Milan, April 20–26. Over 500,000 visitors, more than 1,100 events spread across the city, an economic impact of 255 million euros, up 14.7% compared to the previous year. Design Week is not just the most glamorous week of the year for people who work in design. It has become one of the most accurate gauges for understanding where the world is headed.
This year, the signal was clear.
The theme chosen for the 2026 edition, “Thinking Better, Look Back to Shape the Future,” was not an exercise in nostalgia. It was an invitation to reckon with what already exists, to stop producing for the sake of producing, to put the meaning of things back at the center before even considering their form. The thread connecting aesthetics and responsibility was hard to miss.
Measurable sustainability took center stage
If in previous editions sustainability was often a backdrop, in 2026 it became the main character. Not in the form of declarations of intent, but through concrete projects backed by real numbers and actual industrial strategies.
The most emblematic example came from Stellantis, through its circular economy division, SUSTAINera. The installation “The Art of Reuse,” hosted at the Fondazione Riccardo Catella in the Isola district, transformed end-of-life automotive components, grilles, doors, and body panels, into sculptures and artworks created together with the Truly Design collective and students from IAAD. Behind it lies an industrial model that in 2025 already recorded 51% growth in reuse activities, with original spare parts available at up to 70% below the cost of new ones. A strategy that chose the language of art to reach a broader audience, bringing the circular economy out of technical departments and into cultural debate.
The Fuorisalone Award also recognized this direction: the Sustainability & Research Mention went to RE:PROGRAMMING WOOD, a project focused on material circulation through data and technology, exhibited at Dropcity. The message was consistent throughout: sustainability is no longer an aesthetic, it is a verifiable process.
Gattinoni and Škoda: how you win Fuorisalone’s most coveted award
In the middle of all this is a story worth telling properly.
The installation that received the most votes from the public, the one that won the Fuorisalone Award 2026, the week’s most democratic recognition since it is assigned directly by visitors through voting on Fuorisalone.it, was not signed by a furniture brand or an independent design collective. It was “Ooooh, that’s EpiQ!” by Škoda Auto, produced by Gattinoni Events in the courtyard of Palazzo del Senato, the historic home of Milan’s State Archive.
The project was dedicated to the preview of the new Epiq, the Czech brand’s electric vehicle. But it did not function like a booth. It functioned like an experience: soft volumes, fluid scenography, an interactive digital dome at the heart of the space. The historic courtyard transformed into a dynamic, responsive environment where visitors stopped being spectators and became part of the story. The artistic direction was entrusted to Ricardo Orts of Ulises Studio, listed among Forbes’ Top 100 Best Creatives for Business 2024, while Gattinoni Events oversaw the entire process, from concept to executive production and location selection.
The results, in numbers, were unambiguous: over 95,000 visitors in the Porta Venezia district, with Palazzo del Senato establishing itself as one of the most visited venues of the entire week. But the most interesting part is not the award itself. It is the philosophy behind it. As Andrea Dal Pozzo, Executive Creative Director at Gattinoni, put it: “The real differentiator is being able to create something that is connected to the product without being descriptive of it. Telling an idea, a story, rather than a spec sheet.” A shift in paradigm that sustainable communication has been chasing for years: less data thrown in your face, more meaning built together with the audience.
What Milan said this year
Design Week 2026 confirmed a trend that is not going back. Companies that communicate sustainability as a process, visible, measurable, and experiential, are gaining credibility over those that still use it as a label. The focus has shifted from showcasing the finished product to narrating production processes and materials research, and the public responded with 500,000 attendees and digital engagement that reached 8.3 million impressions on Instagram alone.
In a context where regulations such as CSRD and ESRS are redefining what it truly means to be a responsible company, the ability to communicate one’s sustainability authentically becomes a real competitive advantage. TreeBlock follows this evolution closely: the Milan-based platform founded in 2021 helps companies measure their ESG performance, automate reporting, and turn data into concrete strategies, through tools like TreeBlock One and the proprietary AI Treeby. Because sustainability, to be communicated well, must first be measured with precision. Milan made that unmistakably clear this week, project after project.