Reflaction, designed by BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group for Audi was an invitation to reflect on the consequences of our actions and the meaning of our very existence in the world. Based on the reflection of the volumes, the installation divided the center of the quadrilateral of the Portrait Milano hotel into four areas, as many as the symbolic rings of the car manufacturer.

SunRICE the recipe for happiness was the zero impact architecture co-produced by Eni in collaboration with chef Niko Romito and designed by CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati with the late Italo Rota, who animated the always evocative scenery of the Brera Botanical Garden. A journey in stages which, starting from the plant, passing through the ingredient and its use in the kitchen, aimed to show how rice processing waste can become raw material for a new and sustainable architecture.

The 1:100 scale model of the Italian Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka was instead exhibited in the heart of the University, at the entrance to the Hall of the Aula Magna which also hosted the installation celebrating 70 years of Interni (see below).

Designed by MCA - Mario Cucinella Architects, the project focuses on the theme "Art Regenerates Life" to tell the founding principles of the work, but also the communication agreement between the Commissariat General for Italy at Expo 2025 Osaka and Interni. From this partnership, events and presentations will arise that will accompany the public to the Universal Exposition scheduled in the Japanese city from 13 April to 13 October 2025.

The installations at the University of Milan

The Diorama for Interni's 70th birthday in the Hall of the Aula Magna of the University

Made up of seven mountains, each of which was a tale of one of the seven decades of Interni's history, Diorama70a by AMDL CIRCLE (Angelo Micheli, Michele De Lucchi and Davide Angeli) together with Guido Scarabottolo culminated in an erupting volcano, a symbol of dynamism.

The installation itinerary located in the Hall of the Aula Magna well represented the magazine's transversal approach to the morphological, aesthetic and landscape changes of the city of Milan.

The Pharmacy Courtyard

The evocative installation by MAD Architects for Amazon aroused amazement, curiosity and a lot of interaction (especially in the evening, with the fog blurring the contours of the work) from the very large audience. The Amazing Walk was a sort of exploratory and experiential journey that began along a path suspended over the water and led inside a multi-faceted mountain.

The 18th century courtyard

SUB: Sustainable Underwater Balance used the image of marine diving to disseminate Sanlorenzo's technological research around the topic of hydrogen propulsion. Piero Lissoni has created a virtual sea in which to discover the shape of the new Bluegame boat with foil and hydrogen propulsion, a tender from the American Magic and Orient Express team.

The installations of the Courtyard of Honour, the Loggias and the Subportico

The expectations of those who, crossing the main entrance, were looking for an impressive experience were fully satisfied: in the Courtyard of Honour, the labyrinth of floating sheets (amplified by the strong wind of the second day) of Travelogue on Mountain - Pan Yuan: Momentality Unfold, by the Chinese designer Wu Bin - W.DESIGN for Yardcom accompanied visitors along a space-time journey linked to oriental architecture.

Continuing the tour along the turf, you could immerse yourself in the Planetarium, the inflatable sphere by Ludovica Diligu and Plastique Fantastique (Marco Canevacci and Yena Young) for Labo.Art wrapped around the tree in the Courtyard of Honor where you can enter and observe a constellation of branches, leaves, stars, listening to nursery rhymes.

From there you could go on to visit I am what I throw away, edited by the late Italo Rota and Claudio Larcher, NABA Design Area Leader, with the students of the Design Area of the Academy for NABA and AMSA-A2A Group. To become aware of the use of recycled and at the same time innovative materials.

Then looking up towards the upper floor of the East Loggia, the energy of the wind multiplied reflections and visual effects also Path of Vision by Arik Levy Studio for Sans Souci, made up of mirrored elements suspended like mobiles which in the moments of greatest wind rotated and reflected, almost vortically, reflecting the light, the images of the architecture, the landscape and the surrounding people.

Still on the upper floor, but in the West Loggia, for ApexBrasil and Abimovel you could walk among the companies and studios of independent Brazilian designers (almost 50 in all) coming from all over the country and selected by Bruno Simões. Inspired by the bends of the Rio Madeira, habitat of the Coccoloba in the northern region of Brazil, Estoyo Architectura's installation evoked the importance of water and light in the process of photosynthesis.

Reflections, lights and shadows: in the Cortile d'Onore, the dream landscape of Mille Miroirs by Cyril Lancelin for Fidenza Village, with its mobile golden spheres, invited visitors to interact and participate in the creation of the space.

A game of mirrors also animated House of Mirrors, by the Spanish architect duo La Errería * architecture office, in the Sottoportico del Cortile d'Onore, whose exhibitors generated a composition that multiplied the vision of the tiles on display from the Tile of Spain companies.

It has aroused much curiosity Sparking Change by MCA – Mario Cucinella Architects where 1200 3D printed ceramic blocks arranged in an amphitheater described the transformation of the material through chromatic variation, highlighting the goals of technological innovation by Roca.

In the meadow we then came across the Wonderful Creatures, the two large and ironic fantastic animals by Dario Ghibaudo which, presented by Galleria De Ambrogi, make part of the Museum of Unnatural History project.

Moving along the perimeter of the Courtyard of Honor there was an opportunity to stop at Sit Together: Climate Adaptive Bench the double-sided bench by Topotek1 developed together with MDT-tex and Mapei which combines different forms of knowledge and traditions and stimulates reflection on the new social needs and behaviors imposed by climate change.

Also very attractive in terms of comfortable shapes and bright colors is the stop at Tandem which, inspired by the 3D Hydra Lipgloss lip make-up product by Kiko Milano, intertwined the two design approaches of Jacopo Foggini and Massimo Iosa Ghini, with the aim of telling how diversity can be transformed into harmony.

Another place to stop and pass through that was very popular and appreciated by visitors was the Caravanserraglio designed by Lorenzo Palmeri, who chose Cosmolite® for its construction, a composite material from Stone Italiana made up of recycled minerals from the excavation industry.

The work of Kengo Kuma is based on the same principle of recycling and reuse Stone Grove which gives a second life to Quarella marbles and quartz, enhancing what is normally discarded in a composition of modular elements in natural stone agglomerate.

From here we moved on to the Material Tower where natural and recycled materials were combined in a dialogue between experimentation and innovation, in the form of a hexagonal tower containing a glass wool sculpture. A project by Marco Piva with Saint-Gobain, symbolizing "a cloud of creative thoughts".

The poetry of natural stones expressed through the shape of the flower corollas of the Stone Garden by Vivian Coser for Centrorochas and ApexBrasil, was intended to be an invitation to connect with nature and above all a reminder of the concepts of biodiversity and biophilia in architecture.

The installation designed by Tom Dixon for VitrA was also focused on recycling: Re-Ceramic recounted the various phases of the transformation of the material that lead to the creation of the Liquid washbasin, which instead of raw materials uses ceramic factory waste.

For the large totem with a changing visual impact El Paron – Wisteria tower which she designed for Cimento, Patricia Urquiola superimposed four cubes that reached a height of 10 meters made from a metal grid on which was sprayed with Cimento®, a cementitious product which gives the grid a material appearance, as well as a see-through effect, and which uses over 90% mineral aggregates mixed with a binder.

Adjacent to the installation by Patricia Urquiola we came across the drapes of traditional Turkish fabrics, which with Weaving Inside Out by Kutnia Design Hub covered the columns of the Sottoportico of the Cortile d'Onorewith bands of fabric, in a contrast between the hardness of the stone and the softness of the contemporary handmade fabric.

Covering another four columns of the Sottoportico, those of the entrance, are wallpapers created in the artisan workshop of the San Patrignano Community based on a design by Giulio Cappellini. The installation, called The Art of Independence was intended to be an operation of architectural, mental and human recovery, as well as a contemporary reinterpretation of a series of decorations present in various corners and historic buildings of the city.

Walking around the columns in the Sottoportico you reached Quinte Mutevoli, the project by Raffaele Catello, Ornella Formati and Vincenzo Esposito in collaboration with the students of the Interior Architecture Course of the IUAD Academy, which involved visitors in actively participating by customizing parts of the installation.

From another university, that of Genoa DAD UniGE, the installation Metodo Benessere by Emiliano Calderini outlined a path that retraced the history of the bottle of Schoum Solution inviting visitors to reconnect with a natural dimension of wellbeing.

From there, following the common thread of the collective projects, curiosity led to Umbral, the Temple of Listening, a project by Rubner Haus which brought together the experiences of the three designers Carlo Farina, Veronica Pesenti Rossi and Memo Sánchez Cárdenas, under the guidance of Fondazione Franco Albini in a path of experimentation that underlined the importance of co-creation.

Travelling, the project byAKK Architects-Annakadivided into seven environments, each of which represented a human activity: work, music, sexuality, meditation, art, game, cinema.

The golden portal of Door is Love with a blue armored wagon on which the writing “LOVE” stood out to represent a “call to the arts against all war”. The work of Marco Nereo Rotelli with Ever in Art® was composed of 46 doors, produced by Bertolotto.

From the message for a better world, it was a short step to embark on the virtual journey between the focuses and redevelopment themes proposed by Path, in the future area of Porto San Vito a Grado. The pavilion accompanied people (who have the patience to face long queues) in the vision of Simone Micheli's architectural project, based on a concept by Andrea Bigot, CEO of Porto San Vito.

In the Outdoor lounges of the Courtyard of Honor there was also space for another type of crossover: that between the world of sport and design. Powerful Intersections, designed by Marco Acerbis was based on the relationship between the fabric of the backdrop and the design and graphics of the t-shirts, as happens in all of Santini's technical sports clothing Cycling.

The Sottoportico had a precious exhibition of works with a thousand-year history in store: From a thousand years to the future by Toshiyuki Kita with Bizen City and Odate City, he has in fact proposed a reflection on the future of traditional Japanese manufacturing and the relevance of a craftsmanship that over the over the years it has reached high levels of perfection.

Still walking along the Sottoportico, looking not only around but also upwards, we came across the seagull chandelier by the Venetian artist Federica Maragoni: Breakdown of a flight created for the Procuratie Vecchie of Longhena in Venice, it moved to the Filarete portico, to be admired by the international public attentive to Italian design.

And then another chandelier: Unlocking No.3 flavours by Alessandra Baldereschi did not spread light but rather the scent of No.3 Gin to represent the aroma as it was released from the bottle, taking all the ingredients with it.

Like every year, the Press Room was also a scene of creativity, transformed with 100% Arabica in place of comparison between lands, people and cultures linked to coffee conceived by Carlo Bach, artistic director of illycaffè.

On the walls there is wallpaper depicting coffee plants, among the furnishings the Re-Chair by Antonio Citterio and the A.I. console. by PhilippeStarck, produced by Kartell thanks to a circular economy program and made with the recycling of coffee capsules.

The new location: Catholic University of the Sacred Heart

Very suggestive and instructive, where for once the auditory aspect prevailed over the visual one, Sonosfera® by David Monacchi was installed in the Cortile d'Onore Leone XIII of the 'Catholic University of Sacred Heart. The dome immersed listeners in the oldest forest ecosystems on earth, recorded in 3D and reproduced in spherical periphony, in the dark, in the intimacy of deep listening. The result of decades of research and concrete actions, this initiative embodies the union of art, technology and environmental awareness and pays homage to Pesaro Unesco Creative City of Music. The presence of the installation was supported by PESARO 2024 – Italian Capital of Culture and Renco.

Upon exiting the Sonosfera® we found ourselves walking in Sherwoods in the city among the chandelier deer and lamp holder turtles by the art designer Marcantonio for Queeboo, which in the Pio XI Cloister gave life to a dreamlike universe between fantasy and reality, especially in the evening hours.

In Largo Gemelli, at the main entrance of the Catholic University, the video installation Flowers by CastagnaRavelli projected onto the facade of the former Garibaldi barracks, transformed in the evening hours of the FuoriSalone into a large screen, a continuous and uninterrupted cascade of flowers. Flowers inspired by the Birth of Venus, by Botticelli, but also cartoonish and realistic flowers. The video was accompanied by a profound and committed message that read: for nature raped offended mistreated. We apologize. We apologize to the sky, the earth, the sea, the trees, the flowers.

Eataly Milano Smeraldo

This year too Eataly represented the ideal backdrop to talk about the foods on sale in the store. The installation Food, Design, Happiness by Giulio Cappellini showcased everyday foods, celebrating food in its most essential and colorful image.

Urban Up | Unipol - De Castillia 23

Finally, but certainly not least, moving a few hundred meters from Eataly, you could enjoy the spectacle of Il Respiro dell'Aria, which proposed a reflection on the protection of air quality in urban planning and politics of management of large cities. Studio Azzurro thought of a large vertical sky of 4,000 square meters to be read as a message on what city skies should be like.