Porta Venezia Design District 2026

Details

On the occasion of the upcoming edition of Milano Design Week, Porta Venezia Design District presents Design is Act, a concept inspired by the thinking of Tomás Maldonado, a central figure of 20th-century design who restored to the discipline its ethical, cultural, and political dimension.

For Maldonado, design is never a mere formal exercise, but an act of responsibility and awareness: a critical practice capable of interpreting the present and intervening in reality. To design means to take a position, to assume responsibility for one’s time, and to establish a relationship between memory, knowledge, and transformation.

From this perspective, Design is Act becomes an invitation to consider design as action: a gesture capable of connecting thought and matter, memory and future, imagination and real impact. A process that goes beyond the production of objects, generating relationships, visions, and new possibilities for the way we inhabit the world.

CITTÀ STUDI DESIGN HUB
The new district hub of Porta Venezia Design District
Città Studi Design Hub is born, a new hub extending the district’s reach toward the city’s university area, activating an unprecedented dialogue between design, research, and education. A territory historically linked to scientific and academic innovation becomes, during Design Week, an open laboratory for design experimentation. This expansion marks a further step in the growth of one of the most dynamic hubs of the Fuorisalone.

The debut of Città Studi Design Hub is marked by a major site-specific installation: OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER, a project by 6:AM hosted in the spaces of the historic Piscina Romano. A work that perfectly embodies the theme Design is Act, transforming the design gesture into a spatial device capable of generating experience.

THE PROJECTS
For the 2026 edition, the district takes shape as a diffused route of design experiences interpreting design as an active gesture capable of generating reflections on materials, technology, culture, and society.
Among the protagonists of Milano Design Week 2026:
- IKEA presents Food for Thought
- At the Istituto dei Ciechi, Dotdotdot presents Anima Mundi for GEELY
- DEORON presents Factory Eleven
- YOOX presents YOOX CAMERINO | Unveiled by Keta Bart
- Electrolux presents The Swedish Home by Electrolux on Via Melzo
- Molteni&C presents Responsive Nature, conceived by Elisa Ossino Studio
- Škoda Auto presents Ooooh, that’s EpiQ!
- Sara Ricciardi presents The Sensory Lab for Eccentrico
- Park presents The Meanwhile Club, with music curated by Le Cannibale

With Design is Act, Porta Venezia Design District continues to evolve as an urban laboratory of ideas, capable of connecting disciplines, territories, and creative communities, where design becomes gesture, relationship, and vision.

Porta Venezia Design District was established through the joint initiative of NONSOLOLOFT, represented by Tommaso Francavilla, Stefano Mantovani, Enzo Perego, and WUNDERPLACE STUDIO, represented by Carlo Barbarossa. These entities are the project’s co-founders and are responsible for the strategic and creative direction of the Porta Venezia Design District.