Milan Design Week 2025 has come and gone, bringing with it a fresh wave of creativity and innovation. As the city transformed into a global design hub, this year’s edition delivered immersive, thoughtful, and often unexpected installations that reminded us just how fun design can be. From vibrant, sustainable collections to interactive environments, joy and playfulness were front and center.

Appropriately part of Perspective magazine’s “Designing for Joy” issue, this roundup captures the most exuberant highlights from one of the world’s premier design events — including both Salone del Mobile and Fuorisalone. These are the installations that made us smile, slow down, and see design differently. Because sometimes the best kind of design doesn’t just sit pretty — it invites you to play.

Spin the Story: Es Devlin’s Luminous Ode to Books

In the neoclassical courtyard of the Pinacoteca di Brera, Es Devlin invited visitors to step inside a living library. The British contemporary artist and designer’s rotating installation, “Library of Light,” featured an arc of books illuminated within a glowing, kinetic structure that slowly turned under the open sky. Each title was selected for its relationship to light — philosophical, poetic, or literal — many inspired by Umberto Eco’s musings on knowledge and luminosity. Surrounded by centuries-old columns, guests could browse freely as the architecture itself seemed to orbit around them. An immersive, meditative love letter to literature, it was a poetic reminder that libraries are not just repositories of knowledge, but spaces of wonder, motion, and enlightenment.

A Bedroom Like No Other: Marimekko's “The Things We Do In Bed”

What do you do in bed? Marimekko, in collaboration with artist Laila Gohar, presented “The Things We Do In Bed,” an intimate installation exploring rituals of rest and relaxation in a massive, multicolored bed in the Teatro Litta space. From lounging to reading to eating, visitors were invited to take part in an immersive experience that blended comfort with creativity, celebrating the simple joys of being at home (and being in bed). Naturally, Marimekko’s signature vibrant prints took center stage. Add to that Gohar’s capsule collection — while the artist primarily uses food as her creative medium, her new collection includes joyful bedroom items like duvet covers, pajamas, sleep masks, and diaries — and you had a space that was both visually stunning and deeply relatable. (Shopping mental note: Gohar’s collection for Marimekko launches September 2025.)

Luxury Meets Nature at Gucci’s Eco-Luxe Encounter

Gucci | Bamboo Encounters exhibition was a multisensory exploration of sustainability, style, and serenity. Inspired by the tranquility of a Japanese bamboo forest, the installation invited visitors into a modular, softly lit space where scent, sound, and movement evoked nature’s quiet power. Long a hallmark of the fashion house’s design language — most famously through its iconic Bamboo Bag, first introduced in 1947 — bamboo is reimagined not just as a material but as a symbol of strength and renewal. Blending luxury with environmental consciousness, this poetic experience prompted reflection on how tradition and innovation can coexist — and flourish — in fashion’s future.

Classic Chairs Get a Splashy Makeover: Jil Sanders for Thonet

Jil Sander's collaboration with Thonet offers an unexpected take on the classic bentwood chair. In her first-ever venture into furniture, the fashion designer leans into color (like forest green and wine burgundy) and material to transform familiar seating forms into bold statement pieces for contemporary interiors. Crafted from powder-coated aluminum and inspired by natural landscapes — from lavender fields to ocean blues — the chairs radiate elegance and optimism. The result is a joyful fusion of Thonet’s design legacy and Sander’s refined minimalism — proof that even classic pieces can surprise and captivate when seen through a thoughtful new lens.

From Flip-Flops to Fabulous: Serena Confalonieri's Jambo Collection

Sustainability meets vibrant design in Serena Confalonieri's Jambo collection. Crafted from reclaimed flip-flops collected along the Kenyan coast, these bold animal-like vessels breathe new life into discarded materials. Through a collaboration with the Ocean Sole, a nonprofit that turns old flip-flops into eye-catching artwork, the Milan-based designer and art director celebrates both environmental consciousness and, well, joy — infusing each piece with a playful energy. The result? A bright, meaningful installation that highlights the power of design to drive positive change.

Wool, Reimagined: Loro Piana x Dimoremilano

Set in a vintage Milanese cinema transformed into a dreamlike environment, clothing store Loro Piana’s “The Wool Journey – Touching the Invisibles,” created in collaboration with furniture manufacturer Dimoremilano, offered a multisensory exploration of one of nature’s most refined materials. Bathed in warm, amber hues inspired by the Andes, the installation traced the story of wool — from raw fleece to luxurious fabric — through intimate tactile encounters and carefully staged vignettes. Surreal touches abounded (yes, there was a life-sized leopard lounging mid-room), adding a sense of mystery and quiet drama. We like to think of it as a journey celebrating not just the elegance of craft, but the emotional resonance of material and memory. A tactile tribute to timeless materials, rendered with cinematic flair.

Feel the Design, Literally: Tech That Taps Into Joy

Part tactile playground, part design philosophy, Design You Can Feel — a collaboration between Dezeen and tech brand Asus — invited visitors on an interactive journey through material, craftsmanship, and AI. Set within a historic 1920s Milanese gallery and brought to life by Studio INI, the installation featured surfaces that shifted in response to touch, translating digital interactions into physical motion. By merging technology with the senses, Asus redefines what it means to connect with devices — placing joy, intuition, and human experience at the center of innovation. It was an entertaining, engaging reminder that design, at its best, is something you can feel.

The Art of the Everyday: Loewe Elevates the Humble Teapot

With “Teapots,” Loewe transforms a humble household object into a piece of art. This quietly radical installation assembled more than 100 one-of-a-kind vessels crafted by artists and artisans from around the world — each teapot was a celebration of material, form, and function. Glazed, coiled, carved, or sculpted, they ranged from the traditional to the surreal, unified by Loewe’s reverence for craft and everyday beauty. It was a meditation on utility as art, inviting us to pause, look closer, and find wonder in objects we often overlook.

Read more Perspective: Designing for Joy here