With Milan design week underway, we’ve rounded up the key installations from the event, including BIG’s undulating fountain, a rotating library and a giant inflatable nightclub gremlin courtesy of Nike.
This year has seen big brands splash out for an overwhelming amount of interventions across the city, created by some of the world’s best-known designers and architects.
The Dezeen team has managed to see most of them and compiled 10 of the best for your viewing pleasure below.
Library of Light by Es Devlin
British set designer Es Devlin created a rotating library for furniture fair Salone del Mobile, which is located in the courtyard of the historic Pinacoteca di Brera gallery.
Devlin’s literary installation takes visitors on a literal spin around the 17th-century courtyard. The revolving platform lets readers see its sculptures from a different angle, while perusing the over 3,000 books on display.
The books were chosen to fit with Salone del Mobile’s theme, Thought for Humans, and include works by authors like Toni Morrison and Adrienne Rich. Called Library of Light for its angled mirrors that reflect the sun, the installation is illuminating in more ways than one.
The Suspended Hour by Nike and PAN
Berlin record label Pan collaborated with Nike on a textural Air Max 180 sneaker and an installation located at Capsule Plaza to launch the shoe.
Under the creative direction of Pan founder Bill Kouligas and designer Niklas Bildstein Zaar, the installation “explores club culture as a sacred space”. It features a giant sculpture that resembles a lounging version of the Greek god Pan as well as tacky surfaces that pay homage to sticky club floors.
Making the Invisible Visible by Lachlan Turczan and Google
Following his 2023 debut, which saw him visualise sound, Lachlan Turczan has returned to Milan with Google and another installation themed around synesthesia.
This time, the American artist has made light tangible with the help of a laser, a parabolic mirror, some water-vapour and an algorithm.
The result are six luminous veils in a blackened room that ripple in response to touch as if they were made from actual fabric. Each veil also makes a different sound as it moves, turning the installation into a kind of giant windchime.
Design You Can Feel by Studio INI for Dezeen and ASUS
Kinetic wings open and close as visitors walk along the central axis of this installation created by design firm Studio INI for Dezeen and ASUS.
Their unique glittering texture was created by treating aluminium honeycomb with ASUS’s proprietary Ceraluminum process, creating an oxidized ceramic layer that grows out of the metal as it is submerged in an electrolytic bath.
Hermès
French fashion house Hermès chose stark white minimalism for its annual Milan design week installation, which is once again on display at La Pelota – a former 1940s sports court.
Longtime collaborators Charlotte Macaux Perelman and Alexis Fabris designed the installation, composed of suspended white boxes surrounded by bright white walls and flooring. Colourful spotlights project from the bottom of the boxes, providing vibrant accents for the otherwise sparse space.
The Hermès artistic director duo wanted to elevate the pieces on display and provide “nearly colourless” altar-like vessels to allow the multicoloured collection to take centre stage.
La Prima Notte Di Quiete by Dimorestudio and Loro Piana
Shattered porcelain lies on a dining table and real water spills over the rim of the sunken tub in La Prima Notte Di Quiete, a theatrical installation by design firm Dimore Studio that has taken over the courtyard of the Loro Piana headquarters.
Visitors enter through a foyer styled to look like a vintage cinema, complete with deep red velvet curtains, and are ushered into a dark room to see a theatrical stage resembling an apartment from the 1970s or 80s.
Fully furnished with pieces created by Dimore Studio for Loro Piana Interiors, the stage is illuminated piece by piece, while a soundtrack playing over the speakers suggests a story playing out across the different rooms.
A Beat of Water by BIG for Roca
Architecture firm BIG has combined 300 galvanised steel pipes into an undulating fountain that rains water down onto passersby and recycles it in a closed-loop system.
Four interactive buttons allow visitors to pause the flow of water, visualising how much of this precious resource could be saved through small, conscious choices.
All the things we do in bed by Laila Gohar and Marimekko
A total of 18 individual beds dressed in plush stripy sheets have been combined in the foyer of Teatro Litta, Milan’s oldest theatre still in operation, to form one giant bed.
Finnish lifestyle brand Marimekko joined forces with New York-based designer and Milan design week regular Laila Gohar to create the installation. Its colourful bedding was conceived alongside pyjamas and eyemasks that will launch this September.
The distinctive pink colour of the Teatro Litta ceiling is echoed in the salmon-hued bed sheets, while crystal-like drinks stirrers that accompany coffees served throughout the week nod to the decadent chandelier suspended above the installation.
Diade by Kapwani Kiwanga for Kvadrat
Kvadrat originally stated working with Canadian artist Kapwani Kiwanga when supplying fabrics for her large-scale art pieces, exploring colonialism and its ripple effects.
Now, the artist has developed her own cloth for the Danish textile company, which uses different coloured threads to create the illusion of one colour, plus a dedicated installation in its Corso Monforte showroom.
A series of monumental interventions are spaced throughout the store at different angles to show how our perception of the textiles’ colour changes depending on the lighting and the vantage point.
Checkered Future by Vans and Willo Perron
Visitors are asked to recline on a metal grid and remain still for roughly four minutes in the Checkered Future installation by designer Willo Perron – who is best known for creating fashion show sets for Chanel and Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty.
A grid of mirrors alternately closes in on the viewer and zooms out to an ominous soundtrack by composer Tim Hecker, visualising its different frequencies and vibrations.
Growing Matter(s) by Henning Larsen
In collaboration with the Material Balance Research Lab of the Politecnico di Milano, Danish studio Henning Larsen has created a pavilion that will disappear entirely when design week is over.
Its 80 suspended mycelium spheres will decompose, while the rented scaffolding structure underneath will be returned back to a construction site to be used again.
See our Milan design week 2025 guide on Dezeen Events Guide for information about the many other exhibitions, installations and talks taking place throughout the week.
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