Fuorisalone calls for process-centric design thinking at Milan Design Week 2026

Great design breakthroughs across history have come from makers who experiment and step out, over, under, around (or completely ignore) prescribed boundaries. Such outputs require engaging with creativity in unconventional ways to seek experiences that differ from how most people encounter design, spaces or even events, which eventually reframes novel thinking, leading to fresh ideas.

When planning a visit to Milan Design Week, which is segmented into spatial and thematic design districts, curious minds can often feel restricted by strict curations and a structured way to experience it. In this case, Fuorisalone presents an alternate way to witness the design festival at large. Fuorisalone translates to ‘outside the fair’ or 'outside Salone', and evokes this definition via a decentralised, city-wide, organic network of events existing beyond a single venue, sans fixed boundaries.

Instead of being contained within a neighbourhood or a series of exhibition halls, it is thoroughly embedded in the everyday urban sphere of Milan, Italy. Running parallel to Salone del Mobile.Milano, from April 20 – 26, 2026, Fuorisalone is pivoted on the idea of discovering design in unexpected places, across shops, courtyards, studios, private apartments, abandoned factories and even palazzos.

Under its theme Be the Project, Fuorisalone at Milan Design Week 2026 extends ‘an invitation to view design as a dynamic and imperfect process, capable of creating dialogue between minds, cultures and materials, while shaping new visions for the future’. With a series of events, design exhibitions and installations planned across the city, it seeks to share ideas and outputs that tangibly reflect the transformations of our contemporary world while imagining a future that holistically centres the idea, the process, the attitude and the output in lieu of designing a living, metamorphosing practice.

As a media partner, STIR distills everything there is to know about Fuorisalone 2026, ahead of its opening later this month.

Be the Project | Essere Progetto: Design beyond the object

The theme draws focus toward ‘attitude, thought and gesture’ behind a design, reframing it as a humane, dynamic and imperfect process. Be the Project (Essere Progetto) beckons one to recognise that every creative act takes shape through a dialogue between thought and matter, intuition and responsibility. It implies that the value of design is not ascribed to the finished product but rather, in the very process that generates it and the mistakes that alter its initial intent. This idea is essentially an extension of the conceptual tone set by Salone del Mobile.Milano’s theme this year, A Matter of Salone, which invites creatives to view designs as holistic systems encompassing ideation, making and outcome rather than solely the final image. 

Fuorisalone 2026 furthers this thought by positing failure as an integral part of design—humanising the project and opening up space to rediscover the depth of making. “With Essere Progetto, we aim to shift the focus from the outcome to the process,” shares Paolo Casati, co-founder and creative director of Milan-based agency Studiolabo, which organises and curates various events at the fair. “The theme takes shape through a series of dialogues with designers, architects, and researchers, who describe the project as a practice consisting of attempts, mistakes, intuitions and relationships.” 

The theme further iterates the necessity for humans to engage with new forms of intelligence, particularly the many modes of artificial intelligence, to give form to new, shared forms of creativity. “Be the Project is not just a theme, but a perspective: an invitation to recognise oneself in change, in process, and in the courage to keep experimenting,” reads an excerpt from the press release.

Fuorisalone Award for innovations interpreting Be the Project

Returning this year for its fifth edition, the Fuorisalone Award—curated by Studiolabo—highlights memorable content and design installations conceived by companies and designers during Milan Design Week. 12 projects will compete for the public's votes. A selection of entries will be evaluated by a jury (including Signe Byrdal Terenziani, CEO & managing director of 3daysofdesign Copenhagen; Ed Stocker, Europe editor at large, Monocle magazine; and more) for three Special Mentions in the categories named 'Sustainability & Research', 'Technology & Innovation' as well as 'Engagement & Interaction'. Additionally, the Special Mention Essere Progetto (Being Project) will be awarded to the project that most compellingly interprets the theme.

Documenting Milan Design Week

The e.Reporter initiative, launched in 2023 for students of design, architecture and visual arts with an interest in photography and audiovisual content, seeks to depict Fuorisalone through the eyes of an engaged community, representing the designers of tomorrow. This year, a partnership between Studiolabo and the School of Design at Politecnico di Milano enables students from the institute to contribute to the design event’s collective storytelling. A collaboration with the C41 magazine has yielded the launch of a call to action titled Designing is Observing, to invite e.Reporters to document the design week, with selected images featured on the magazine’s platforms.

Intersectional collaboration with miart

miart, an international modern and contemporary art fair, once again collaborates with Fuorisalone, fostering a natural dialogue between Milan’s art and design weeks. Its 30th edition, titled New Directions, explicitly references jazz music and John Coltrane’s eponymous collection, serving as a curatorial method based on listening, transformation and controlled improvisation. Expressed as a citywide jazz-inspired itinerary, the thematic route connects institutions, museums and foundations across Milan.

“The collaboration with Fuorisalone has been instrumental: as in the past two years, we want to build itineraries together that are not just a list of stops, but a different way of experiencing the city—an open score inviting the public to move through Milan following resonances, improvisations, and unexpected encounters, like in a jam session" says Nicola Ricciardi, artistic director of miart.

Osaka Design Week and Osaka Fuorisalone

Osaka Design Week, presented as a new international project dedicated to design, manufacturing and project culture, has been conceived as both a cultural project and a commercial platform to foster long-term connections among designers, producers, institutions and market stakeholders. Alongside promoting Japanese design excellence, its inaugural edition will feature a curated selection of Italian design and craftsmanship, fostering dialogue between the two countries while opening new distribution opportunities through Japanese retail partners and department stores.

The project will unfold over the coming months through a series of initiatives accompanying both audiences and industry operators. Introduced and platformed for exchange during Milan Design Week this month, Osaka Design Week will subsequently take place in Osaka, Japan, from September 23 – October 4, 2026.

Reframing the city as a stage for creative incursions

Fuorisalone, designed to seep into every design district, encapsulates the city’s dynamic spirit during the design week and paves the way for a discursive exploration. From Brera, Tortona and 5VIE to Isola, Porta Venezia and Durini, it activates different neighbourhoods, all infused with novel energies.

For instance, Brera Design Week revolves around the theme Essere Progetto, inviting creatives and audiences to view design beyond its final product—as a cultural process. Brera will transform into an urban laboratory where design, creativity and business intersect, turning the neighbourhood into an open space for experimentation and research.

The Tortona Design District, on the other hand, seeks to become a spokesperson for current issues via creative outputs that respond to the challenges of tomorrow. 5VIE’s QoT - Qualia of Things / Qualia as protagonists thematic ponders upon how the experiences of tasting, feeling, viewing, sniffing or even hearing the same things are differently perceived by different people.

Isola Design Week, returning for its 10th edition, marks the milestone with TEN: The Evolving Now, revisiting some of the district’s most successful showcase formats while introducing new collaborations and installations, signalling both a homecoming and a step forward.

Porta Venezia Design District, returning for its fourth edition with the theme Design is Act, is rooted in the thinking of Tomás Maldonado, a key figure in 20th-century design culture, ‘who recognised in every form and space the outcome of a dialectical tension between memory and possibility’. This makes the process of designing an act of responsibility one in which knowledge, heritage and transformation must intertwine.

Lastly, Durini Design Week 2026 arrives with the theme Design Hospitality - Milan Style, a vision where hospitality is seen as a means to connect design, cities and people, something heavily emblematic of Milan.

Immersive, interactive and cross-disciplinary highlights

Portanuova, a neighbourhood within Milan, will host Blooming Imperfections – Relationships in Progress, a show featuring installations, participatory experiences and moments of reflection. Among the showcases are Andrea Olivari’s installations guiding visitors through an interactive artistic trail, a Flower Bar and Casa Buri’s temporary restaurant, Fiuri’s floral creations and Alea’s sustainable furnishings, turning into a place of encounter, reflection and discovery.

The electric car brand CUPRA will present an installation reflecting the concept of Beyond the Known. Through an immersive experience, the brand explores what it means to push the boundaries of traditional design and how new creative possibilities can emerge from it. By means of material experimentation, parametric design and the use of algorithmic processes supported by AI, CUPRA presents an aesthetic where the material guides the form—offering a glimpse into the future of mobility and the brand’s evolving design language.

Tobacco heating products brand glo™ brings a large interactive portal—marked by an orange circle symbolising connection and belonging—to Palazzo Moscova this year. Designed by research centre Numero Cromatico, it is an immersive space where chromatic vibrations underscore the experience, inviting visitors to move through and remember the space.

BECOMING by furniture brand Rimadesio celebrates its 70th anniversary. Curated by Juma and complete with a collection designed by Giuseppe Bavuso, light and glass work by Encor Studio, as well as an immersive room dedicated to the brand’s story, the showcase expresses the contemporary vision of a sustainable brand.

Keeping in line with immersive works is Artemest’s L’Appartamento, returning to Palazzo Donizetti for its fourth edition. During the design fair, the Milanese palace becomes a stage for showcasing Italian craftsmanship. With Italian Grandeur as the theme this year, five interior design studios, namely CH Herrero, MAWD, Rockwell Group, Sasha Adler and Urjowan Interiors, will transform each room into an immersive installation.

Another experiential inclusion is Nilufar Gallery’s dual presentations across Nilufar Depot and Nilufar Grand Hotel, both reinterpreting the theme of hospitality through collectible designs. Works by david/nicolas, Filippo Carandini, Allegra Hicks, Andrea Mancuso, Maximilian Marchesani and Christian Pellizzari, Von Pelt Atelier and Derin Beren Yalcin will be showcased within Nilufar Depot. At its other location, however, curated by Valentina Ciuffi of Studio Vedèt with an installation by Space Caviar, works by David Aliperti, Flora Lechner and Anita Morvillo will explore the symbolic and ritual dimensions of the living, enchanting the space with an almost magical charm.

Luxury homeware and furniture brand Fornasetti will transform its flagship store with the international studio Tutto Bene. This spatially charged up space will house new product designs made in collaboration with cc-tapis and an in-house flower shop store curated by Simone Gooch.

Reflecting a cross-disciplinary infusion is Food For Thought by IKEA, an exhibition that brings together contemporary design, food and conviviality. The brand will offer an immersive experience dedicated to the rituals of cooking and gathering, reflecting its concept of ‘Democratic Design’, and demonstrating how functional, accessible and sustainable design can enhance everyday moments around food. IKEA will also present one of its newest furniture design collections for the first time at the festival.

Recalling the linkages between history, design and architecture movements, the Poland-based cultural institute Visteria Foundation will showcase Polish Modernism. A Struggle for Beauty. The showcase offers a detailed exploration of the multiple facets of modernism, its impact on Polish culture and its enduring presence, as manifested in Polish design today. Housed on the 16th floor of Torre Velasca, an icon of post-war modernity, the exhibition examines how Poland’s complex and turbulent history gave rise to a unique form of modernism.

BASE Milano's Design Week 2026, Hello, Darkness, encompasses a wide variety of events where visitors are invited to inhabit darkness and make visible what is still in the making—transforming BASE into a laboratory of radical visions. This includes Exhibit, an exhibition featuring 80 emerging designers, five open studios in the rooms of casaBASE, Urban Camping on the Terrace curated by Lemonot and the Royal College of Art; the IDIORYTHMIA installation by studio smarin with Institut Français Milano; alongside activities for children, music, clubbing, night-time sound explorations and a public programme combining design, arts and science.

Milan-based creative consultancy and curatorial platform MoscaPartners present MoscaPartners Variations, an exhibition hosted at Palazzo Litta. Designed to reflect the theme Metamorphosis, the exhibits will reflect the continuous transformation process of design through adaptive forms, dynamic technological insertions and more. Its main courtyard will house the site-specific installation Metamorphosis in Motion by Lebanese-born architect Lina Ghotmeh.

In a bid to activate urban spaces, Superstudio Design—Superstudio’s new project for the design week—invigorates three locations: Superstudio Più, Superstudio Maxi and Superstudio Village. Each site proffers distinct concepts that celebrate design, creativity, innovation and research via site-specific pavilions.

The experimental design and architecture centre, Dropcity in Milan, will return this year with a programme encompassing exhibition projects, research and a system of permanent workshops dedicated to prototyping and manufacturing. Reflecting the overarching theme of the design festival, ten facilities dedicated to the production of ceramics, textiles, carpentry, 3D printing and more, will remain open to the public, revealing methodologies and processes that otherwise remain discrete.

The ADI Design Museum is set to host various exhibitions, installations and talks, including the 29th edition of the Compasso d'Oro, a solo exhibition by Japanese designer Haruka Misawa and a Le Corbusier-inspired installation by Mario Botta.

Similarly, Triennale Milano will host a range of exhibitions, namely Alphabet by Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby; Continuous Present, an exhibition dedicated to Andrea Branzi by Toyo Ito; Lella and Massimo Vignelli’s retrospective A Language of Clarity and a selection of Ettore Sottsass’s works from the Triennale collection, among other research-based showcases.

Lastly, KV Design will present DOPIR, a collective Bulgarian design project bringing together objects, designers, an artist, an architect and a photographer. It is designed with the intention of engaging touch. “Each work invites proximity, presence and awareness, revealing design not as an isolated object, but as an experience shaped by contact,” the press release mentions.

Everything, everywhere, all at once

Fuorisalone 2026 presents an engaging route for those with a curious bent of mind, a propensity for mild chaos and dynamism apart from an inclination to venture beyond prescribed paths and spaces. One may follow its mapped landmarks to chance upon myriad contemporary, historic, immersive, engaging, slow and discursive stations within Milan. In a way, it is a brilliant way to forage through all design districts and find oneself amid everything, everywhere, all at once.

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.