5VIE centres perception through the Qualia of Things at Milan Design Week 2026

The 5VIE Design Week has gradually built its identity at the Milan Design Week through curated shows at the intersection of art and design, set within the context of historic buildings such as the 19th-century Cesare Correnti 14. In contrast to the 2025 edition’s focus on forming a bridge between objects and symbols of design, the 2026 edition centres on subjective perception, examining the ability of objects to grant unique sensory experiences through the theme QoT – Qualia of Things. The design district recognises the urgency of addressing individual emotional responses and uniting them into a shared lived experience through design. Moving beyond superficial associations between form and meaning, the 2026 edition highlights unique sensations, personal interpretations and new ways of experiencing design.

At the upcoming design week, 5VIE—of which STIR is a media partner—insists that observation alone is not enough. One must feel, absorb and process all that is communicated to one’s consciousness upon coming in contact with the objects. “Consciousness is the capacity to have experience through qualia and to learn the meaning of that experience,” physicist Federico Faggin’s words are stated in an official release, positioning design as an ethical practice as much as an aesthetic. Promoting a ‘humanistic innovation of technology,’ the district’s programme collectively attempts to reaffirm the value of human feeling.

Several exhibitions and installations produced by 5VIE collectively translate the abstract notion of ‘qualia’ into spatial, tactile and performative encounters, where objects are no longer inert artefacts but active mediators of perception and emotion. For instance, SWING Design Gallery presents Cosmic Meadow by Australian ceramic artist Elizabeth Lewis. The vibrant handcrafted vases draw on ancient animal sculptures and mythological architecture, resulting in their obscure, biomorphic forms. Japanese artist and a mother of four, Noe Kuremoto, presents an installation, JŌMON: A Mother’s Anthem, curated by Berlin-based independent writer, editor and curator Anna Carnick. Paying homage to the ferocious, hopeful and complex qualities of motherhood, the showcase features stone vessels symbolic of endurance, remembrance and transformation. The contemporary interpretations of some of the most ancient forms of pottery, dating back to the Jōmon period (circa 14,000 – 300 BCE), evoke the feeling of ancient Japanese talismanic figures.

Italian design brand Casaornella presents the installation Social Animal: No One Can Judge Me, where an apartment on Via Conca del Naviglio 10 is transformed into ‘a permeable organism’ by replacing walls with thresholds. Featuring creative direction and interior design by Casaornella’s founder, Maria Vittoria Paggini, the home offers a sensory landscape through a strong focus on materiality and lighting design, featuring a capsule collection, Selvatica dining set, and a washbasin cabinet, Matteo Console, with stark geometries and striking colours that complement the vibrant interiors of the apartment.

French association Hauts Reliefs presents six pieces of 18th and 19th-century furniture designs transformed by contemporary designers and artisans. The display includes a Louis XVI (1754 – 1793) coiffeuse turned into a bar cabinet and a reinvented 19th-century games table, forwarding the conversation on upcycled design. Transforming routine actions into rituals, Liquid Rituals is set to be presented by a ceramic research and production studio of the same name, whereby two independent Italian designers—Giulia Braglia and Gabriele Nasole—work between the Netherlands and Italy. The ceramic objects fuse function, material intelligence and artistic legacy through fluid geometries that paint a dreamscape through forms.

Showcasing emerging Hungarian contemporary design, Creative Hungary presents Budapest Select – Patterns of Being, showcasing the works of 26 designers and brands. The exhibition unfolds through five thematic sections—Current, Aspiration, Fate, Cycle and Responsibility—fusing craftsmanship, material knowledge and critical reflection. The showcase brings to light how we shape the world intentionally through the creative process and responsibility.

Azimuth by Belgian textile company Designs of the Times centres texture, tactility and storytelling through fabrics such as mohair velvet and hemp’s raw green. Handcrafted fabrics give rise to irregularities, catering to both the visual and tactile senses, featuring colours such as desert sand, clay whites, burgundy and olive. Elsewhere, CABINET OF CREATURES, a showcase by luxury label RIANNA + NINA, features pieces made of rare vintage and archival textiles that have been sourced from around the world, including remnants of their own production process. Through research and cultural sensitivity, the brand uses shapes, textures and patterns to form playful and curious creatures full of life.

Italian designer Marco Guazzini presents Risonanze, where he takes objects of various typologies, including furniture such as a console, a desk and a coat stand, along with other imaginative pieces and connects them through a network of aluminium tubes. The resulting products vary widely in terms of possibilities and combinations, giving birth to assemblages that coexist in a suspended balance of form, material and function. Furniture brand Officinanove’s selection of projects underlines design as discreet and enduring, using metal as a bearer of messages and values. The showcase includes Badessa lighting that investigates forms of stones as a poetic gesture, as well as the Tòrre modular series that examines the relationship between material, function and contemporary lifestyle.

A few solo showcases stand out amid the many group exhibitions and installations. Born in São Paulo, Brazilian artist Alê Jordão operates at the junction of visual art, design and fashion, incorporating technology and neon aesthetics into his objects informed by his personal experiences and encounters with urban culture. This year, his immersive installation Pink Toilet transforms a bathroom of the historic building Via Cesare Correnti 14, inspired by the Pink Motel in Los Angeles. “The bathroom becomes the protagonist and takes on seductive qualities, a place where we spend time, observe ourselves and shed our masks,” elaborates the artist.

Seoul and Milan-based designer Ji-youn Woo presents two bodies of work—Renascor and Vertical Garden—brought together under the concept A Structured Garden. First introduced at Edit Napoli 2024 and later expanded during Milan Design Week 2025, Renascor explores organic growth through tactile materials and fluid, sculptural forms. In contrast, Vertical Garden approaches nature as a system, using modular metal structures to translate botanical expansion into a precise structural language. Together, the works interpret the evolution of natural ecosystems as part of everyday environments. Milan-based designer Giuditta Vettese presents a bronze sculpture, La Fiamma che non Brucia (The Flame That Does Not Burn), in the form of a ‘domestic altar,’ that carries water. The sculpture is accompanied by a performative interaction that oscillates between body and sound, portraying a series of gestures as ritual. Collectively, through these gestures, Vettese implores visitors to look at energy as something that can transform into matter and simultaneously transcend beyond it.

The premise of QoT unfolds not as a singular thesis but as a dispersed condition of emotional resonance. The exhibits insist on intimacy, between body and material, memory and form, fostering individual perceptions to collectively take the form of a shared experience. What emerges is a district-wide choreography of self-reflection and awareness, where design resists passive consumption and instead demands active engagement and participation from the visitors. In this sense, 5VIE’s curatorial direction foregrounds the subtle, often overlooked intensities and sensibilities that shape the way we inhabit the world.

Stay tuned for exclusive coverage and highlights of Milan Design Week 2026 and Salone del Mobile.Milano 2026 on STIR. Tap here for regular updates on all design districts, including Fuorisalone, Brera, 5vie, Isola and beyond.