Alcova activates two evocative venues for Milan Design Week 2026

At this year’s Milan Design Week (20 to 26 April 2026), Alcova returned for its 11th edition, spanning two compelling sites that spoke to the layered character of Milan’s urban fabric.

The first Alcova space unlocked a series of previously never-been-seen spaces within the Baggio Military Hospital – a vast, green enclave in the Primaticcio district, originally conceived in the post World War I period. The second site centred on the storied Villa Pestarini by Franco Albini, the only Milanese villa by the Italian rationalist pioneer.

Baggio Military Hospital

Alcova reactivated the Baggio Military Hospital by unlocking a sequence of previously inaccessible spaces, from a disused church and its former rectory to a historic archive, inviting a more considered reading of the site’s layered past. Over time, the complex has evolved into a quietly immersive landscape, where built form and vegetation are interwoven into an adaptive ecosystem that softens the threshold between the natural and the constructed.

milan design week 2026 — *Baggio Military Hospital. Photo: Luigi Fiano and Ardesia Coco.*

Villa Pestarini

A short drive away, Villa Pestarini, designed by Franco Albini in 1938 at just 33, stands as a distilled expression of Italian rationalism. Its composition is precise and restrained: a white rectilinear volume articulated by glass-block façades and expansive openings to the garden. Carefully maintained by successive custodians, the house remains remarkably intact, a rare and lucid example of Albini’s enduring design language. Elements such as the shallow marble stair, sliding partitions and bespoke joinery reflect his signature balance of rigour and lyricism, lending the interiors a quality that feels quietly suspended in time.

Alcova is one of the largest exhibitions that attracts emerging designers and experimental designers all over the world to showcase their work during Milan Design Week.

Disco House

Founded in 2025 by Istanbul-based interior architect Alp Usluduran, Uslu Design Studio extends a decade-long architectural practice grounded in treating space as a complete system. Building on Uslu Architects, the studio translates this thinking into collectible furniture, where objects are conceived as an extension of architecture. Debuting at Milan Design Week 2026, Disco House marked a new phase, merging architecture, object and atmosphere. Drawing on the high-gloss energy of late-1970s nightlife, the collection explored the relationship between music and space, balancing a liberated, bohemian spirit with a refined, contemporary sensibility.

Permanent Souls

In the collection Permanent Souls, artist Iranzo repurposes discarded nets from sports and construction to explore the intersection of memory and absence. Rather than recreating the past, these ‘functional sculptures’ utilise tension and light to create minimal, suspended forms that emphasise the void.

Iranzo’s work suggests that memory is not a perfect record, but a fragmented collection of sensations and gestures. By using permeable materials, the artist invites the viewer’s imagination to fill the gaps, transforming industrial waste into a poetic narrative. Ultimately, the collection celebrates the fragile persistence of what remains after an object’s original purpose has vanished.