For those who love design (and a bit of architecture too), the Fuorisalone is essentially a playground. But Design Week, with its colorful installations and immersive “experiences,” can also feel like a brief escape from reality. The stops in this fourth guide curated by Domus belong exactly to that category. From design pet houses where you can treat your chihuahua to a canapé, to a desert-like playground where you can run in your new Asics, passing through the striking installations by major architecture studios—such as Zaha Hadid Architects and Ma Yansong—that play with the spaces of Milan’s Statale University. And finally, a monumental installation based on an archival drawing by Louis Vuitton at Palazzo Serbelloni, Martino Gamper’s carpets turned into tapestries at Capsule Plaza, and two highlights by NM3 and Cassina at 10 Corso Como. They are a dose of caffeine that we—and we believe you too—desperately need.

At Milan Design Week, a new research institute opens. It’s unclear who funded it or how long it has existed, but its goal is precise: to study how movement affects the mind. Only once inside do you realize that it’s not a scientific institution in the strict sense, but a device designed by Asics together with Studio Nuova. We are at Garage 21, where the “Kinetic Playscape” takes the form of a journey through five rooms: from weight to lightness, from earth to an almost abstract dimension. Each environment is a state, each transition a perceptual shift. The language is hybrid, combining echoes of Italian radical design with a distinctly Japanese minimalism, in a space that is both installation and playground. The idea is simple: 15 minutes of movement are enough to change one’s mental state, and here design becomes the device that activates it. At the center is the new Gel-Kinetic 2.0, which revisits early-2000s running silhouettes and brings them into a more everyday use, balancing exaggerated cushioning with a visibly technical structure. But more than a product launch, Asics’ project is an attempt to shift design from object to experience, letting it pass directly through the body. In previous years, this was Google’s location, which hosted some of the most interesting projects seen at Design Week. This time as well, it’s something we will remember. Alessandro Scarano

During the days of the Fuorisalone, Toiletpaper Living transforms this year into a house for animals, with all the comforts of a home for humans: there is a “spa area,” curated by Animal House Milano, where pets can enjoy quick grooming; buffets prepared by pet food brand Lily’s Kitchen; a walk-in wardrobe and bathrooms; but also a living area hosting the new collaboration between Seletti and Toiletpaper, featuring, for example, a cat’s face between two hamburger buns on a small day cushion. Toiletpaper’s “house for animals” is a small, colorful oasis within the Fuorisalone, but also a tribute to an extraordinary artist, Walter Chandoha, who went from being a war photographer to becoming a cat photographer. No spoilers: you’ll have to go and see why. Alessia Baranello

Every year, the main campus of the University of Milan, just steps from Torre Velasca and the Policlinico, turns into a playground for design and architecture. The protagonists are well known to us at Domus: those studios you simply cannot ignore, from BIG to Snøhetta, from AMDL to Zaha Hadid Architects. And there is also MAD, led by current guest editor Ma Yansong. But these are not the only things you will find this year: Materiae, the project by Interni, transforms the Statale into a path made of materials and installations. A ceramic gorilla embracing a roe deer, twenty thousand tomato cans forming a walkable house, a luminous knot growing in space. In the Cortile d’Onore, the rubble of Ukrainian schools is reassembled into a ring, while installations exploring technology, memory, and sustainability unfold through the porticoes. And then the companies: Sony with ultra-sustainable materials, IED with projects addressing emergency scenarios. As always, there is much more: the Statale has long been one of Milan’s must-see addresses, even for those outside the design circuit Alessandro Scarano

Luxury is the last comfort zone of our time. It can be pompous, hard to access, sometimes even dull. But it represents a safe, protected space—a bubble where the outside world is filtered and distilled of its stresses, from constant notifications to war. This year’s staging of Objets Nomades by Louis Vuitton is a perfect simulation of this state of impermeable calm. It looks back a hundred years to pay tribute to Pierre Legrain, a key figure of Art Deco and collaborator of Gaston-Louis Vuitton. Inside, the narrative alternates between historical re-editions and new productions: the 1921 dressing table—the Maison’s first piece of furniture—enters into dialogue with seating, screens, and objects that reinterpret Legrain’s vocabulary. In the courtyard, an archival drawing becomes a three-dimensional installation, animated by live encounters and painting. The journey extends to the Montenapoleone boutique, among trunks and new contemporary commissions. A deeply contemporary experience, yet somehow outside of time—well worth the long queue at the entrance. Alessandro Scarano

Capsule Plaza has become the scandal of this Design Week due to issues of corporate ethics, which one hopes will soon be clarified – especially for the third parties involved. With a certain effort of selective amnesia, however, one can still appreciate the high quality of the location – an ex-industrial space in Porta Venezia, well renovated by ASA Office – and of the exhibitors. The spectacular covered square hosts No Season by Stone Island, featuring a successful and cool setup by NM3 – suspended ceiling with projections and giant speakers. On the ground floor, the space by Bolon, the historic Swedish carpet brand, is more classically elegant. Martino Gamper designs a “total” interior, where carpets also become full-height tapestries and coverings for large parallelepiped seating elements, all marked by the brand’s classic patterns with large fields of bright colors. More complex and equally valid is the adjacent Karimoku corner. Here, the exhibition Research Published as Furniture presents in Milan for the first time the excellent projects of four brands born within the Karimoku Research laboratory: wagetsu わ月, CMPT by Lichen, Karimoku Re:issue by LICHEN, and STAKKO. Alessandro Benetti

The collaboration between Visionnaire and NM3 is working well, indeed very well. From 10 Corso Como, they are launching a collection of furniture-a dozen in all, including chairs, tables and a bed-that is an ideal meeting point between the former partner's research on luxury craftsmanship and the latter's experimentation with raw materials. The objects on display originate from a visible tension between different pairs of opposites: hard and soft, transparent and opaque, monoblock and crystal. The products are convincing and the narrative is convincing, supported by an excellent and very learned curatorial text signed by Annalisa Rosso. The layout of the pop-up store, however, would have deserved more courage, not to be confused with an ordinary showroom. Then, at the same venue, there is another collaboration for Design Week: between Cassina and Linde Freya Tangelder, a Dutch designer based in Belgium who is accustomed to crafting her pieces by hand in her own workshop. But how does one make the transition from craftsmanship to mass production? "It's important to me that design is for everyone, not just the person who created it," Tangelder explains to Domus. She began her collaboration with Cassina in 2022. The "Fluid Re-Collection" exhibition resembles a post-industrial living room, composed of pieces that appear to be unique. If you like this style, go and check it out! Alessandro Benetti and Francesca Critelli