ISTITUTO MARANGONI MILANO DESIGN WINS THE FENDI DESIGN PRIZE 2026 AND PRESENTS 'DESIGN AWAKENS' AT MILAN DESIGN WEEK
_ALESSI_Istituto Marangoni Milano Design_
ISTITUTO MARANGONI MILANO DESIGN WINS THE FENDI DESIGN PRIZE 2026 AND PRESENTS “DESIGN AWAKENS” AT MILAN DESIGN WEEK
MILAN, ITALY, April 22, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Istituto Marangoni Milano Design celebrates a moment of outstanding significance on the international stage: during Milan Design Week 2026, the school has been awarded the Fendi Design Prize 2026 with Gustav Craft, a Swedish third-year Product Design student, while presenting “Design Awakens”, a programme of collaborations exploring the future of design through artificial intelligence, interactive spaces, and new visions of living.
Winning the award - one of the most sought-after recognitions for emerging designers - represents a concrete affirmation of the school’s approach, rooted in the integration of research, experimentation, and direct dialogue with industry.
The winning project, VIA, reinterprets the material and cultural legacy of Rome by translating the constructive logic of Roman roads into a contemporary design system. A collection that does not merely evoke history, but transforms it into a design infrastructure, where each element becomes part of a coherent and enduring system. Further strengthening this achievement is the presence among the finalists of Mahra Mustafa, Ilyas Samina and Isabella Maria Motta Gallego, second-year undergraduate students in Product Design, selected from over 70 international candidates - an indication of the quality and design vision fostered by the school.
This milestone is part of “Design Awakens”, the theme through which Istituto Marangoni Milano Design interprets Milan Design Week 2026, presenting an integrated system of installations and projects developed in collaboration with leading partners including Alessi, Poltrona Frau, Cappellini and Jaipur Rugs, as well as the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia. “The Design Week represents the moment when our vision takes public form,” states School Director Barbara Toscano. “Each project emerges from the direct involvement of students, supported by faculty- established professionals on a global scale - alongside prestigious partner companies and Alumni, now internationally recognised designers, who continue to collaborate with the school, strengthening a creative community in constant evolution.”
Objects that perceive, spaces that respond, and digital systems that engage with people: with Design Awakens, design evolves from a formal discipline into a dynamic and relational ecosystem, where innovation, the human dimension, and nature converge into a new idea of design. Within this vision, technology becomes increasingly invisible, present only when necessary to respond to human needs. At the core of this research lies aesthetics - understood not merely as formal beauty, but as a fundamental element in generating experiences and relationships.
Among the most significant projects, Domestic Oracles, developed in collaboration with Alessi and the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, envisions a new generation of domestic objects capable of embodying artificial intelligence. Through light, movement and sensory responses, AI takes shape in poetic and enigmatic artefacts that inhabit the home as sensitive presences, transforming invisible intelligence into tangible experience and redefining the relationship between people, objects and intelligent systems. One of the domestic oracles presented at Superstudio Più, Connexio interprets the quality of human relationships and translates it into visual transformations inspired by the life cycles of a flower, making tangible what usually remains unseen.
With an exhibition path spanning its Via Cerva headquarters and key districts across the city - including Superstudio Più, Superstudio Maxi and SaloneSatellite- Istituto Marangoni Milano Design transforms Milan Design Week into an open platform where education, research and industry converge to anticipate the future of design.
The Fendi Design Prize victory thus becomes part of a broader narrative, confirming the school as an international hub capable of shaping designers who can meaningfully impact both the present and the future of design.
THE PROJECTS
DEGREE SHOW 2026 – SEAMLESS SINGULARITIES
@ IM Milano Design – Via Cerva 24, Milano
April 15th – June 15th
The Degree Show 2026, Seamless Singularities, presents the most visionary projects from undergraduate students in Interior, Product, and Visual Design, alongside an immersive installation from the Innovation Design area featuring the top three projects from each department.The projects explore how emerging designers envision present and future as a continuous process, where technology and design evolve together.
POLTRONA FRAU – SOUL OF SPACE
@ IM Milano Design – Via Cerva 24, Milano
April 15th – April 26th
Students from the Master’s programs in Interior Design, Interior Contract, and Luxury Boutique Hotel Interior Design develop total living concepts for Poltrona Frau, transforming a villa into a narrative spatial journey across different international contexts. These projects reinterpret the brand’s identity through dynamic solutions where new technologies meet craftsmanship and the refined codes of contemporary luxury.
RIVATELIER – OUTSIDE IN
@ IM Milano Design – Via Cerva 24, Milano
April 20th – April 26th
Undergraduate Product Design students collaborate with RivAtelier to rethink balconies and terraces as active extensions of the home.Outdoor spaces become environments that support work, rest, and social interaction throughout the day, combining technical performance with refined aesthetics and redefining the meaning of outdoor living.
L’ASTRO – IM PRISMA PROJECT
@ Via Cerva, 24 Milano
April 20th – April 26th
Professionals from Prisma Project, Alumni of Istituto Marangoni Milano Design, collaborate with L’ASTRO, a company specializing in patented decorative laminated glass enriched with Swarovski® crystals, under the artistic direction of Delineodesign.
With supervision by architect Giulio Cappellini, the designers created a capsule collection where furniture pieces are transformed into tactile and visual experiences.
IM ALUMNI DESIGN DISTRICT
A curated path across the city’s main districts showcases installations and projects developed by Istituto Marangoni Milano Design alumni in collaboration with brands and institutions.Milan becomes an open platform celebrating the global dimension of the school’s community while strengthening the connection between education, research, and industry.
ALESSI – DOMESTIC ORACLES
@ Superstudio Più – Tortona District, Milano
April 20th – April 26th
One of the key projects of the Design Week, Domestic Oracles is developed in collaboration with Alessi and the Italian Institute of Technology.Students from the Master’s in Product & Furniture Design envision a new generation of domestic objects capable of embodying artificial intelligence. Through light, movement, and sensory responses, AI takes shape in poetic, enigmatic artifacts that inhabit the home as sensitive presences, transforming invisible technology into tangible experience.
CAPPELLINI – FUTURE CITY: CAP CLUB & CAP SPA
@ Superstudio Maxi
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