Design Week 2026

For Milan Design Week 2026, the ABC Department of the Politecnico of Milan confirms its commitment to promoting and supporting creativity and design culture.

Design Week 2026 initiatives:

1. OLTRE
   Project Press Conference
   Thursday, April 23, time to be confirmed

OLTRE is an outdoor kitchen designed for Veneta Cucine by DABC faculty member Carlo Ratti – Studio Carlo Ratti Associati.

Building on Veneta Cucine’s idea of continuous space, the project envisions a kitchen that extends beyond the home and into the landscape. Designed to adapt to a wide range of terrains, the installation will debut at Eurocucina during Milan Design Week.

The project originates from an initial collaboration between CRA and Veneta Cucine during the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, whose curatorial theme explored the relationship between natural, artificial, and collective intelligence. From this exchange, OLTRE was developed, extending Veneta Cucine’s vision of continuous space beyond the home. It will be previewed on April 21 at Eurocucina during Milan Design Week.

OLTRE rethinks the kitchen as a domestic infrastructure that does not stop at the walls of the house, but extends into the landscape, redefining our relationship with nature. Conceived as an adaptable system, its forms behave like a river without banks, continuously tracing new paths.

Conventional kitchens are linear systems fixed to walls, defined by straight lines and rigid modules. OLTRE breaks this scheme by completely eliminating walls. Its design embraces the complexity of nature: it is defined by continuous curves that adapt to different contexts. Its form follows the logic of the terrain and surrounding vegetation, creating a new kind of domestic landscape. It could be described as an “all-terrain” kitchen.

This versatility is made possible by a movable “skin” that opens like an accordion, revealing the functional components beneath—similar to bark peeling from a branch. The version presented at Milan Design Week is clad in mirrored stainless steel, whose reflective surface captures the surrounding landscape, visually dissolving the kitchen into its environment. A suspended countertop serves as the main workspace, integrating cooking and washing functions.

Inspired by living organisms that grow in dialogue with their environment, the system can be installed in multiple contexts: in a garden, around a tree, next to a boulder, as well as in more traditional indoor settings. Its curves adapt horizontally to the contours of the terrain and can also shift vertically to follow changes in elevation.

At Milan Design Week, the prototype is placed within an Italian-style garden. Around it, seating elements emerge as natural extensions of the landscape, transforming the kitchen into a social space. Veneta Cucine will also present conceptual images of OLTRE in extreme environments, from arid deserts to glacial landscapes, as well as dense undergrowth and open fields.

“Traditionally, nature enters the home through the kitchen,” explains Carlo Ratti. “With OLTRE, we reverse this relationship: it is the kitchen that enters nature.” The project takes one of the most familiar elements of domestic life and places it in a new context, questioning how design can respond more directly to the environments we inhabit.

Daniela Archiutti, Art Director of Veneta Cucine, adds: “OLTRE expresses an idea of continuous space, where the fluidity of the interior extends outward and becomes part of it. Everything connects, and within this continuity, every element gains value and meaning.”

OLTRE is the latest in a series of projects by CRA exploring the convergence between the natural and artificial worlds. Previous works include the Olympic torches for Milano Cortina 2026, a digitally fabricated alpine bivouac with geometry derived from 3D scans of Alpine rocks, and AquaPraça—a floating platform anchored in Venice and presented as a central element of the Italian Pavilion at the UN COP30 Conference in Belém. Through these projects, CRA reaffirms its commitment to considering nature as a condition to work with, rather than a mere backdrop for design.

……………………………………………………………………………………………..

Other panels featuring Carlo Ratti

• Non avrai altro Bio all’infuori di me – Book Presentation
  Wednesday, April 22
  5:00pm
  
  A conversation around Remo Morlacchi’s book, tracing the evolution of organic agriculture in Italy.
  
  Hosted at Università IULM (Aula Seminari), Milan. Carlo Ratti joins the discussion alongside Remo Morlacchi, Angelo Miglietta, Nicola Sorrentino, Giorgio Secchi, Oscar Farinetti, Marco Columbro, and Fabio Brescacin.

• Designing For Future Culture
  Thursday, April 23, 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

Part of When Apricots Blossom, an exhibition presented by the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation during Milan Design Week 2026, focusing on the crafts, culture, and ecology of Karakalpakstan and the Aral Sea region.

• DesignBoom – Dream Projections: Designing the Future Before It Arrives
  Thursday, April 23, 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Panel with Stefano Boeri and Ma Yansong at DesignBoom’s Dream Projections activation during the Salone.

• SuperCity
  @Superstudio Maxi, 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm

Panel with Michele Rossi (PARK), Mario Cucinella (MCA), and Massimo Roj (ProgettoCMR).

……………………………………………………………………………………………..

1. Kenosis

Thursday, April 23, 2026

Day of talks and video screening, with an intervention by DABC faculty member Ingrid Paoletti from 2:30 pm to 3:30 pm.