The group exhibition “Shared Matter” presents six emerging Swiss designers and studios within SPAZIOVENTO, a new location in the heart of Brera.

La Milan Design Week 2026 is preparing to revitalize the city's streets. From April 20th to 26th, the leading event for the furniture and design sector will once again transform the Lombardy capital into a creative laboratory, offering emerging designers and studios the opportunity to showcase their work to the world.

It is within this same international platform of visibility that the collective exhibition is placed Shared Matter, organized by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia. The project opens a new chapter after three successful editions of House of Switzerland Milan and presents itself with a new location and a renewed format, dedicated specifically to the promotion of Swiss design.

Produced in collaboration with Presence Switzerland, the exhibition highlights collaborative design practices, through a curated selection of projects developed with partners from various countries. These paths, therefore, arise from research trips, residencies, and independent practices, each developed in different geographical and cultural contexts.

How do you explain Marie Mayoly, Head of International Platforms and Delegations for Design at Pro Helvetia:

"Shared Matter highlights how designers work across diverse contexts through research, exchange, and collaboration, reflecting Pro Helvetia's ongoing commitment. The exhibition draws attention to the journeys behind each project, underscoring that meaningful support concerns not only the final results, but also the processes that shape them."

Swiss design beyond its borders: the unique identity leaves room for method

Rather than delineating a unified style, Shared Matter begins with a broader question: what remains of Swiss design today, once it's outside its borders? Precisely because the projects on display, as mentioned, take shape in diverse contexts—between periods of work abroad, collaborations, and prolonged discussions that shape their outcomes and direction— even the answer that emerges is not univocal.

The image of Swiss design, therefore, does not pass through minimalism as a key, nor through neutrality as a position, but rather defines itself as a method, founded on systems thinking, technical rigor, and structured experimentation, applied to concrete situations, often far from Switzerland. After all, the designers involved operate within global production networks, foreign artisanal traditions, and complex industrial dynamics. Which is why what unites them is not so much a formal language as a shared disposition: the ability to bring clarity to complexity.

Providing a space for comparison for this reflection is SPACEWIND, in the Brera district, a space founded by designers for designers. Its essential and open architectural structure functions as a true workspace, allowing for the differences, tensions, and commonalities between the various design approaches to emerge.

A convivial meeting space as a scenographic setting

The exhibition's scenography was curated by the Swiss designer duo Gini Moynier in collaboration with the graphic designer Nicolas BernklauA monochrome graphic intervention, created with the support of Blēo (DK), structures the space and guides the audience through the various phases of design practice, from research and experimentation to practical implementation. An adjacent installation, developed with Karimoku New Standard (JP), extends the exhibition into a convivial environment dedicated to informal exchange and professional encounters.

About the projects on display, from the laboratories of Athens to manufacturing in China

After having conceived an initial prototype in a violin-making workshop in Athens, Akuto Studio spent several months in China to produce the Chord Machine AKT-0.1, an intuitive musical instrument that reinterprets the expressive possibilities of chords. At the same time, collaborating with four European companies to maintain a short and responsible supply chain, iiode created Re27, a sustainable LED bulb featuring a dimmable natural light thanks to a design based on recycling. Similarly, together with Tajimi Custom Tiles (JP), Noelani Rutz created Fleeting Landscapes, a collection of tiles that translates the ephemeral qualities of snow into material form.

In the lighting field, and in close collaboration with the Italian company From Lighting, the studio Panter&Tourron has developed a sculptural, multi-modal aluminum floor lamp, with a limited edition produced in partnership with BWB Oberflächentechnik for the anodizing process. Paper Glasses, a project born from a research residency, Silvio Rebholz has developed a natural and biodegradable alternative to disposable plastic cups. Finally, continuing their collaboration, Vera Roggli and the Filipino designer Julia Villamonte they created Sapin-Sapin, a multifunctional rug inspired by the rug-weaving traditions of their respective countries of origin.

All the projects were selected through a competition by an international jury composed of the designer and architect active in Milan Maddalena Casadei and by the London-based design writer and editorial director of Dezeen Max Fraser. The selection was based on the quality of the design and innovation, as well as the cultural and production contexts in which the projects are inserted.

Project dates, locations, and partners: what you need to know to make the most of it

The collective exhibition will be open to visitors from Monday 20th to Friday 24th April 2026, from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., at SPAZIOVENTO, Via Pinamonte da Vimercate 4, Milan. Promoted by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia in collaboration with Presence Switzerland, the initiative benefits from official partner Karimoku New Standard, official suppliers Blēo, Charbon, and Torréfaction, and the support of the Swiss Design Association, the Federal Office of Culture, and the Swiss Institute.

What emerges, even on an organizational level, is the relational nature of the project, built on the dialogue between designers, partners, stories and different production realities, in full coherence with the mission of Pro Helvetia promote Swiss creativity beyond national borders.

“What do you know about Switzerland” (especially about innovation)?

Here are three insights that might interest you:

House of Switzerland: When Design Celebrates Connections
Milan Design Week: IQOS and Seletti reinvent the Italian square
And at the “Milan Design Week” innovation wears red cross…