From collectible design to intelligent ecosystems: Milan Design Week 2026 outlines trends for the next decade Cattelan Italia - photo Temenouzhka Zaharieva Milan Design Week is the most important moment of the year for the world of design – it is here that professionals and enthusiasts gather not only to discover new products, but also to exchange knowledge, to be informed and, ultimately, to do business. It turns every corner of the city into a stage for bold ideas, surprising installations and projects that shape the direction of interior design for the coming months. The event is so vast that even seven days are not enough to cover everything – from the main fair, the Salone del Mobile at Rho Fiera, to the Fuorisalone – the dozens of exhibitions and installations scattered throughout the city. Milan Design Week is not really “about furniture”. It is a fascinating cultural phenomenon that uses furniture as its medium and predicts how we will live, work and connect in the next de...
Patricia Urquiola with a piece of the Tatou shade in hands. Most design pieces by Patricia Urquiola are a beautiful fusion - between East and West, modern and ancient, art and crafts. No exception, Tatou is a new family of lamps she designed for Flos on the occasion of the 2012 London Design Festival. A close detail of Flos Tatou Table Lamp Initially, Urquiola was inspired by the architecture of an antique Samurai armour - a set of metal rings cleverly tied with ribbons. Samurai means warrior in Japanese, so the initial concept aimed to represent resistance and strength along with lightness and dynamism. It was a reference to the protective shell. “I was looking at modules of metal crossed with fiber and making a really powerful and emotional suspension lamp.” Patricia Urquiola's 'Tatou' collection of lamps has its UK launch at FLOS, Clerkenwell Photography: Sabine Zetteler The studies for Tatou's modular plates began with wood and metal - Urquiola firs...