Places, names and projects featured in Alcova 2026

Alcova returns to Milan Design Week with a new spatial configuration that places Villa Pestarini and the vast complex of the Baggio Military Hospital at the heart of its itinerant design journey. Two radically different contexts – the former an extraordinary example of mid-20th-century Rationalist architecture, the latter a complex and layered institutional compound – become the setting for an edition that moves between rediscovery and experimentation, research and contemporary material culture. Alcova 2026 unfolds between these two poles, welcoming a broad panorama of talent: over 120 international exhibitors, including established companies, independent designers, and leading design schools, all invited to engage with contexts that amplify the meaning of the projects on display.


On the left: Villa Pestarini ©Luigi Fiano                                                                       
On the right: Casa delle Suore, Baggio Military Hospital © Piergiorgio Sorgetti

For the first time, Alcova opens Villa Pestarini to the public, the only private residence in Milan designed by Franco Albini. A manifesto of mid-20th-century Italian Rationalism, where proportions, light, and materials construct an idea of living that remains strikingly contemporary. Here, designers are invited to engage directly with Albini’s legacy, activating it in the present.

Within this setting, Haworth and Cassina present an installation by Patricia Urquiola that reinterprets the entrance and living areas. The project draws from icons such as the Veliero bookcase and the Poltrona Luisa, reread in dialogue with key architectural elements, from the historic glass wall to the spatial layout, to evoke the atmosphere of a contemporary home, lived-in and layered.
The reflection on modernism continues with a project dedicated to the work of Luisa Castiglioni, who began her career as Albini’s assistant before developing an independent path. Through Boccamonte, an initiative based in Liguria in one of the houses designed by Castiglioni in the 1950s, her work is reinterpreted and placed within a broader narrative of Italian modernism.


Villa Pestarini ©Luigi Fiano

Surrounding this historical core are contemporary voices. Greek architect and designer Kiki Goti presents a collection of marble furniture and lighting produced by Marble Sachanas, in dialogue with SARIDIS OF ATHENS, envisioning a workspace filtered through Greek cultural heritage. Paris-based textile maison ISSÉ debuts its first collaboration with architect and designer Sophie Dries, exploring the spatial potential of raw plant fibers. Japanese collective AtMa Inc transforms waste materials into a furniture system where the joint becomes both structural and narrative element, while Around the Studio, from Tbilisi, reinterprets Georgian vernacular materials through the lens of contemporary design.
 

ISSÉ, Sophie Dries

At the Baggio Military Hospital, the scale shifts dramatically. The former complex takes shape as a true “city within the city,” composed of streets, courtyards, and service buildings that host a constellation of site-specific installations. International schools occupy and activate various areas of the site with projects that explore new ways of living and producing, combining material experimentation with alternative visions to contemporary habits. Making its debut at Alcova, the AA School of Architecture in London presents an experimental pavilion and a selection of works by alumni and students inside the Laundry, sharing the space with UMPRUM – Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. Design Academy Eindhoven animates the Kitchen, while HEAD – Genève occupies the Temple.

Casa delle Suore, Baggio Military Hospital © Mattia Parodi

Material research continues through international studios and craft practices. Pani Jurek Studio investigates light, color, and tactility through complex ceramic compositions; Salak Studio works on minimal furniture that highlights raw, untamed materials. The Spanish studio Kilzi, founded by Venezuelan designer Jorge Suárez Kilzi and based in Barcelona, develops an independent practice focused on furniture and objects, as does Marlot Baus, which designs and produces each piece to measure in its workshop in La Llagosta.

Slalom, in collaboration with Vintage Audio Institute, stages historic Italian synthesizers in a sound-reactive installation shaped by acoustic interventions. Between New York and Paris, Llewellyn Chupin presents scenographic objects in hand-patinated aluminum, silk, and pearls. Greek designer Natalia Triantafylli and London-based designer-maker Andrew Pierce Scott present a shared body of work spanning furniture, lighting, and sculptural objects.


On the left: Pani Jurek Studio, Michal Borecki © Tomo Yarmush 
On the right: Llewellyn Chupin

The 2026 program is enriched by a series of returns. Center for Creativity presents House of Creatures, a new site-specific installation bringing together ten Slovenian design practices, including Soft Baroque, invited to reinterpret the Refectory of the Casa delle Suore. In the same building, Noritake Design Collection returns with new porcelain works, including KILN, a sculptural collection by Faye Toogood. Shakti Design Residency presents the outcomes of its second program, which connects international designers with Indian ateliers in collaborative processes where tradition is understood as a living organism in constant evolution.

Alcova Milano 2026 exhibitors © ALCOVA 2026

The collaboration with OLDER, a Milan-based studio operating between fashion and product design, also continues, with a new pop-up in the Temple and the iconic uniforms for the Alcova staff. Mutina once again curates the food & beverage area with a sculptural counter clad in a tile collection designed by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, while the culinary offering is by Davide Longoni with creative consultancy by Alessandro Longhin.

As evening falls, VOCLA comes back to life. Following last year’s experience, the collaboration with Henge moves inside Alcova this time: an imposing industrial hangar within the former military hospital is transformed, for four evenings, into a design-dedicated club. A space originally conceived for containment becomes a place of gathering, in a site-specific project by Ugo Cacciatori for Henge, where architecture and sound amplify one another.