The Dream Room is now live at ME Milan Il Duca
Now opening during designboom’s Milan Design Week 2026 ROOM FOR A DREAM takes over ME Milan Il Duca, transforming it Hotel designed by Aldo Rossi in Piazza della Repubblica in a multi-layered environment where installations, live talks, daily rituals and film screenings unfold. Conceived as a temporary ecosystem, the project explores the dream as an intentional tool for social and cultural transformation, activating the building through a series of immersive, interconnected experiences.
From SolidNature and AMO/OMA’s Iinstallation led by Samir Bantal at Dream Cinema with Paf atelier and a LIVE talk with Philippe Starckper week program activates every corner of the hotel from April 20 to 26, 2026.
Sleep by SolidNature and OMA / AMO directed by Samir Bantal
all images © designboom, photography by Camilla Mansini with Giorgio Gagliano
a hotel reprogrammed as a sequence of dream states
Rather than a single exhibition, ROOM FOR DREAMS is structured as an evolution. Each space within the hotel corresponds to a different dream phase, moving from collective speculation to more introspective encounters. Visitors move between the outdoor garden, the lobby and the basement, where architecture becomes less of a static form and more of stage experiences, atmospheres and possible futures.
a multi-layered environment where installations, live talks, daily rituals and film screenings unfold
solidnature and amo/oma stage a world that slows down
in the garden, SolidNature works with OMA/AMO under his direction Samir Badal for the construction of Il Sonno, a large-scale facility that turns stone into a profitable medium. Everyday acts such as shopping are repeated as suspended, almost dream-like rituals, shifting attention from consumption to awareness and material presence.
the lobby becomes the social core of the project
talks, meetings and a live program of ideas
At ground level, the lobby becomes the social core of the project, hosting a weekly program of talks starting with Philippe Starck and continuing with voices such as DRIFT, Carlo Ratti, Stefano Boeri and Ma Yansong. In these sessions, dreaming is framed not as an escape, but as a method, a way to create prototype social, spatial and ecological futures before they materialize.
La Marzocco translates the everyday act of drinking coffee into a time-based installation
a daily film program takes place underground
In the basement, Pof the studio shapes it Dream Cinema as a floating, immersive environment that runs daily screenings from 12:00pm to 8:00pm. The program brings together films, short projects and interviews in collaboration with the Louisiana Channel, along with architectural documentaries by 9sekunden and features such as E.1027: Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea and Siza.
Each day begins with Advice to the Young, a collection of reflections from the likes of Peter Cook, Mariko Mori and Balkrishna Doshi, before expanding into a wider series of screenings that combine architectural narratives with experimental storytelling. Midweek, programming turns to ecology with a focus on Earth Day, while premieres like The Talented Mr. Robi by Carlo Ratti Associati and Seeing Further by OPPO present new works produced in real time during the week.
Atelier Paf shapes the Cinema of Dreams
time, ritual and media as parallel systems
Within the lobby, time, ritual and media intersect as parallel ways of structuring experience. Ressence reframes time as something fluid rather than fixed, where its installation and Now is Better by Stefan Sagmeister shift the emphasis from measurement to perception, suggesting a more elastic sense of duration. In dialogue with this, La Marzocco’s Espresso Coffee Academy transforms the everyday act of coffee into a performative, time-based ritual where each guest roaster activates the space through taste, technique and narrative. It extends beyond the natural environment, partnerships with OPPO and INDX|WORLD place them in as the active layer of the project, from the tape Seeing Furtherrecorded over the course of the week, in live podcast recordings, framing content not as documentation but as something produced, released and developed in real time.
