a sequence of dream states in ME Milan Il Duca
Milan Design Week 2026designboom’s ROOM FOR A DREAM commissioned ME Milan Il Duca to construct a temporary but fully immersive environment where installations, speeches, rituals and moving images converge. Conceived as a spatial and cultural ecosystem, the project staged a series of interconnected experiences that explore dreams as an active tool for imagining and rehearsing alternative futures.
Throughout the hotel designed by Aldo Rossi, each space was reprogrammed with a distinct atmosphere while remaining part of a continuous narrative. Visitors moved between the outdoor garden, the social tension of the lobby and the introspective depth of the basement, encountering different moments and modes of engagement. Bringing together a wide range of voices, incl Philippe StarckSamir Badal of OMA/AMO, Carlo Ratti, Stefano Boeri, Ma Yanshongand Paf ateliertogether with the partners inclusive SolidNature, RessenceLa Marzocco, OPPOand INDX|GLOBAL, ROOM FOR DREAMS brought multiple disciplines together in alignment, with architecture, design, film and conversation working as parallel systems that shaped the entire experience.
image © Giuseppe Miotto / Marco Cappelletti Studio (also pictured above)
room for dreams frames facilities material and perception
Within this ecosystem, large-scale installations anchored the experience through distinct but complementary approaches. In his garden hotel, OMA/AMO in collaboration with SolidNature is presented The Sleep Supermarketturning familiar retail typologies into a decelerating landscape of stone objects. Shelves carved from onyx and marble display everyday objects, from bottles to packaged goods, all made of solid material. At first glance, the space looks like a fully functioning supermarket, yet its logic quickly changes as recognition gives way to dissonance. Objects appear frozen in a moment of use, suspending gestures of consumption and redirecting attention to texture, weight and time. Movement in the corridors is more about observation as the installation reframes value through permanence and geological duration.
Under the ground, Paf atelier shapes it Dream Cinema as an immersive capsule where the scenography and the film dissolve into each other. The reflective fabric is stretched into soft, rhythmic drapes, pinned by circular nodes that pull the material in wave-like formations across the walls and floor. Cushions scattered across the curved ground invite visitors to lie right inside the set, blurring the distinctions between sitting and viewing. The entrance unfolds gradually as darkness delays orientation and space is revealed over time. Space becomes the medium through which images are experienced, shifting cinema from a screen-based form to a corporeal, atmospheric state.
OMA/AMO in collaboration with SolidNature present a tactile retail landscape
image © Giuseppe Miotto / Marco Cappelletti Studio
conversations and meetings activate the social core
At ground level, the lobby acts as the project’s social concentrator, hosting a weekly series of talks that situate dreaming as an intentional design methodology. Factors included Philippe Starck, Samir Bantal, Carlo Ratti, Stefano Boeri and Ma Yansong frames imagination not as an escape, but as a form of projection, a way of testing spatial, social, and ecological possibilities before they materialize. These exchanges extend beyond formal conversations, forming an atmosphere of continuous encounter where visitors, designers and contributors intersect throughout the day.
Operating daily, the Cinema of Dreams introduced a temporal layer, central to the work. Developed with partners including Louisiana Channel, 9sekunden, and filmmakers such as Bêka and Lemoine and Beatrice Minger with Christoph Schaubthe program combined interviews, documentaries and experimental projects. Each day featured a variety of screenings, from reflections of leading creative figures to architectural films and premieres produced in real time during the week.
Extending the project to sound, Music for dreams introduced a closing moment shaped by DJ Giovannella Rosa Calixwhere space shifted to a shared sound environment. As the day’s talks and screenings concluded, the music reorients the experience towards the body, turning the final register of the work into a collective presence and atmosphere.
monolithic shelves carved from veined stone organize products on a gradient of material
image © Giuseppe Miotto / Marco Cappelletti Studio
rituals, media, and collaboration broaden the context
Beyond installations and speeches, the project included everyday experiences, presenting them in new ways. La Marzocco transformed coffee into a performative ritual through it Espresso Coffee Academywhile Ressence explored time as a fluid and perceptual condition. At the same time, OPPO collaborated with designboom to produce the Seeing Furthera film taken during the week. Together with INDX|GLOBAL, these contributions extended the project beyond physical space, framing content as something that is constantly being created, shared, and evolving.
The realization of ROOM FOR DREAMS relies on a wide network of partners and collaborators, together with supporting partners Pernod Ricard, Topologie and Pedrali and production partners Uppercat and Chedo Event Solutions. Creative collaborators such as OMA/AMO, Migrating Lines, Fritto FM and Rosa Calix contribute to the multi-layered identity of the project, while event producers Claudia Decaro and Giulia Geromel coordinate its execution.
This multiplicity of voices reinforces the play’s central premise: that dreaming is inherently collective, shaped through sharing, collaboration, and shared imagination.
Across its installations, conversations and multimedia, ROOM FOR DREAMS creates conditions where ideas can be tested, experienced and revised in real time, suggesting that design today is not just about building, but about projecting, rehearsing and creating spaces where alternative futures can begin to take shape.
the entrance sequence leads visitors to ROOM FOR A DREAM
image © designboom, photo by Camilla Mancini with Giorgio Galliano
Ressence explores time as a fluid and perceptual condition
image © designboom, photo by Camilla Mancini with Giorgio Galliano
