Milan Design Week 2026 is already on my mind. Some places stay with you. Even a year later, they return the moment you start mapping Milan again.
During Milan Design Week 2025, one of those places for me was the exhibition Two-Fold Silence by 6:AM Glassworks. Hidden inside the former changing rooms of Piscina Cozzi in Porta Venezia, the presentation unfolded across a sequence of tiled spaces, each holding a single object or a small composition.
There was no central stage. No single focal point. Instead, the experience was built through movement. Walking from cabin to cabin, the objects revealed themselves slowly. Hand-blown glass pieces placed against aged surfaces, surrounded by Liberty mosaics and traces of time. The contrast was quiet but powerful. Fragile material meeting a worn architectural shell.
What made it exceptional was not only the work itself, but the scenography. The way space, light and material were brought together. Design was not presented, but experienced.
This year, 6:AM returns with a new exhibition, OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER, this time at Piscina Romano. A shift in location, but a continuation of their exploration of glass as a living material, shaped by repetition, gesture and subtle variation.
Piscina Romano, located at Via Ampère 20 in Milan, is one to keep on your radar for Milan Design Week 2026.
Another presentation that stayed with me for entirely different reasons was Romantic Brutalism, hosted by the Visteria Foundation and curated by Federica Sala, with scenography by Zuza Paradowska.
Where the 6:AM installation was built on rhythm, repetition and scenography, this exhibition moved towards a more layered and emotional material language. Raw materials such as steel, ceramic, glass and wood were combined with softer elements like lace, textiles and folkloric references. Heavy forms carried a sense of fragility. Concrete felt almost like lace.
It is one I will be looking out for again while mapping Milan Design Week 2026.
These are the kinds of places I return to when preparing Milan. Not to see everything, but to recognise what matters.
More notes will follow in the coming weeks.
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