Milan Design Week 2026: Design You Can Feel

Our team flew out to Milan for a fast paced 24 hour trip around the city, immersing ourselves in the creativity, craftsmanship and experiential storytelling that defines Milan Design Week.

Across the installations we experienced, MINI, Nike, H&M Home and Škoda Auto stood out for the way they used Milan as a stage to explore design through space, craft, colour and interaction. While Design Week unfolds across the city on a far larger scale, these moments offered a clear snapshot of how brands are translating their stories into physical, memorable experiences.

What lingered after each experience was the feeling created by the space itself. The strongest moments drew us in through craft, colour, sound, interaction and setting, turning brand stories into something physical. Across the week, the most memorable experiences were sensory, emotional and genuinely joyful to spend time in.

MINI x Paul Smith: A Garden of Curiosity

Created through MINI’s ongoing collaboration with Paul Smith, A Garden of Curiosity brought together the designer’s unmistakable use of colour and playful British sensibility within the House of MINI at Salone del Mobile. Presented as an immersive celebration of colour, individuality and playful design, the installation reflected the shared focus on craftsmanship, creativity and innovation between both brands.

The experience felt like a small garden escape in the middle of the city, guiding visitors through planting, raised plywood pathways and quiet moments of discovery. Inside, colour, craft and the iconic Paul Smith palette came through in small sensory rooms, creating a compact space that felt calm, curious and removed from the surrounding Milan buzz.

There was charm in its simplicity. The space felt low fi, light and intentionally calm, using sound, colour and materiality to create a gentle break from the surrounding buzz of Milan. It captured the spirit of whimsical design and gave visitors a moment to reset, although its smaller scale meant the experience felt more like a short sensory pause than a fully engaging journey.

In many ways, that made it an interesting example of where brand experience is heading. Calm, tactile spaces feel increasingly relevant in environments as busy as Milan Design Week, but atmosphere needs depth. The most effective experiences give people something to discover, take part in or return to beyond the first impression.

Nike Air Lab at Drop City

Created by Nike in collaboration with Dropcity, NikeAir_Lab used the raw setting of Milan’s emerging architecture and design centre to turn 50 years of Nike Air innovation into a physical journey. Nike described the project as a preview of Air Lab, offering the design community a one week look at the past, present and future of Nike Air, with samples, swatches and future facing innovation on display.

Nike Air Lab was the standout for our team. Set slightly away from the density of the city crowds, the location felt raw, energetic and full of intent, creating the right backdrop for a story rooted in experimentation and performance thinking. This came through clearly in moments like the Nike Air bubble seating in the Air Library, where the idea of air became not just a product technology, but something visitors could sit within, gather around and experience as part of the space.

The preview brought together archive materials, sketches, behind the scenes artefacts and nearly 100 never before seen prototypes. From the start, the experience set a clear tone, with visitors entering through a dark tunnel guided by audio, low lighting and the powerful statement, “Here, air is not absence, it is a material that can be harnessed.” It created an immediate sense of anticipation, pulling people into the concept before they reached the main exhibition.

As machines released bursts of air around the space, the idea became physical before it became intellectual. The journey moved from research and making, into thermoregulation and trial, then through an exclusive archive and prototype display, before ending in the Air Library. Each stage helped make Nike’s long running obsession with air feel detailed, tactile and easy to explore

What made the experience so effective was the way it turned technical innovation into something visitors could understand through the body. It was not simply a retrospective or a product showcase. It was a carefully built journey through process, experimentation and performance thinking. Nike made its archive feel active, showing how legacy can become a living part of future innovation. Air Lab is also set to become a permanent fixture at Dropcity when it opens to the public.

H&M Home x Kelly Wearstler

Created by H&M Home in collaboration with American interior designer Kelly Wearstler, the installation marked H&M Home’s Milan Design Week debut and its first furniture focused designer collaboration. Shown inside Palazzo Acerbi, the project introduced a curated selection of objects and furniture from the collection within one of Milan’s historic interiors.

The strength of the experience was in the contrast. Contemporary, accessible pieces sat within a 17th century baroque palace rarely open to the public, allowing the architecture to bring depth, tension and context to the collection. The experience was not about mass or modularity alone, but about how a setting can elevate a product story and make design feel more layered.

Each room was designed to create a different mood, giving the collection a residential quality that felt considered rather than showroom led. For us, it was a moment that honoured the beauty of traditional Italian design and architecture while framing a contemporary, value driven global collection in a more culturally resonant way.

It showed how powerful context can be. When products are placed within spaces that feel lived in, storied and emotionally rich, they become more than objects. They begin to suggest how people might live with them, style them and build meaning around them over time.

Škoda Auto: Ooooh, That’s EpiQ!

Created by Škoda Auto in collaboration with Ulises Studio, and conceived by Spanish architect and digital artist Ricardo Orts, ‘Ooooh, That’s EpiQ!’ brought a sense of play and exploration to Palazzo del Senato. Through colour, clay and interaction, the installation reframed the reveal of the still concealed Epiq as an open, creative experience, presenting mobility as something more expressive, accessible and imaginative.

Inspired by modelling clay, bold colour and the joy of self expression, the exhibition turned the first public presentation of the still concealed Epiq into something open, creative and accessible.

The space was full of ways to take part. Visitors could engage with interactive modelling dough, plant curating, personalised bags, digital design games, sketching sessions with the Škoda design team and morning yoga. The experience also included a scan and share mechanic for a free drink and bag, adding another layer of interaction and reward.

What worked well was the way the activation used play to make innovation feel more approachable. Because the car itself remained concealed, the surrounding experience had to carry the story. Škoda did this by turning the idea of accessible electric mobility into a bright, optimistic and participatory world.