The context in which we produce and consume content is changing faster and faster, and with 2026 the geography of an event such as Fuorisalone is also evolving, this year under the theme “Essere progetto” (Being a Project). But the point is not simply which areas of Milan activate or deactivate — the usual who is in, who is out. What is really changing is the pressure placed on major events like Milan Design Week: the way we use and move through them, more than the sheer volume of content produced, which has grown enormously in the post-pandemic years.

So: only a few selected novelties in terms of Milan locations, new tools to navigate what has now become a river network — often literal rivers of people — and the emergence of epicenters outside the city, truly outside, in different provinces and regions.

The main novelty announced for the 2026 edition is the Fuorisalone Passport. We have noticed it more and more in recent years: the defining feature of Design Week has become the queues. There have already been isolated attempts to introduce paid tickets to address the issue (Alcova being the most obvious example). Passport is instead a “time-saving” web app (not a fast-track system) that allows access to a group of selected events through a QR code, reducing repeated registrations and making data collection more controlled both for organizers and visitors.

From the previous early digital era (2003) the project of the E.reporters also returns: students documenting Fuorisalone through images and video. Over the past year Google Arts has opened a section dedicated to the history of the event, creating an archive of more than 300,000 images and a new articulation of Fuorisalone’s geography.

A few years ago we wondered where to escape from Milan Design Week while still remaining in Milan when the event overload became too much; this time Fuorisalone itself is looking beyond Milan through its collaborations. At an international scale, this is confirmed by the Osaka Design Week project, born from the agreement with the Japanese city twinned with Milan for 45 years, although that event takes place in late September.

Within reach of the Milan week — and of a day trip — there is the exhibition “0-99. Design for Play”, opening April 10 at the baroque Palazzo Arese Borromeo in Cesano Maderno, dedicated to games ranging from life-size Risiko to the chessboards designed by Gianfranco Frattini. There is also “Davide Groppi. Un’ora di luce”, opening March 26 at Volumnia in Piacenza, devoted to 38 years of one of the central figures in Italian lighting design. And there is the possibility of including Turin — just 35 minutes by train from Rho FieraMilano — in the atlas of possible accommodations thanks to MiTo Design Connections.

The parade of toponyms that have become pillars of Design Week is, of course, unavoidable — the very thing everyone is waiting for: who is in, who is out. 2026 is largely a year of confirmations, with the exception of a renewal within the Superstudio cluster, which will now be divided among Superstudio Più, Superstudio Maxi and the new Superstudio Village across different parts of the city (more TBA). 

Tortona Design Week returns with Tortona Rocks, as do Base Milano, the Porta Venezia Design District — which evokes Tomás Maldonado in proposing a theme that dialogues between memory and possibility — and the Durini Design District with the pantheon of its iconic showrooms. There are the 5Vie, bringing us closer to the concept of Qualia, the subjective qualities of experience — the way each of us perceives a color or a taste. And there is Brera, which once again creates a galaxy within the Fuorisalone galaxy with more than 300 initiatives and 217 permanent showrooms, including well-known epicenters such as Casa Brera and the Brera Apartment.

Several names concentrate attention. Among them is Alcova, the collectible design cluster that after its détour into the outskirts returns to the city, splitting between the former Military Hospital in Baggio and Villa Pestarini designed by Franco Albini, as well as Casa Bagatti Valsecchi, which will host the Bulgarian collective design project Dopir.

The fourth edition of Convey by Simple Flair will take over an entire rationalist building near Torre Velasca, while Spazio Maiocchi, close to the confirmed Capsule Plaza, will host Ikea this year, diving into the rituals of cooking and gathering together in dialogue with the concept of Democratic Design.

MoscaPartners Variations returns to Palazzo Litta around Lina Ghotmeh’s installation Metamorphosis in Motion in the Cortile d’Onore, while nearby Triennale Milano celebrates figures such as Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, Lella and Massimo Vignelli, and Ettore Sottsass through its exhibitions. Not far from Zona Sarpi, ADI Design Museum will present the XXIX Compasso d’Oro exhibition, a solo show by Japanese designer Haruka Misawa, and an installation by Mario Botta inspired by Le Corbusier.

At Nilufar Depot, hospitality becomes the theme with the Nilufar Grand Hotel featuring installations and works by david/nicolas, Allegra Hicks and Andrea Mancuso, while at Nilufar Spiga La Casa Magica by Valentina Ciuffi (Studio Vedèt), staged by Space Caviar, will be presented.

For those chasing the large urban installation blockbusters, the route will lead to Porta Nuova for Blooming Imperfections by Andrea Olivari, or to the Castello Sforzesco to experience the creative process as a spatial journey in Albori, designed by Stark.