Milan: the Design City

DESIGN WEEK 2025

As every year, Milan is once again preparing to host the “Salone del Mobile”, the most important international fair for the design industry. The theme chosen for this new edition, which in 2025 will take place from 8^th to 13^th April in Rho Fiera Milano, is: A Luxury Way. The exhibition proposed by the participating brands and companies, will feature a wide range of furnishings designed to combine technical and functional innovation with environmental sustainability and the enhancement of domestic spaces.

FUORISALONE

Coinciding with the Design Week, the entire city once again becomes a promoter of design with the “Fuorisalone”, through exhibitions and installations in most of its districts.

     1. “Mondi Connessi”

This year, the leitmotif chosen for all the exhibitions lies in the concept of “Mondi Connessi” (Connected Worlds), expressed by 3 images generated with Artificial Intelligence by designer Silvia Badalotti.

“The concept of interaction between different worlds was an invitation to explore the nuances of human relationships and to think on how our existences are woven into a complex fabric of shared experiences” these are the words of the prompt designer and photographer who brought the images to life.

The result is three emblematic and powerful subjects – people, technology, nature – as parts of a cycle, in which each element is indispensable to the life of the others. Circularity emerges as a central theme: mankind creates technology, technology impacts nature, and damage to nature inevitably returns to affect mankind.

The person: the choice of an oriental woman’s face with blue eyes, represents the universality of the human being, beyond ethnicities and cultures. This face becomes the symbol of humanity, capable of making connections with the natural and technological world, but also responsible for its actions.

Technology: the agglomeration of cables and electric circuits represents technological progress, which connects the world and opens up infinite possibilities, but which, if used without measure, risks becoming destructive.

Nature: the image of the bee and the beehive symbolises the fragility and strength of nature. Bees are the symbol of biodiversity. They represent a warning that if nature is not respected, the life cycle will break down, compromising the ecosystem.

The assembled image of this year’s Fuorisalone is a recall to the balance, to the need of harmonise innovation, to the respect for the environment and awareness of our role in the world.

     2. Design Week & Hotel VIU Milan

Even the neighborhoods around Hotel VIU Milan come to life, from Chinatown to Portanuova district, the streets and squares will be the stage for multiple design exhibitions open to the public.

In the flourishing Portanuova District, in Piazza Gae Aulenti, will be installed the “Portanuova Vertical Connection”, an entirely layher, walkable and accessible structure that invites visitors to embark on a physical and technological journey where AI guides the experience. Through interactive buttons and sensors, visitors will be able to create and shape the content on the video walls by choosing places, colours and sensations that manifest and translate into images, sounds and lights.

In Sarpi area and Chinatown district, a territorial platform combining culture, business and design will be developed, bringing Italy and Asia into dialogue. The theme for MDW25 is “DO IT BETTER!”, an invitation to everyone to do better.

The focus will be on design and art toys, installations for public space, artistic and cultural hybrids, active and participatory sustainability, new food & drink experiences and the opportunity of transversal connections made through the play. The epicentre of all this will be Via Sarpi, together with the Teatro del Borgo, the Fabbrica del Vapore, the Tempio del Futuro Perduto, the Chinese Cultural Centre and many other places in the area.

Not far from Hotel VIU Milan, the ADI Museum will also be heavily involved in Design Week with the exhibition entitled ‘Best of Both Worlds: ITALY’. A journey between art and Design in Italy from 1915 to 2025, the contaminations between art and industry, from cultural roots to the evolution of design. The exhibition traces the milestones from the early 20th century, from futurism to industrialisation, through the Pop season of Joe Colombo and the radicalism of Sottsass, Mendini and Memphis, to the digital era and the Internet of Things.

ADI MUSEUM

Its proximity to the Hotel VIU Milan makes it one of the main points of interest for our hotel Guests, not only for design lovers, but for anyone who wants to discover the history of design, that has always characterised the city of Milan.

The ADI Museum was born from the recovery of a historical site from the 1930s, used both as a tram depot and as an electricity distribution plant, and was conceived with the idea of renewing and enhancing the rich heritage of industrial archaeology as a distinctive feature of the building itself. Inside, its exhibits revolve around the entire repertoire of projects belonging to the historical collection of the Compasso d’Oro award, a prize created in 1954 from an idea of Gio Ponti to valorize the quality of design made in Italy.

The ADI Museum is located in a former industrial area with a very high architectural and urbanistic impact and is at the centre of a strategic area of the city. On one side we find the Paolo Sarpi district, the ‘Milanese Chinatown’, which has always been a bustling multicultural pole: a totally redeveloped and partly pedestrianised area that has become a Milanese reference point, for the offer of oriental cuisine and street food. On the other side is the cultural pole, bordered by the Fabbrica del Vapore, the Milan City Council space managed by the youth area and Fondazione Feltrinelli, a documentation and research centre designed by Herzog & de Meuron.

Its strategic location, a short walk from the hotel, makes it an ideal attraction for Guests who have art and design among their passions.

The Salone del Mobile has confirmed Milan as one of the design capitals in the world. During the week of the event, the entire city is transformed, with exhibitions and shows enlivening every corner of its urban fabric. Hotel VIU Milan perfectly embodies this spirit, with design representing its heart and philosophy, starting with its architecture and furnishings by Molteni&Co. All of which makes it a perfect destination for those travellers who come to the city during one of the most important weeks of the year to discover the innovations of this world.