The queues at the Fuorisalone have been nothing new for years now. Neither is the risk of getting lost in the meanderings of an increasingly dense atlas of events and installations, of enduring long waits for big advertised highlights, perhaps missing something more akin to one's interests, or something destined not to return, and which was two doors away. Bearing in mind the impossibility of performing miracles and magically canceling the queues, we can instead propose a selection of the most significant places and experiences, capable of synthesizing in a few steps and a few subway stations all the souls of the Milan Design Week: from interaction design, to fashion, to product. It starts in Brera and arrives in Porta Venezia - wanting, stretching on a "+1", in Città Studi. All in dialogue with the real stuff of the city, those architectures that have made its history and tell its identity to the whole world.

Palazzo Citterio, in the heart of Brera, has experienced many a Design Week. Its spectacular, all-concrete subterranean hall has seen the floating Monsieur Dior chairs by Philippe Starck in 2023 and served as a monumental container for Loewe's delicate teapots in 2025, just to name the most memorable installations. In 2026 it hosted the first Milan event participation of the Uzbekistan Arts and Culture Development Foundation, which has been very active in promoting local culture abroad for the past few years. Here, twelve international designers present brand-new works created in collaboration with Uzbek artisans, all related to the theme of baking. The exhibition "When Apricots Blossom"-the title is inspired by the verses of a famous Uzbek poet-begins underground and ends in the garden, which houses a refined pavilion inspired by the region's nomadic yurts. 

Alessandro Benetti

Just a few steps from Citterio, and we are immersed in the most spectacular materialization of what is immaterial par excellence: emotions. The location, the courtyard of the Pinacoteca di Brera, is unparalleled in terms of iconicity but above all in terms of the meanings and suggestions from which Ricciardi starts to shape his installation. Pleasure arises from the experience of beauty - the place, its collections - but it is also set in playful contrast to gravity - coincidentally populated mostly by male figures - that comes from the history of the institution; and it is conveyed by a substance: serotonin. Three large colorful molecules invade the portico of the main floor, swell and move, and, in a single glance, give enormous narrative power to the chemistry of being human.  Giovanni Comoglio

Between design and fashion, between contemporaneity and history, between art and communication: blurring the boundaries between different worlds is the "Gucci memoria" exhibition at the Cloisters of San Simpliciano, which, after the success of "Gucci Bamboo Encounters" in 2025, is confirmed as the location for the Florentine brand's Design Week. The twelve tapestries arranged along the walls of the main cloister are of irreverent genius, tracing the highlights of the life of Guccio Gucci and his maison. In addition to this more explicitly narrative component, there is a second one of a more evocative and poetic nature: the center of the cloister itself is an immense flower meadow, of colorful seasonal flowers, reproducing the iconic Flora motif. The exhibition is complemented by the elegant (and small) pavilion housed in the smaller cloister, clearly inspired by the noble architecture of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, but pragmatically used as a beverage dispenser.

Alessandro Benetti

It is still La Pelota, a modernist ex-sferisterial building in the heart of Brera, which is hosting the Hermès exhibition for Design Week 2026. The installation is signed by Charlotte Macaux Perelman, architect and artistic director of the Hermès collections for the house together with Alexis Fabry. The display supports are as many architectures, cubes or parallelepipeds of different heights and proportions, off-white and commented by light wood inserts. The objects of the new Hermès Casa collection are products presented as works of art, which are observed from different and sometimes unexpected perspectives, moving around or looking through these elegant platforms, which emerge from the uniform backdrop of the concrete floor. Alessandro Benetti

Five minutes walk from the Pelota, a palace lined along one of the streets that plunge into Brera. The covered courtyard is neoclassical, symmetrical, surrounded by granite columns. In the center, an "algorithmic oracle," a circle that is the heart of the interactive installation signed by Numero Cromatico: visitors extend their hand to the oracle, virtually grasp one of the sentences that will appear, and throw it toward the perimeter walls, where it will go with all the other micro or macro prophecies to create a cloud immersed in the flow of time and the presence of people in it.  Giovanni Comoglio

A few steps away from Villa Necchi Campiglio, in just four minutes, you can listen to the sound of an organ coming back to life after a century. At the Istituto dei Ciechi, a historic Milanese institution founded in the 19th century, Anima Mundi - Dotdotdot's installation for Geely Auto - transports you to an immersive environment where sounds and images depend directly on your movement in space. A device installed under the nineteenth-century organ collects environmental data such as presence, temperature and humidity, translating them through a digital system into a dynamic score. Meanwhile, five veils--each inspired by a sphere of life, from nature to urban--project ever-changing images, alternating between AI and 15th-century frescoes, in full "Technological Renaissance" style. Alessia Baranello

In the chaos of constant change, repetition can become a staple: this is the idea behind 6:AM's installation at Design Week. After last year's experience, the duo returns to a historic 1920s swimming pool, this time the Romano in Città Studi. Here they explore glass and its relationship with light, transforming them into spatial elements. Alongside small light works in the locker rooms, larger modular structures emerge that take lighting design toward an architectural dimension. Rather than repeating itself, 6:AM evolves, leaving room for the unexpected as well. Too bad about the non-accessible pool, but the atmosphere remains pleasant and relaxed, especially thanks to the Full Bar set up outside. Francesca Critelli