Milano Design Week restarts from Porta Venezia Porta Venezia Design District presents "Design is Act"
On the occasion of the Milano Design Week, the Porta Venezia Design District presents Design is Act, a concept inspired by the thinking of Tomás Maldonado, a central figure of 20th-century design who restored to the project an ethical, cultural and political dimension, arguing that design is never a mere formal exercise, but an act of responsibility and awareness: a critical practice capable of reading the present and intervening in reality.
«The Milano Design Week is the most prestigious international event in the sector and the flagship week of Milan’s calendar, during which our city becomes a crossroads for visitors, experts, enthusiasts and stakeholders who generate impact and set ideas and changes in motion every year. Within this context» states the Councillor for Economic Development and Labour Policies Alessia Cappello «the Porta Venezia Design District will, as always, present a significant contribution, and I am confident that this edition too will offer many insights and proposals that it will be able to connect and activate, bringing an increasing number of users to this urban area in search of projects, encounters and opportunities».
«With Design is Act we want to bring design back to its most authentic dimension: that of a cultural act capable of transforming reality. Designing means taking responsibility, taking a position in one’s time and building relationships between thought, matter and society» comments Carlo Barbarossa, Co-founder and Creative Director of PVDD.
The Design is Act programme
Among the central projects, INSIEME, conceived and curated by Sabato De Sarno for Vanity Fair Italia, shifts the focus from objects to people, placing artisans and production processes at the centre. The project expands into the urban space with an intervention by JR, who brings the faces of artisans to a monumental scale. At Piscina Romano, 6:AM presents OVER and OVER and OVER and OVER, an installation that reflects on repetition as an invisible structure of everyday life and creative practice.
IKEA, at Spazio Maiocchi with Food for Thought, explores the relationship between design, food and conviviality through immersive environments that reinterpret domestic rituals. At the Istituto dei Ciechi, Anima Mundi by GEELY with Dotdotdot creates an interactive ecosystem where sound and light react to human presence, establishing a dialogue between technology and the sensory dimension.
Installations and experiences
The district unfolds as an experiential path. Responsive Nature by Molteni&C, designed by Elisa Ossino Studio, presents a sequence of immersive gardens that connect outdoor design and landscape. Škoda presents Ooooh, that’s EpiQ!, a dynamic and playful installation that blends physical and digital environments. With YOOX Camerino, created with Keta Bart, the fitting room becomes a narrative space where identity, fashion and artificial intelligence intertwine, transforming an intimate gesture into an experience.
Sensory paths
A significant part of the district works on perception: The Swedish Home by Electrolux creates an immersive domestic environment where one can slow down and restore balance between design and well-being. The Sensory Lab by Sara Ricciardi for Eccentrico transforms ceramics into a sensory language, through surfaces, colour and everyday rituals. With Edible Reveries, Artisia brings food design into an almost dreamlike dimension, where 3D-printed pasta becomes an aesthetic and multisensory experience.
Exhibitions and research
The curatorial dimension is expressed through collective projects such as Factory Eleven by DEORON, which brings emerging designers and industry into dialogue, and One, Two, Many by Movimento Gallery, focused on material experimentation. With Renaissance of the Real, USM and Snøhetta present an installation that invites rediscovery of the physical and sensory dimension in contrast to digital acceleration.
Fashion and education
The connection with education emerges in the collaboration between Istituto Secoli and PORTA VENEZIA DESIGN DISTRICT, with the design of an iconic uniform reflecting the dual identity of Porta Venezia. At the same time, Raffles Milano presents In the Act of Being, a platform exploring the cultural and disciplinary hybridisation of contemporary design.
Sound and hybrid spaces
With The Meanwhile Club, Park and Le Cannibale transform a space into a temporary club and listening room, working on the concept of reuse and suspended time. The project is not only an installation, but an attitude: an architecture that lives through sound, presence and relationship.
In this context, designing means taking a position and assuming responsibility for one’s time, bringing together memory, knowledge and transformation. Design is Act becomes an invitation to consider design as action and a gesture capable of connecting thought and matter, memory and future, imagination and real impact. Therefore, the Milano Design Week is a unique opportunity not only to discover new ideas, but also to promote a creative awareness that involves us all.
