Milan Design Week 2025, also known as Salone del Mobile Milano, is one of the most significant design events in the world, taking place annually in Milan, Italy. This year takes place from 7 to 13 April 2025, attracting designers, architects, and design enthusiasts from all over the globe. The event showcases cutting-edge innovations in furniture, interior design, lighting, and architecture, serving as a platform for both established brands and emerging designers to display their latest creations.

In addition to the official Salone del Mobile exhibition, the week includes a variety of parallel events, installations, and pop-up shows in different areas of Milan. These are part of the broader “Fuorisalone” event, which takes place in the city’s districts, transforming public spaces, showrooms, and galleries into design hubs.

Key highlights of Milan Design Week 2025:

1. Salone del Mobile: The main exhibition, where major brands, designers, and manufacturers present their newest products and concepts in furniture and design. The 63rd edition of the design fairtakes place at Fiera Milano, running from 8 to 13 April. This year’s fair includes the biennial lighting showcase Euroluce, which alternates each year with kitchen exhibition EuroCucina.
2. Fuorisalone: A citywide series of events, including product launches, exhibitions, talks, and installations, scattered throughout Milan’s neighbourhoods like Brera, Tortona, and Ventura.
3. Design Installations: Often, you’ll see avant-garde installations, artistic displays, and collaborative projects blending design with art, technology, and sustainability.
4. Networking and Conferences: Milan Design Week is also a hub for discussions on design trends, sustainability, digital innovation, and new materials. It’s a place to connect with key players in the industry.
5. Design districts: Many districts across the city take part in the festival, hosting a variety of fringe events

Milan Design Week 2025 is expected to continue its legacy as a platform for creativity, innovation, and trends shaping the future of design.

Events to focus on 

For the lucky ones, that will be there this week, these are some of the events or exhibitions you must see! As it is unlikely, you can be everywhere that week.

• L’Appartamento by Artemest: In celebration of its 10th anniversary, Artemest brings back the third edition of L’Appartamento, showcasing Italian craftsmanship within the lavish surroundings of Palazzo Donizetti, a space usually reserved as Alberta Ferreti’s private showroom. Six renowned international interior designers, including Brigette Romanek, Champalimaud, and Meyer Davis, each design a unique room within the palazzo, featuring handcrafted pieces from over 180 Italian artisans. This exclusive opportunity offers a rare peek into a private 19th-century residence where historical elegance merges seamlessly with contemporary design.

Palazzo Donizetti, Via Gaetano Donizetti | April 8-13, 2025

• Alcova: Expanding its reach for its ninth edition, Alcova spans across four extraordinary locations in Varedo, deepening its exploration of space, history, and design. Alongside the modernist Villa Borsani and the grand Villa Bagatti Valsecchi, this year introduces the Pasino Glasshouses—formerly home to one of Europe’s largest white orchid cultivations—and the SNIA Factory, a vast industrial site softened by time and nature. Each venue offers a distinct atmosphere, guiding visitors through immersive site-specific installations and experimental exhibits that push the boundaries of contemporary design. Since 2018, Alcova has remained a leading platform for redefining how we experience and interact with our surroundings.

Various Locations | April 7-13, 2025

• Vero: Vero returns to Milan Design Week with a fresh collaboration featuring Italian designer Federico Elmo, highlighting his signature approach to material experimentation and sculptural design. This year’s exhibition transforms the space at Via Felice Casati into a dynamic meeting point for designers, collectors, and design enthusiasts alike. Expect a fusion of contemporary Italian craftsmanship and radical innovation, where unexpected textures and bold forms redefine functional design.

Via Felice Casati, 3 | April 8-13, 2025

• Cassina: To mark 60 years of producing the Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, and Charlotte Perriand Collection, Cassina presents a bold intervention at Teatro Lirico Giorgio Gaber, created by Formafantasma. More than just a retrospective, the installation delves into the tension between Modernist ideals and today’s ecological realities, envisioning a more organic, untamed future. A fully immersive experience unfolds throughout the week, including a performance directed by Fabio Cherstich, with texts by Emanuele Coccia, Andres Jaque, and Feifei Zhou, exploring how we perceive and interact with the legacy of design.

Via Larga, 14 | April 7–13, 2025

• Cabana: Cabana launches its Atlas of Craftsmanship with Speak, Memory, a deeply personal exhibition co-curated by Martina Mondadori and Deborah Needleman. Held in Mondadori’s family home, designed by Renzo Mongiardino and open to the public for the first time, the show features works by Peter Schlesinger, Bode, Green River Project, and others. Much like the Atlas itself, the exhibition is a tribute to the artisans preserving the world’s rarest craftsmanship traditions.

Casa Cabana | April 9–11, 2025 | Booking opens March 29

• Ranieri: Under the Volcano by Ranieri is a multi-sensory exploration of volcanic energy, set within the raw, industrial setting of the SNIA Factory. Artist Quavola’s algorithmically sculpted rock formations echo the forces of erosion, while Rodrigo D’Erasmo’s soundscape captures the rumble of molten earth. Monumental structures by Francesco Meda and David Lopez Quincoces, draped in volcanic stone, rise like tributes to nature’s most primal force. The result is a compelling fusion of art, science, and architecture—a tribute to the Earth’s greatest sculptor.

Alcova, ex SNIA Factory, 20814, Varedo | April 7–13, 2025

• Prada Frames: Returning for its fourth edition, Prada Frames presents In Transit, a multidisciplinary symposium examining the intersection of design, movement, and the environment. Taking place from April 6–8 at The Padiglione Reale and the Arlecchino Train—a carriage designed by Gio Ponti and Giulio Minoletti, located at Milan Central Station—the event continues its exploration of design’s role in shaping ecological and social systems. In collaboration with Formafantasma, In Transit delves into how migration, mobility, and change impact the built and natural worlds.

Piazza Luigi di Savoia, 1 | April 6-8, 2025

• L.U.P.O Lorenzetti Projects: L.U.P.O’s newly opened Isola gallery is committed to emerging artists, presenting a two-part exhibition focused on themes of fragmentation, connection, and the liminal space between reality and perception. Co-curated by Sole Castelbarco Albani, the exhibits feature works by Leo Luccioni, Rachel Obkirk, Gus Monday, and others, which converse with furniture from Vero, creating an immersive dialogue between art and design.

Via Borsieri, 29, Milan | April 5—May 15, 2025 | Open by appointment | info@lupo.gallery

• Google: Google Design Studio, led by Ivy Ross, partners with light and water artist Lachlan Turczan to explore how design materialises the invisible. At Garage 21, Making the Invisible Visible transforms abstract ideas into immersive experiences, merging luminous sculptures with Google’s cutting-edge hardware. A meditation on perception, this exhibition reveals how form, function, and imagination converge to create something greater than the sum of its parts.

Garage 21, Via Archimede, 26 | April 8–13, 2025

No matter which exhibition you choose to visit, experiencing Milan during the spring, filled with design showcases, is a true privilege. I hope you have a wonderful time if you make it there!

Until next time!!! 

Design geek in Athens

Note: Some info and photos curated from Forbes