconnect with nature. Inspired by the "golden hour," the space combines stone, natural fibers, bronze, golden yellow, and pink in intentionally flattering light. Here, Dorothée Delaye takes the opposite approach to the clinical white spa, creating a transition zone—a warm bubble where the experience begins even before the treatment.

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While Les Cimes Bleues will welcome vacationers, families, and seminar groups all year round, as well as locals coming for a drink or dinner, its main strength is that it never presents this hybrid nature as a forced program. The hotel already feels lived-in.
By giving each space its own story without ever over-explaining the scenario, Dorothée Delaye succeeds in anchoring a new building in local culture. Not by reconstructing La Baule, but by giving it a new, must-visit address.

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https://www.cimesbleues.com

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The "D" for design is perhaps only meaningful today if it accepts the challenge it faces. Whether climatic, technological, demographic, or social, our era is not lacking in problems to solve or systems to rethink. Faced with their complexity, design can no longer be considered the final aesthetic layer added to a finished product. It now intervenes upstream, where uses, services, spaces, and, more broadly, the conditions of our collective life are defined.

It is precisely this evolution that the seventh edition of France Design Week, organized from September 18 to 30 around the theme "D for Design, D for Challenge," aims to highlight. Exhibitions, conferences, workshops, installations, tours, and meetings will make up a program widely accessible to the public, driven by designers, as well as companies, schools, local authorities, cultural institutions, and research stakeholders. Design as a method

Ecological transition, artificial intelligence, health, an aging population, inclusion, the evolution of work, or the transformation of territories: design is now venturing far beyond the historical scope of the object. Not that it is abandoning form, material, or beauty—these remain the means by which a solution becomes understandable, accessible, and desirable—but because it embeds them in a broader reflection.

Designing a public service, a patient's experience, a user's journey, a recycling system, or a neighborhood requires looking simultaneously at technical constraints, behaviors, the project's economics, and its long-term consequences. The designer no longer just draws what we use: they help organize the way we live.

This ambition will be a recurring theme throughout the 2026 edition. In Chalon-sur-Saône, a foresight workshop will imagine the patient experience in 2040 in a hospital where artificial intelligence is omnipresent. In Marseille, the design of technologies that influence our behavior will be the subject of critical reflection. Elsewhere, projects will address well-being, education, biomaterials, reuse, circular design, and the transformation of public space. The France of designs

One of the strengths of France Design Week lies precisely in its decentralized organization. French design is not limited to Paris. It is fueled by the industrial, cultural, and geographical realities specific to each region.

From Grenoble to Mont-Saint-Michel, from Nantes to Marseille, the program draws a new map of French creation. Near Grenoble, the UGA Design Factory will show how design, research, and local action can support ecological and social transitions. At Mont-Saint-Michel, a monumental exhibition will examine changing landscapes. Other initiatives will focus on local resources, expertise, the graphic identities of cities, or new forms of creative entrepreneurship. Here, the territory is no longer just a backdrop for design; it becomes its raw material: a set of constraints, resources, narratives, and uses from which to imagine necessarily localized solutions.

Ionna Vautrin, design at the service of the user

As the patron of this edition, Ionna Vautrin perfectly embodies this concept of design that is sensitive, accessible, and useful.

The tour organized at Notre-Dame de Paris, featuring the new furniture she helped create, will be one of the highlights of the national opening on September 18. Within the cathedral, the design cannot simply be the work of an individual author. It must harmonize with heritage, ritual, daily use, the presence of millions of visitors, and the integration of pieces into a timeline that far exceeds that of an industrial product. It is a perfect demonstration of what it means to design under constraint—and how that constraint can become fruitful. Measuring impact

September 18 will also host the ceremony for the second France Design Impact Award. As the only French prize entirely dedicated to positive-impact design projects, it recognizes initiatives that provide concrete solutions to environmental, social, economic, or territorial challenges.

The forty finalist projects will be presented beforehand from September 10 to 14 at Maison&Objet. Whether products, services, collective systems, digital tools, or new organizational models, their diversity serves as a reminder that the impact of design cannot be reduced to choosing a more virtuous material. It is also measured by transformed habits, saved resources, created activities, and a project's ability to sustainably improve the lives of those it serves. The winners will be announced on September 18 in Paris. Through this seventh edition, France Design Week does not just seek to celebrate a discipline; it intends to demonstrate its necessity. For while design cannot solve all contemporary challenges on its own, it possesses a quality that has become rare: the ability to connect vision to reality, innovation to use, and transformation to desire. In other words, to make change not only possible but livable.

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From September 18 to 30, the seventh edition of France Design Week will take place across the country with a program driven by design professionals. Centered on the theme "D for Design, D for Defi" (Challenge), this new edition aims to highlight the role of design in addressing environmental, social, industrial, and technological transitions. Coordinated by the APCI (Agency for the Promotion of Design), France Design Week continues its mission to unite the entire French design ecosystem around a shared highlight. Exhibitions, conferences, studio tours, open houses, workshops, and networking events will fill two weeks of programming across the country. Following a 2025 edition that brought together over 322,000 visitors for 700 events, the festival aims to scale up for this seventh edition.

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A patron in tune with the theme

This year, the APCI has chosen industrial designer Ionna Vautrin as its patron. A graduate of ENSCI – Les Ateliers, the designer has made a name for herself through a practice attentive to user needs, developed for industry, public facilities, and heritage projects alike—from TGV train lighting to the liturgical furniture of Notre-Dame de Paris, as featured in issue 218 of Intramuros. Her career path resonates with the annual theme, "D for Design, D for Defi" (Challenge), and invites designers, agencies, schools, companies, institutions, and local authorities to present projects that address contemporary issues. These include ecological transition, inclusion, health, and education, as well as topics frequently brought to the table, such as an aging population and artificial intelligence. "The way people view design is often biased. Behind design, there is a community of people who think and conceive solutions in very different fields," the designer emphasizes.

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A national event that asserts the importance of design

France Design Week was born in the wake of the 2019 National Design Conference and has gradually established itself as the sector's primary unifying event. For the third consecutive year, the event is held under the High Patronage of the President of the Republic. In his editorial, Emmanuel Thouan, President of the APCI, notes that this recognition should primarily serve as an opportunity to reaffirm the role of design in public policy and organizational transformation strategies. According to him, design is now a strategic skill capable of supporting economic, industrial, social, and democratic changes.

The national launch will take place on September 18 in Paris, with a program organized in conjunction with Paris Design Week, including a visit to Notre-Dame de Paris and the presentation of the France Design Impact Award. The closing ceremony will be held on September 30 in Saint-Étienne, at the new National Design Gallery inaugurated this year, where the results of this edition and the festival's future prospects will be presented. In the meantime, here is a sample of events we have selected for you:

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Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes - Saint Martin d’Hères

Exhibition: Design facing the challenge of ecological and social transitions

At a time when ecological and social issues are redefining our lifestyles, how can design help imagine concrete and sustainable solutions? Through this exhibition and discussion event, the UGA Design Factory unveils the projects, methods, and experiments it is deploying in the Grenoble area to support these transitions. Combining a conference with a guided tour, the public will discover how design, research, and local action contribute to supporting ecological and social transitions.

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Bourgogne-Franche-Comté - Chalon-sur-Saône

Workshop: HEALTH: Caring for the patient experience in 2040

What might the patient experience look like in 2040 in a hospital where artificial intelligence is omnipresent? Through this workshop, participants are invited to explore possible futures for healthcare by embodying different stakeholders in the health system. Between technological innovation, ethical issues, and human relationships, the discussions will question the role of AI in patient care and identify what must remain deeply human in the care experience, despite the changes to come.

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Brittany - Brest

Flexible Territories — Textile design in Brittany

At the crossroads of design, art, and craftsmanship, the "Flexible Territories" exhibition explores the connections between materials, expertise, and the Breton region. Through collective textile works created from local resources, it reveals a sensitive map of Brittany, shaped by gestures, landscapes, and encounters. Monumental felting, documentary video, and collaborative weaving bear witness to an approach where creation, knowledge transfer, and regional roots are woven together.

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Centre-Val de Loire - Tours

Training: DESIGN & CCI: How to get started as an entrepreneur?

Do you want to turn a creative idea into an entrepreneurial project? This webinar offers students, recent graduates, and project leaders the chance to discover the first steps toward starting a business in the cultural and creative industries. In 90 minutes, participants will explore the challenges, opportunities, and key resources needed to structure their business and bring their professional ambitions in the design sector to life.

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Grand Est - Meisenthal

Exhibition: IMPRESSION

Through "Impression," Brazilian designers TomaziCabral explore a unique encounter between the tradition of vegetable fiber weaving and the glassmaking art of Meisenthal. Used as molds for glassblowing, the baskets sometimes burn away under the heat, leaving their patterns and textures imprinted in the material. Between experimentation, craftsmanship, and intercultural dialogue, the exhibition reveals the poetry of a process where disappearance becomes creation.

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Hauts-de-France - Lens

Conference: When a brand becomes a destination

Why do some brands become places that people want to visit, recommend, and remember? In this conference, Mariia Kulichkova explores the links between branding, hospitality, and experience to understand how a company can become a true destination. By blending the codes of design, tourism, and hospitality, this meeting examines the role of design in creating memorable experiences and enhancing the appeal of both brands and territories.

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Île-de-France - Saint-Denis

Workshop: R for... roots, records, relationships

How can design foster dialogue and strengthen social cohesion in a region so rich in diversity? Through a day of exchange, discovery, and collective creation, the Innovation Laboratory of the Seine-Saint-Denis Departmental Council invites the public to explore the links between identities, memories, and collective action. Featuring inspiring projects and a participatory graphic workshop, this event offers a chance to share perspectives and imagine new ways of living together as a society.

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Reunion Island - Étang-Salé

Conference: When design moves the city

Discover how public space planning becomes a tool for inclusion, attractiveness, and revitalization through active design. Over the course of a morning, the 5 key principles of active design will be explored through concrete examples identified on the island. Active design challenges us to get every city and the entire island moving.

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Martinique

Conference: Why circular design?

Faced with environmental challenges and resource scarcity, circular design has become an essential approach. This conference explores its principles, practical applications, and the opportunities it offers organizations. Join us to understand how design can help imagine more sustainable products, services, and systems by rethinking production, usage, and reuse cycles.

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Normandy - Rouen

Workshop: Design and its applications in education

How has design shaped the evolution of educational practices over time? Through an exclusive tour of its archives, the National Museum of Education invites the public to discover a selection of school furniture and objects from its collections. Dive into the history of design applied to learning and see how forms, uses, and educational spaces have evolved across generations.

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Nouvelle-Aquitaine - Saint-Maixent-l’École

Workshop: Challenge your comms: what if your materials were more effective?

What if a few simple adjustments could make your communication clearer, more consistent, and more effective? In this participatory workshop, merchants, artisans, freelancers, and business owners are invited to take a fresh look at their everyday communication materials. Business cards, flyers, quotes, storefronts, or websites will serve as a starting point to identify strengths, spot areas for improvement, and leave with practical tips to increase your impact with customers.

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Occitanie - Montpellier

Festivities: Orange Night

For one evening, the Musée Fabre invites the public to discover the "Design according to Pierre Paulin" exhibition in a festive and immersive setting. Guided tours, workshops, performances, and dance will highlight this Orange Night, designed as a friendly celebration of design. It’s a chance to experience the museum in a new way with family or friends and gain a fresh perspective on the work of one of France's greatest designers.

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Pays de la Loire - Le Mans

Workshop: Introduction to Risography and Graphic Design

How can you create graphic compositions that are structured, free, and original all at once? This introductory workshop on graphic design and risography invites participants to explore the composition grid—a fundamental layout tool—through an experimental and creative approach. In connection with Macula Nigra’s "The Yellow Grid" exhibition, everyone will have the opportunity to design and then print their own creations using risography, an artisanal technique known for its unique, vibrant results.

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Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur - Marseille

Lecture: Who designs the machines that shape us?

Who decides the form of the technologies that influence our daily behavior? In this lecture, Anthony Masure offers a critical reflection on artificial intelligence systems and the logic guiding their design. By exploring their impact on our habits, attention, and relationships, he will demonstrate how design can serve as a tool for analysis and action to imagine digital environments that are more conscious, responsible, and human-centered.

Born from a desire to discover, share, and promote design over the course of a summer, Design Parade has become an essential event for revealing new talent to a wide audience. For this anniversary edition, marking 20 years in Hyères and 10 years of its Toulon branch, seven creators were rewarded for the inventiveness they displayed at the heart of Villa Noailles. The design jury, chaired this year by Sofia Lagerkvist and Anna Lindgren, included Anne-France Berthelon, Stanislas Colodiet, Clara Krzentowski, Hervé Lemoine, and Simon Dupety, who won last year’s Grand Prix du Jury for objects. Meanwhile, Laura Gonzalez led a second jury—composed of Stéphane Parmentier, Rodolphe Parente, Raphaella Pron, Anne-Sophie von Claer, and Thomas Takada—tasked with selecting the winners for interior design projects. Here is a look at the 2026 award winners.

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Object Finalists

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The National Manufactures Prize - Mobilier National: Lundja Medjoub & Matisse Vrignaud 

With Les Horloges à Feu (Fire Clocks), Lundja Medjoub and Matisse Vrignaud explore the concept of time by reinterpreting medieval measuring instruments. "It seemed to us that time was a notion too rarely explored in design, even though it is an essential concept in our contemporary societies. Returning to the foundations of how it is measured felt indispensable to us," the duo explains. Centered on three iconic measuring objects, the designers link their practice to the notions of time, sound, and movement. "These three objects embody three ways of considering time through three sonic principles: the gong depicts a singular, punctual event; the hourglass symbolizes duration; the metronome refers to repetition and cyclicity. In their presence, it is their sound that materializes time and brings it back to our attention." The three pieces are made of brass, sourced from scraps from a brass foundry. A material chosen as much for its link to watchmaking as for its acoustic qualities, particularly its musicality.

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The Design Parade Grand Prix du Jury: Tin Ayala

Huacos is a project based on the coexistence of cultural references that are often opposed, yet here brought together within a single object. "The series of ceramics I am presenting at Villa Noailles is conceived as a superposition of ancestry and globalization, archaeological past and contemporary pop culture, pre-colonial local knowledge and capitalist market products," explains Tin Ayala. Taking the form of ceramics similar to those created by the Moche, Nazca, Chimú, or Inca societies, the Ecuadorian designer also questions the "extirpation of idolatries" implemented during the Spanish colonization of the Andes. "This erasure from the past leads us today to conceive of pre-colonial material culture as something incomplete, missing, and broken, which we must restore with the help of archaeological studies and academic knowledge." Inspired by a 2023 residency at the Larco Archaeological Museum in Lima, the creator places mixtures, fusions, and combinations at the heart of his practice. "That is why, while studying design in the Netherlands, I place pre-Columbian art and contemporary design on the same cultural level." Beyond aesthetics, these hybridizations question colonial binaries: ancestral and contemporary, local and global, or nature and culture. The result of a design methodology known as "Abigarramiento" (variegated), the objects superimpose heterogeneous temporalities and epistemologies. "I do not believe in the myth of the tabula rasa (creating from nothing). As designers, we are always part of a social context, and it is important to create from these realities and work with these references." This work was carried out during a residency at the Fondation d’entreprise Martell in Cognac between November 2025 and January 2026.

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Public Prize: Edouardo Altamirano 

Edouardo Altamirano’s project, titled Sonido Material, explores sound as a physical phenomenon. “This project was born from an interest in exploring our relationship with sound and the objects that produce it. It challenges technology-based products, such as speakers, by asking whether they can become more raw, more open, and more experience-oriented.” For this project, the designer deconstructed the speaker down to its most essential components, thereby questioning the conventional boundaries between object, material, and sound. “I am exploring the possibility of rethinking the speaker as an open system. The object is no longer constrained by a physical boundary or enclosed in a casing: it becomes visible and exposed. This challenges our preconceived notions about materials by proposing a solution that uses something as simple as paper, a material not typically associated with sound.” This project is notably influenced by drawing, which holds a central place in his practice. It allows him to explore a graphic language and use it as a means of expression. “Drawing directly influences the sound quality, resonance, and overall functionality of the work, thus introducing a particularly interesting experimental dimension”, he concludes.

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Architect Finalists

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Visual Merchandising Prize awarded by Chanel: Blanche Mijonnet 

Alongside her spatial project titled Pyjama Party, which examines Provençal identity, the award-winning project Soleil Soleil deeply questions material, color, and the very notion of a window display. “Everything stems from the material and immerses us in its texture. The light is not hidden: it emanates from its core and invites us to look closer. Soleil Soleil reinterprets the light of the South of France, drawing inspiration from the boldness of Coco Chanel, who elevated yellow to the status of luxury. In a quest for the absolute yellow, the most ordinary flower of all reveals its magic by drawing on the delicate craftsmanship of the plumassiers at Maison Lemarié: the dandelion. This flower regains its poetry by revealing its two states in a delicate, luminous diorama.” An ambitious achievement that notably required sixteen hours of petal picking to compose the sun and its shades. More broadly, this project allows the designer to explore material and gesture in an intuitive and experimental way, in order to reveal all their poetry.

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Public Prize: Simon Searle and Victoire Lesthevenon 

TheObservatory by Simon Searle and Victoire Lesthevenon, opening onto the Villa Noailles, blurs the boundaries between interior and exterior. "We designed this space to draw the eye outward. The floor is raised, and the wooden structure enhances the perspective toward the windows, providing a better vantage point of the landscape. Materials like cork insulate the space, allowing for total immersion in the sounds of nature. We wanted to create a place outside of time, away from distractions, and that is how we define comfort." The choice of materials and colors is rooted in the palette of the Var region, while evolving over time and with the light. "We developed all the colors ourselves using local plants, which will change when exposed to light. This allows us to establish a different relationship with these objects and embrace their transformation." Designed to the scale of the Villa Noailles, the project takes this logic to its proportions, which were determined using geographical and meteorological data from the Var. It is a way to further strengthen its connection to the landscape that hosts it.

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The Design Parade Van Cleef & Arpels Grand Prix: Valentin Bayoud

"Fire has long accompanied the rise of humanity. Today, more than ever, it has been replaced by another precious resource at the heart of many challenges: water." It is around this element that designer and architect Valentin Bayoud has built his world. "Through Aqua primitiva, I sought to create spatial experiences that put visitors in the right frame of mind to engage in dialogue and reflect on contemporary issues." Echoing gatherings around a fire, the designer imagined a circular form that invites everyone to position themselves at an equal distance from the resource. "I am interested in spatial archetypes—those forms and structures that transcend cultures and eras because they meet fundamental needs. It is not about reproducing the past, but about confronting it with the present." A temporal shift that results in timeless spaces. Rooted in a phenomenological approach, the project engages the senses and invites the public to take a reflective pause. It is an experience anchored in the context of Hyères and highlighted by traditional craftsmanship and natural materials such as charred wood, undyed linen, thermoformed and molded glass, recycled cast aluminum, and dry-laid stone from the Var.

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The Manufactures Nationales - Mobilier National Prize: Carlotta Lagazzi & Yohann Hubert

A lounge area on the Mallet-Stevens ocean liner. Conceived from the waste stream of recreational boating, the installation by Carlotta Lagazzi and Yohann Hubert is rooted in the idea of creating without generating new objects. "A conceptual as well as ecological gesture, challenging the linear logic of production and consumption." Based on upcycling, Overflowed reinterprets a number of materials that already carry a history. "We have long been drawn to Roland Barthes' idea that an object is much more than a simple functional entity; it is charged with memory, symbols, and cultural associations." Committed to the idea of creating new meanings, the duo views mediums "as constantly evolving rather than as fixed or immutable entities ." A philosophy and sense of value that generally results in a form of ambiguity. "We like that it is sometimes difficult to tell whether things are natural or artificial, animate or inanimate. " It is in this sense that the designers have cut up and dismantled the hulls and parts of abandoned boats to reassemble them into forms that are "softer, more organic, and curiously more familiar," evoking the imagination. A transformation through which a symbolic shift occurs, from maritime object to living room piece. On the reimagined daybed and beneath the ceiling light made of luminous scales, only the assembly techniques (knots, fittings, tension and restraint systems, textures, and technical textiles) serve as a bridge between two worlds.

"I feel that in a home, the dining table is the meeting point for all family members. It’s around this table that I share the most moments with my children,"says Jun Yasumoto. Accustomed to creating seating characterized by efficient lines rather than a search for a distinct style, the designer teamed up with the brand Tiptoe to create Post. The name refers to the central steel tube that supports and defines the object's balance. More than just a detail, this construction principle was the starting point for the project. "To be honest, when Matthieu Bourgeaux contacted me two years ago, I quickly proposed the idea of a table with a 'T' base. What I liked about this idea was its graphic presence, which adds character without making the furniture look cluttered. It’s a base that knows how to blend into the background." An aesthetic choice, but also a functional one, as the table's construction—ranging from 120 cm to 240 cm—clears the central space and the sides, allowing for greater freedom in seating.

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A new direction

Known primarily for its table legs and shelves that use a clamp system, Tiptoe offers a completely different approach with Post, one that moves away from that principle. "You shouldn't see this absence as a deliberate choice on my part, but it seems to me that Tiptoe didn't want to be confined to that particular typology either." Less guided by the brand's identity than by the form he envisioned, Jun Yasumoto explains that he wanted to design an object with a very rational construction. "My table is delivered flat-packed, it's easy to assemble, the structure is robust, and the materials are high-quality. When I design a product, I am always very careful not to sacrifice functionality for visuals. That’s why we worked in close collaboration with Tiptoe’s technical development team." The result of this partnership is a piece that is open to interpretation, made for both dining and working.

Unveiled last month during 3daysofdesign in Copenhagen, the outdoor version of the Limit Lounge Chair joins the Normann Copenhagen catalog. This edition, created in collaboration with Sunbrella, retains the original construction principle while introducing a stainless steel base for its new environment. The brand has also added a connector system that allows multiple chairs to be joined together to create two- or three-seater sofas or modular configurations. Available in a wide range of textile covers, the upholstery remains removable and replaceable to suit any preference.

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Economy of means, not ideas

Designed in 1974 by Danish-Canadian designer Niels Bendtsen, the Limit Lounge Chair was born in the context of the first oil crisis. Created with a minimum of materials, it rests on a frame composed of two steel rails between which a quilted textile seat is suspended, without foam or superfluous elements. Lightweight, easy to disassemble, and designed to optimize transport, the chair reflects an approach where constructive logic determines form. Now part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, it is being reissued without compromising its original principles. More than fifty years after its creation, this reissue brings back a design whose economy of means resonates with current concerns regarding sustainability, repairability, and the longevity of objects.

Since 2017, DCW éditions has been developing a family of lights inspired by the industrial world with Gaëlle Lauriot-Prévost and Dominique Perrault. With IN THE TUBE launched in 2015, followed by IN THE TUBE 360° three years later, and versions available as wall lights (FLAPS) or pendants (WINGS), the two designers continue their exploration of the illuminated tube. Introduced in 2026, IN FINE completes this evolution. The collection pairs an opal glass tube with a faceted metal base, complemented by an adjustable metal ring. Available in various lengths and finishes, the lights can be installed indoors or outdoors, as wall or pendant fixtures, either individually or in compositions.

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The evolution goes beyond the design. The driver is now integrated into the fixture for easier installation. The manufacturing process uses corrosion-resistant aluminum, stainless steel fixings, and an IP65 rating for wall-mounted versions (IP44 for pendants), making them suitable for seaside use. With this new collection, DCW éditions continues to develop a formal language initiated nearly a decade ago, where industrial references are adapted for architectural and domestic lighting applications.

The interior as an expression of lifestyle

Contemporary living spaces now serve multiple functions. We work, entertain, relax, cook, and sometimes collect objects, furniture, or design pieces there. The living room can become a home office, the kitchen a place for hosting, the bedroom a sanctuary, while built-in storage, lighting, and technical equipment all contribute to the quality of daily life.

This evolution changes our relationship with our homes. The interior is no longer just decorative: it supports the rhythms of our lives. Every choice, from the flooring to the sofa, from the countertop to the custom bookcase, reflects a way of living. It is therefore essential to consider this place not only as a space to be designed, but also as an asset to be protected.

Protecting what you have taken the time to build

An interior design project requires time, attention, and often a significant budget. Renovations, furniture, objects, appliances, smart devices, artwork, or lighting: the value of an interior is not limited to the walls. It lies in all the elements that make up your living environment.

However, this balance can be fragile in the face of everyday events. Water damage, fire, broken glass, theft, or a household accident can quickly affect a carefully curated space. The more personalized an interior is, the more important it becomes to anticipate its protection.

It is with this in mind that home insurance with Allianz can play a role. It serves as a natural extension of the care put into your home, helping to protect the space, your belongings, and the comfort associated with them.

Coverage tailored to every interior

No two homes are alike. A studio apartment occupied by a student, a renovated flat, a family home, a second residence, or a furnished rental all have different needs. The square footage, number of rooms, value of belongings, presence of specific equipment, and how the home is used are all criteria to consider.

With Allianz, home insurance allows you to approach this issue in a practical way: what coverage is actually necessary? Which items need to be declared? What compensation limits are appropriate for the value of the interior? What deductible remains the responsibility of the policyholder in the event of a claim? These points are essential to avoid discovering too late that a policy does not reflect the reality of your home.

The goal is not just to be insured, but to be well covered. In an interior designed with high standards, where every choice has aesthetic and functional value, protection must be approached with the same level of attention.

An approach consistent with the art of living

Interior architecture is based on a simple idea: creating a space that feels right and is adapted to those who live there. This process does not end once the work is finished or the furniture is installed. It continues through the maintenance, use, and preservation of the space.

Thinking about your home insurance is ultimately about adding another dimension to your living project. Not as an administrative burden, but as a logical step. An interior is designed, lived in, maintained, and protected.

In this spirit, Allianz supports individuals in protecting their homes and belongings with an approach that allows coverage to be adjusted to the household's needs. It is a way to preserve what makes an interior valuable: its comfort, its functionality, and the attention paid to every detail.

Living with peace of mind

The understated luxury of a well-designed interior often lies in what it makes invisible: the fluidity of movement, the precision of proportions, the quality of materials, and the tranquility of daily life. Protecting your home follows this same logic. It ensures that the space you live in can fulfill its primary purpose: providing a stable, comfortable, and reassuring environment.

Having a beautiful house, a renovated apartment, or a carefully curated interior is one thing. Being able to live in it with peace of mind, backed by the right protection, is another. This is perhaps where a more comprehensive vision of the art of living is found today.

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Clinging to the Aiguebelle cliff, facing the Hyères islands, this iconic hotel on the Var coast has long held a special place in the Mediterranean imagination. Created in the 1930s, it was one of those establishments whose reputation was built less on ostentatious luxury than on a privileged relationship with the sea, the light, and the landscape. Over the decades, however, successive extensions and disparate interventions had gradually eroded the site's coherence.

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When the time came for its rebirth, Jean-Baptiste Pietri chose not to restore what existed, but to rebuild in order to rediscover the site's original spirit. This was achieved with the intelligence, vision, and patience required for the 13 years it took to complete this complex, ambitious project—one that is at once monumental and almost discreet. It is an approach that might seem paradoxical, yet it is undoubtedly the key to understanding the project: recovering a lost sense of obviousness.

A sedentary ship

The primary merit of Les Roches is that it never seeks to dominate its environment. Rather than a single volume facing the Mediterranean, the architect envisioned a succession of buildings that follow the natural topography. The hotel is fragmented, carved out, and follows the contours of the terrain. The various building blocks are inserted into the slope like mineral strata between the rock and the sky. This fragmentation produces a remarkable effect: the project is never revealed in a single glance. It unfolds gradually through outdoor pathways, stairs, terraces, and visual openings. At every level, the sea appears differently. The architecture becomes an experience of movement rather than an object to be contemplated. One is struck by the project's ability to produce a succession of almost cinematic sequences. Here, a terrace suspended above the water. There, a stone wall framing the horizon. Further on, a landscaped crevice that lets in the light. Each movement alters one's perception of the landscape.

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At Les Roches, the Mediterranean is never just a backdrop; it literally irrigates the project. First, in the design of the outdoor spaces: the terrazzo, with its omnipresent variations, undulates like waves, symbolically extending the movement of the water into the architecture of the main deck. This detail, which might go unnoticed, summarizes part of the project's great intelligence: bringing the landscape into the building rather than merely framing it, much like the subtle Klein blue thread running through the interior. The maritime reference also appears in the treatment of the terraces and slab overhangs. Pierced with circular patterns, these ultra-high-performance fiber-reinforced concrete elements filter the Mediterranean light while subtly evoking the world of naval design. Seen from the lower levels, their silhouette sometimes recalls a hull suspended over the void. This evocation is no mere anecdote, as the forty rooms and suites have also been designed as cabins opening onto the horizon. Because here, the decor is, above all else, the sea.

Mediterranean materials

As in many of his projects, Jean-Baptiste Pietri pays particular attention to materiality. The project is based on a constant dialogue between two registers. On one hand, the Bormes stone—massive, rough, and deeply rooted in the Var region. On the other, more abstract, white, and luminous mineral surfaces that capture the variations of the Mediterranean sun. Glass also plays a role, notably in the Michelin-starred restaurant L’Oursin (run by Antoine Gras and Benoit Gornard), with Harry Bertoia chairs (outdoors) and Aarne Saarinen chairs (indoors) leaning toward the sea and bathed in 360-degree sunlight.

This confrontation prevents the site from falling into regionalist pastiche or decontextualized international minimalism. Les Roches belongs sincerely to its territory without seeking to reproduce a folkloric image of the Mediterranean.

The architecture seems to have been sculpted rather than built. The walls emerge from the slope. The terraces extend the rocky strata. The vegetation complements the volumes rather than masking them. Everything works to blur the boundary between architecture and landscape.

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The luxury of restraint

This is arguably where one of the project's greatest successes lies. For a long time, prestigious establishments sought to establish themselves as self-contained destinations, detached from their immediate surroundings. Conversely, Les Roches builds its identity from the site itself. The rock, the vegetation, the slope, the views, and the light become the true elements of luxury. This approach aligns with a broader reflection on how to intervene today in territories as sensitive as the Mediterranean coastline. How can we build without erasing? How can we transform without distorting?

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Jean-Baptiste Pietri’s project provides a measured response to these questions. A response that favors integration over demonstration, and dialogue with the landscape over the pursuit of an iconic gesture. It is a form of clarity that contemporary architecture sometimes forgets: when faced with certain landscapes, the most beautiful gesture is often to step back.

https://www.hotellesroches.com

https://www.pietriarchitectes.com/categories/projets

Could there be a better place than Venice to showcase glassmaking expertise? For the first edition of Bel Ouvrage, the French brand DCW éditions and its label 10 HEURES 10 are taking over the cloister of the Venetian Gothic church of Madonna dell'Orto through July 20. Titled "Il corpo della materia" (The Body and the Matter), the exhibition brings together some fifteen contemporary creators and their works, highlighting exceptional craftsmanship. This showcase was curated by Carole de Bona and designed by Andrée Putman Studio within this Renaissance-era setting. Here, the weathered brick architecture contrasts with the formal precision of contemporary glass and metal. Set up as a semi-outdoor showroom, the cloister offers a path defined by the rhythm of the colonnades and the orthogonality of the courtyard, balanced by the free-flowing volumes of the lighting fixtures on display. It is a way of confronting eras and styles in a symbolic journey dedicated to conveying the idea of timelessness so dear to the brand—a vision achieved through the fusion of modernity and heritage. Where architecture is inhabited by design, light seems to breathe new life into it.

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Bel Ouvrage 2026 - Venice ©Luca Bonnefille

Its bold, simple, and geometric volumes, shunning any formal excess, assert themselves with quiet confidence.

"Industrial design is an emotional adventure that involves everyone," says Frédéric Sofia. "I hit it off immediately with this somewhat forgotten heritage brand, which provided me with all the human, financial, and technical resources needed for the project."

Launched just two years ago, the project required an intense year of reflection and research, followed by another year dedicated to industrialization.

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Reinventing a German icon

The initial brief was ambitious: to design a family of furniture united by a common formal language, intended for the contract market—hotels, restaurants, lounge areas, or pool decks—but also, eventually, adaptable for retail and accessible to design enthusiasts.

Chairs, armchairs, tables, modular sofas, benches, footrests, parasols, daybeds, sunloungers… A complete vocabulary of contemporary outdoor comfort.

For Sofia, the challenge was twofold: to meet the brand's constraints while imagining a coherent and original range capable of giving Kettler a true identity, having missed the shift toward design.

"Kettler is a historic and popular brand in Germany," he explains. "I wanted to find a design that speaks to its roots, on a European scale."

Founded in 1949 in North Rhine-Westphalia, the company, with over sixty years of experience, initially designed leisure equipment—bicycles and toys like the famous Kettcar (1962)—before specializing in outdoor furniture in the 1970s. Driven by its philosophy of quality, durability, and comfort, it quickly established itself internationally.

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"Back to the source"

True to his method of listening, observing, and reflecting, Frédéric Sofia chose to "go back to the source." He directed his research toward an industrial aesthetic that is both radical and sensitive: a stripped-back, demanding, and precise design where form and function respond to one another.

Between the Wedge Design spirit of Giorgetto Giugiaro, creator of the Volkswagen Golf 1, and the humanistic functionalism of Dieter Rams (Braun), Latitude unfolds as a manifesto of clarity and precision.

The range asserts a discreet and innovative personality.

"The core of the collection is the bridge chair. In the metal furniture market, there is strong demand for cushioning, but it is often treated as an afterthought. So, from the very beginning, I envisioned a system of removable cushions that are integrated into the design and can be customized to meet the client's needs."

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A durable, rational, and technical design

This is how a collection of rare scale in outdoor furniture was born—one of the most extensive on the market, according to the designer.

The initial versions, featuring soft, powdery tones (green, light gray, taupe), will be followed by other colors.

Combining the honest vision of the creator of the Luxembourg chair for Fermob with German industrial rigor, Latitude celebrates Sofia and Kettler’s shared love for aluminum: durable, lightweight, and responsive to light.

Slim and ribbed, reminiscent of a topographic map, its lines are composed of die-cast parts and extruded aluminum—fully recyclable and incorporating up to 50% recycled material.

Robust, repairable, and timeless, the collection is built to last.

Previewed at Silvera during Paris Design Week and at Maison&Objet, Latitude marks a new era for Kettler: one of design that is simultaneously rigorous, sensitive, understated, geometric, and radical.

Latitude, or the awakening of a sleeping beauty.

"Industrial design is an emotional journey that engages everyone involved," says Frédéric Sofia.

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Conceived by Sam Stourdzé, director of the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici, the festival was born from a paradox. How can one intervene in the heart of one of Italy’s most sensitive heritage sites (protected, archaeological, and virtually unbuildable) without further freezing the site in time? How can architecture be introduced into the gardens without turning them into an exhibition backdrop? The answer takes the form of an almost childlike word: the cabin.

"The cabin is a way of thinking," explains Sam Stourdzé. "You can think in a cabin, live in a cabin; it shifts the perspective and re-examines the fundamentals." Behind this apparent simplicity lies an extremely contemporary reflection on architecture: architecture that is light, reversible, and non-invasive, designed not against its environment, but with it.

Here, constraints become a theoretical manifesto: it is impossible to dig more than thirty centimeters into this archaeological subsoil, and equally impossible to make these constructions permanent. The invited teams have a few months to build, use, and then dismantle their projects. This short, almost fragile temporality radically reverses the logic inherited from the 20th century. Monumentality is replaced by attentiveness, and authoritarian gestures by a form of listening to the living world.

IT: On the lightness of being and building

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This year, six international proposals are taking over the Renaissance gardens. Some are experimental manifestos, while others take a more sensory or climatic approach. However, they all explore the same idea: a habitat capable of harmonizing with its environment.

Perhaps the most spectacular project is Il Duomo Invertito by the Belgian studio Bento Architecture. Suspended between sky and vegetation, this wireframe dome made of wood and mycelium subverts the Roman monumental archetype, transforming it into an almost immaterial structure. Its thousands of organic elements—destined to be simply crushed and returned to dust once the festival ends—form a literally biodegradable architecture.

A few meters away, Aquifère, designed by the studios PRÌA and VELIA, explores other forms of sobriety. Travertine and terracotta jars create a passive cooling system based on natural evaporation. More than just an installation, the project acts as a micro-climatic infrastructure, an attempt to reintroduce ancestral knowledge into the overheated cities of the present.

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More conceptual, the proposal developed by ECAL with Mutina, under the guidance of Ronan Bouroullec, plays with trompe-l’œil and perception. A simple facade becomes architecture, with surface turning into depth. Here again, the festival rejects rigid categories: some cabins are refuges, others are theoretical devices, and still others are spaces for contemplation.

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This is undoubtedly what profoundly distinguishes the Festival des Cabanes from a classic architecture exhibition. Here, the projects do not seek to demonstrate formal or technological power. On the contrary, they embrace a form of incompleteness and open-ended research. "We are not in a commercial logic, but in a cultural one," reminds Sam Stourdzé. The time spent experimenting thus becomes as important as the built object itself.

This philosophy also transforms the public's relationship with the Villa Medici. Long accessible only via guided tours, the gardens are now freely open throughout the festival thanks to a subtle scenographic design by Studio Marc Aurel, which we featured in an article in Intramuros 224. In five years, the institution has nearly doubled its attendance, reaching nearly 150,000 annual visitors. More than just an architectural event, the festival has become a tool for reclaiming the space, both by Romans and by the international public.

This 2026 edition finally confirms the project's gradual expansion into a broader cultural platform. Surrounding the cabins are now a pop-up bookstore designed with Librairie 7L, as well as conferences, workshops, readings, performances, and concerts gathered under the Habiter Demainprogram.
On June 25, the Nuit des Cabanes will transform the gardens into a living landscape where architects, artists, writers, and musicians will activate the installations well into the night.

As climate crises call into question the construction models inherited from the last century, the Festival des Cabanes appears less like a summer interlude and more like a full-scale laboratory. It serves as a reminder that inhabiting the world may no longer be about building ever more, but about learning, once again, how to occupy it with lightness.

https://villamedici.it/programme/festival-des-cabanes

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Fine watchmaking is breaking free. With Royal Pop, Audemars Piguet and Swatch have created a capsule collection of eight pocket watches that subverts traditional timepiece conventions. Inspired by the 1972 Royal Oak and the Swatch POP watches of the 1980s, this bioceramic series transforms the watch into a nomadic accessory. It can now be worn around the neck, clipped to a bag, slipped into a pocket, or displayed on a desk using a detachable stand. Bridging the gap between fashion statement and wearable micro-architecture, Royal Pop offers a new way to wear and showcase time. Available in eight models—from the minimalist Huit Blanc to the highly graphic Ocho Negro, and the vibrant palettes of Green Eight, Blaue Acht, and Otto Rosso—the collection ensures each piece has a bold, distinct identity.

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The pop movement

The collection fully embraces its Pop Art heritage with bold colors, graphic contrasts, and a playful spirit. The aesthetic codes of the Royal Oak—the octagonal bezel, hexagonal screws, and "Petite Tapisserie" pattern—are reinterpreted here with a more experimental flair. The Huit Blanc model, featuring eight differently colored screws, directly evokes the world of Andy Warhol, while the Orenji Hachi and Otg Roz models push chromatic play even further. Yet, behind this visual energy lies genuine technical sophistication: bio-sourced bioceramic cases, a fully automated SISTEM51 mechanical movement, and a 90-hour power reserve. With Royal Pop, Audemars Piguet and Swatch demonstrate that contemporary luxury can now combine industrial excellence, popular culture, and creative freedom.

Milano Design Week 2026 marks a turning point. Faced with a sometimes overwhelming visual inflation, the city seems to be returning to its fundamentals, embracing a culture of design memory inherited from the 20th century. Objects are never conceived in isolation, but as the culmination of a global project blending architecture, utility, aesthetics, and social vision. Some cities tell their stories through their monuments; Milan tells its story through its archives as well. Whether drawings, models, photographs, notes, or prototypes, these archives reveal everything that precedes the finished work and preserve its potential. The Triennale di Milano fully embodies this movement.

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But what exactly is the Triennale?

More than just an exhibition center, the Palazzo dell’Arte (Triennale di Milano) is a modernist building designed in 1933 by Giovanni Muzio as a true multifunctional and transdisciplinary cultural hub. From the very beginning, it brought together exhibition halls, a theater, a restaurant, a bar, an archive center, and even a nightclub.
Since 2019, the venue has been reimagined under the leadership of Stefano Boeri, President of the Triennale, Carla Morogallo, Director General, and Luca Cipelletti, Director of Architecture.
Back in 2024, this cultural space inaugurated the "Cuore – Research, Study and Archives Center," a space dedicated to research, memory, and innovation. Located on the ground floor of the Palazzo dell’Arte, this 400 m² area to the left of the main hall welcomes researchers, students, visitors, foundations, and universities. Free to access, Cuore places the research work that fuels the Triennale's entire program back at the center. With decades of national and international exhibitions, it has become a major documentary and heritage center. Its collections include books and journals, graphic, photographic, and audiovisual archives, as well as nearly 2,900 architectural pieces such as drawings, plans, models, and other documents related to projects carried out at the Palazzo dell’Arte and throughout Milan since 1933. The institution also preserves the archives of major figures in Italian design, such as Andrea Branzi, Alessandro Mendini, and Ettore Sottsass, to name but a few.

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A discreet yet exemplary rehabilitation

The renovation of the Palazzo dell’Arte supports this new direction. The goal is to modernize the building while rediscovering the original spirit envisioned by Giovanni Muzio in 1933.
Three pillars structure this transformation: recovering the spirit and preserving the heritage of 1930s Italian rationalism, improving energy performance, and ensuring the spaces are more accessible, flexible, and contemporary.
The restoration highlights the architectural qualities of the site, for example by reopening perspectives (notably the view of Muzio’s helical staircase in the Cuore space), streamlining technical elements, restoring zenithal lighting by uncovering the glass-brick roof, and reintegrating the original window frames. The new, nearly invisible technical installations (insulation, heating) significantly improve the clarity and flow of the space.
In 2025, the venue opened up to new uses. Notable additions include the return of the café and restaurant (Cucina) to their historic location on the park side, as well as the opening of Voce—a space dedicated to music and performing arts—and Gioco, a creative space for children.
Through this transformation, the Triennale also reminds us that Milan’s creative uniqueness lies in its ability to foster a dialogue between rationalism, modernist heritage, and poetic postmodernism.

Through the quality of its exhibitions, spatial design, and architectural restructuring, the Triennale presents itself more as a living, evolving, hybrid building than a static monument. It brings design to life by recounting the trajectories of those who create it, questioning its uses, its critical reach, its social dimension, and the daily joy it can still provide. The simple, human, and elegant names chosen to characterize the various sectors prove this: Cuore, Cucina, Gioco, and Voce.
So, the Triennale di Milano? A must-see, again and again!

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2026 Exhibitions

Andrea Branzi — Continuous Present
Exhibition design: Toyo Ito
Through October 4, 2026
One of the major exhibitions of this edition is dedicated to Andrea Branzi, a thinker, poet, unclassifiable designer, and central figure of Italian Radical Design. He was a tireless advocate for a way of "living poetically in the world," rooted in tolerance and critical fiction.
Conceived as a tribute by Toyo Ito—a close friend and fellow thinker—the exhibition explores Branzi’s critical and deeply humanistic vision. Titled Continuous Present, it expresses his opposition to a mechanical, rationalized, and uniform modernity.
The exhibition revisits the major themes that run through his work: architecture without walls, the hybridization of nature and the city, constant transformation, encounter and adaptability, and the rejection of rigid systems.
For Branzi, deconstruction is never nihilistic. On the contrary, it opens up a space for wonder. His idea of the "continuous present" evokes a city and a world in perpetual evolution, where joy and optimism are a moral and social duty. A lesson worth remembering!
Toyo Ito’s fluid and almost organic spatial design perfectly extends this philosophy.

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Lella and Massimo Vignelli. A Language of Clarity
Exhibition design: Jasper Morrison
Through September 6, 2026
As a counterpoint to Branzi’s critical post-modern design, yet equally joyful and optimistic, the Triennale presents a major retrospective dedicated to Lella and Massimo Vignelli.
Known for their rigorous interpretation of Swiss-inspired modernist rationalism, the Vignellis left a profound mark on international graphic and industrial design between Milan and New York from the 1960s through the turn of the 21st century.
The exhibition, designed by Studio Jasper Morrison, brings together a large collection of iconic pieces. It demonstrates how their work always sought to reveal a clear, colorful, and universal logic, whether in a subway map, a book, a piece of furniture, or jewelry.
Their work serves as a reminder that beyond style, design can above all constitute a language of clarity, capable of reaching an extremely broad audience, far removed from any elitist vision.

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The Eames Houses - Launch of the Eames Pavilion System
In partnership with Kettal
Until May 10, 2026
The Eames Houses exhibition is based on extensive archival research into the residential projects of Ray and Charles Eames, both built and unbuilt. It presents a vision of modular, prefabricated, and deeply human architecture, supported by a vast body of documentation.
For the Eameses, a house was never a static object, but an adaptable system capable of bridging daily life, modularity, and industrial production. Their architecture developed a unique synthesis of modernist rationalism, functional prefabrication, and an organic sensibility inspired by Japanese aesthetics. This is particularly evident in the fluid relationship between interior and exterior, designed to suit the Californian climate and landscape.
This reflection continues today with the launch of the Eames Pavilion System, developed with Kettal under the direction of Eckart Maise, a long-time collaborator of the Eames Office. The system is based on repetitive structural modules combined with various roof and facade options, allowing for multiple configurations, from a small pavilion to a complete house.
The project thus reactivates one of the Eameses' fundamental ideas: to conceive of architecture as an evolving system rather than a definitive form.

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Alphabet — The design of Edward Barber & Jay Osgerby
Until September 6, 2026
The exhibition occupies the beautiful Design Platform space, which, following the major architectural and functional renovation of the Palazzo dell’Arte, is now located in the large area opening onto the garden, previously—and unfortunately—occupied by the Triennale café.

The exhibition’s chronological path highlights the gradual evolution of their "stylistic alphabet" from the mid-1990s to the present day. It showcases a rigorous approach to color, technical curves, angular geometries, and constructive precision.
Key pieces on display include the London 2012 Olympic torch, the Iris tables for Established & Sons, the Tab lamp for Flos, and several special commissions and experimental projects. Through these works, the exhibition demonstrates how their practice combines industrial rigor and artisanal mastery with increasing technical sophistication.

An alternative space by Capsule Globale

Conceived as a hybrid between a fair, a group exhibition, and a cultural platform, Capsule Plaza 2026 took over a former Art Deco gymnasium and swimming pool renovated by ASA Office on Via Achille Maiocchi. Under the direction of Alessio Ascari, the "Design State of Mind" exhibition brought together design, fashion, technology, and craftsmanship in industrial-style rooms, enhanced by a scenography designed by the Milanese agency NM3. Highlights of this fifth edition included the immersive "No Seasons" installation by Stone Island with NM3, research by Karimoku Research with Waka Waka, Devon Turnbull, and Postalco, olfactory experiments by AEIR and Websessions, and the NEO domestic robot by 1X Technologies. Each of these was an event in its own right, adding to a program already rich in talks and workshops, and marked this year by the launch of the fifth issue of Capsule magazine.

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The Muller Van Severen anniversary exhibition

To celebrate 15 years of their studio, the Belgian duo Muller Van Severen partnered with Apartamento to present an anniversary exhibition during Design Week titled "Silhouettes: Celebrating 15 Years ". Produced in partnership with the Tim Van Laere Gallery, this exhibition featured fifteen unique, monumental chandeliers, all crafted from aluminum. Each one served as a reinterpretation of recurring motifs and shapes found in the duo's work. The installation offered a collection of pieces that, while distinct in form, remained entirely cohesive. Each chandelier was also topped with a large, colorful candle that burned down gradually, symbolizing the passage of time—the fifteen years that have passed, but also, and above all, those yet to come.

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‍The Issey Miyake paper installation

In its Milan showroom during Design Week, the house of Issey Miyake presented the experimental project The Paper Log: Shell and Core, conceived by designer Satoshi Kondo of the MIYAKE DESIGN STUDIO and developed in collaboration with the Spanish architecture firm Ensamble Studio. The project consisted of an installation of memory objects (Shell) and furniture prototypes (Core, created by repurposing compressed paper rolls known as Paper Logs—a byproduct of the brand’s signature pleated garments, an iconic Issey Miyake technology. Within the space, the installation featured two complementary series derived from the Paper Log, with displays that contrasted opposing qualities: ephemeral and concrete, delicate and robust. The works conceived by Ensamble Studio, titled Shell, took the form of a series of paper objects seemingly frozen in time, while the in-house design team presented Core, a collection of furniture prototypes including chairs, tables, and stools, treated in various ways to fully explore their materiality.

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‍NikeAir_Lab, a place to run and see innovation

Conceived in collaboration with the new Milanese center Dropcity, NikeAir_Lab offered a deep dive into the world of Nike Air through the brand’s archives, select prototypes, and experimental workshops set up in the industrial tunnels of Via Sammartini. Open throughout the week, the lab unveiled nearly 100 never-before-seen prototypes. Visitors were able to explore research into the Air Liquid Max, FlyWeb and Radical AirFlow materials, and even the Therma-FIT Air Milano jacket. These ultra-technical creations were showcased across eight workstations equipped with robotic arms, pneumatic systems, and thermoforming tools. Beyond new products, the sportswear brand also revealed archives from aeronautical engineer Frank Rudy, as well as developments related to the Alphafly NEXT% and Faith Kipyegon’s Breaking4 suit. Halfway between a research lab and an immersive installation focused on innovation, the NikeAir_Lab was a must-see destination for any fan of technical design, fashion, and sports.