ONE WEEK ABOUT Milano Design Week 2026
Day 6 – Report by David Heldt
We love anniversaries; both the Isola Design Festival and Masterly are celebrating their tenth anniversaries this year. Ten years of putting design in the spotlight.
Tenth anniversaries aren’t always a good omen; Ventura Lambrate, the Milanese exhibition by Dutch Invertuals, Tuttobene, and Connecting the Dots magazine didn’t survive this tin anniversary. And sometimes that’s a good thing—the world is constantly changing, and so is the design community. But there’s only one thing we can say with certainty about the future: past performance is no guarantee of future results. Fortunately so. Moooi is celebrating its silver anniversary with an exhibition at Superstudio Più, marking 25 years of leading the way in combining innovation and elegance.
Design is often a quest for simplicity and ingenuity; and its beauty lies in the magic of the synergy between the two. At Isola, in the exhibition The Shape of Belonging, curated by Oliwia Maria, I came across the work of Clara Molina from Chile. Unfortunately, I didn’t meet her in person, but someone told me that she began, later in life, carefully crumpling paper to make lamps; she does this in her living room, and it brings her peace and joy. She simply carried the materials in a backpack onto the plane. It doesn’t get any simpler or more ingenious than that.
Also on display in the same exhibition is a stunning lamp by Cedric Ceulemans; in the woods around Hilversum, he finds old branches that he transforms into beautiful lamps using paper and lacquer. It reminds me of the bench by Hans Severin Jacobsen, who is exhibiting at SOLIDIFIED—a woodworker who finds large boulders on his walks along the Danish coast and turns them into beautiful benches.
At Fabbrica Sassetti, the Isola organization has curated an exhibition featuring young creators: designer and illustrator Elysanne Schuurman collaborates with Ceramic artist Eline Mathe; there are steel lamps by Niels Stoeltie, subtle lamps by Atelier Oscar Greve, and so much more. There’s plenty to see, and it’s truly inspiring.
Photography: David Heldt
