Yesterday, Feb. 27, the press conference of Fuorisalone and Brera Design Week was held at the Sala Buzzati of Corriere della Sera, where all the news related to the upcoming Milan Design Week scheduled from April 7 to 13, 2025, in conjunction with the Salone del Mobile. Paolo Casati and Cristian Confalonieri, founders and creative directors of Studiolabo, illustrated all the events, exhibitions and installations present throughout the city that renew that collective ritual that every year involves an international audience in a widespread event transforming Milan into the international capital of design.

Theme of Fuorisalone 2025: “Connected Worlds.”

“Mondi Connessi” is the theme proposed this year by Fuorisalone.it with the aim of promoting a design culture attentive to the development of new technologies and the hybridization of skills and knowledge. A natural extension of previous editions, “Mondi Connessi” intends to enhance the synergy between design, artificial intelligence and collective participation, proposing a vision of a future in which creativity and technology come together to create immersive and interactive experiences.

The communication campaign was created by prompt designer Silvia Badalotti in which the protagonists are three subjects designed to emphasize the relationship between people, technology and nature.

Three emblematic and powerful images made with Artificial Intelligence: the person (Gaia), an oriental woman's face with a blue eye intended to represent the universality of the human being, beyond ethnicities and cultures; technology (Net), where the agglomeration of cables and electrical circuits symbolizes the progress that connects the world, but which, if used without measure, risks becoming destructive; and finally, nature (Fluid) with the image of the bee and the beehive to indicate both the fragility and the strength of nature.

The theme of Fuorisalone 2025 comes to life in an immersive installation “Portanuova Vertical Connection” in the Portanuova district, with an entirely walkable structure that is also accessible at altitude and invites visitors to embark on a physical and technological journey where Artificial Intelligence drives the experience. From April 4 to 13, it will be possible to access this “new temporary place” by booking the experience on the Portanuova Milano App and enter into dialogue with the theme.

The installation “Portanuova Vertical Connection”

Fuorisalone 2025: Districts and zones

The 2025 edition of Fuorisalone reconfirms the usual Districts and zones namely Brera Design District; Tortona area with Tortona Rocks, Tortona Design Week, Superstudio and BASE; 5VIE; Isola Design Festival 2025; Durini Design District; Porta Venezia Design District.

Brera Design District, the protagonist with the 16th edition of its Brera Design Week, supports the theme “Connected Worlds” and confirms itself as a reference point of Fuorisalone thanks to a rich calendar of events and appointments proposed by the more than 200 brands present with their own showrooms, including 10 new openings, joined by 166 temporary exhibitors. Brera Design Week 2025 will engage the design community by proposing solutions ranging from material innovation to service design, from art to domestic landscape and technology to living. On the strength of the results achieved in the last edition, Brera Design Week expects to exceed the quota of 230 events in 2025 as well, with a total forecast of more than 300 events present in the district, data that confirm Brera's position as the most relevant and important district internationally for the design world, not only during its Design Week.

The Tortona area returns with a brand new look and a communication proposal aimed at bringing together and narrating the different realities that animate it: Tortona Rocks, Tortona Design Week, Superstudio and BASE. The zone becomes a spokesperson for current issues seen through the lens of design with the aim of responding to the challenges of tomorrow.

5VIE presents “invisible harmonies” which proposes a return to beauty as an experience, an invitation to perceive the beautiful, the connected, the invisible.

Isola Design Festival 2025 pays homage to its roots with “Design is Human,” a reflection on the role of people in the creative process.

Durini Design District, during Milan Design Week, is a spokesman for a profound reflection on the value of matter, exploring the potential through a dialogue between sustainability and technology.

Porta Venezia Design District in its third edition presents “No Boundaries Design. To Create, one must first question everything,” the 2025 concept inspired by Eileen Gray that lays the foundation for barrier-free design.

In addition to the events in the Districts, Fuorisalone 2025 includes, as usual, collectives and special projects scattered throughout the city such as at Triennale Milano, ADI Design Museum, Palazzo Litta, and Palazzo Giureconsulti just to name a few.

Fuorisalone Award: the best of Milan Design Week

Fuorisalone Award is back again this year, a project curated by Studiolabo that rewards the most interesting content and installations by companies and designers presented during Milan Design Week. Twelve projects will compete to win the public's votes, while in parallel, a joint work by the international jury and the Fuorisalone.it editorial staff will select projects with qualitatively innovative and meaningful content. The selected projects will compete to win the 3 Special Mentions for the categories: Sustainability, Technology, Communication. With the 2025 edition, in addition to the renewal of the Special Mention Media Partners, the Special Mention Design Schools is born, which intends to involve students as spokesmen for the future of Design.

Established and new collaborations

The collaboration between miart and Fuorisalone is renewed for the second year with two exhibitions: “John Giorno: a labor of LOVE” in the spaces of Triennale Milano and “Rauschenberg and the Twentieth Century” at the Museo del Novecento. The collaboration with Salone del Mobile.Milano also continues in order to enhance the exhibitors present both in the spaces of the fair and in the city. New, on the other hand, is the collaboration with d3 - Dubai Design District, an opportunity for discussion on the economics of creative industries and design scouting to bring Design Made in Italy around the world and vice versa bringing d3 to the heart of Milan Design Week. Also new for the 2025 edition of Fuorisalone is MiTo Design Connections, a platform dedicated to hotel booking, with advantageous solutions to create an ideal bridge between the cities of Turin and Milan, as well as offering a location service for events and thematic routes between art and design.

In the opening photo, Paolo Casati and Cristian Confalonieri at the Fuorisalone and Brera Design Week 2025 press conference Photo by Dario Cervellin