Milan

The fashion-house residence has become a Milanese typology over the past decade, and most examples of it have been unconvincing. The format — a brand-owned palazzo, presented as a “home” rather than a retail space, with furniture, art, and accessories arranged as if for inhabitation — is fundamentally honest about what it is, which is a marketing exercise. The dishonesty creeps in when the staging is so theatrical that no one could plausibly live there. Sofas are aligned with the precision of a window display. Books are stacked by spine colour. The kitchen, if there is one, has clearly never produced a meal. The visitor is invited to imagine a life that the space itself rules out. ...

Milan’s design scene doesn’t stop at the Salone gates. The city itself is a design object — constantly being refined, reinterpreted, and renewed. Here’s where we’ll be eating, drinking, and discovering between exhibitions. Eat Langosteria Café — The Navigli outpost of Milan’s finest seafood restaurant. Book the courtyard table. The crudo is non-negotiable, and the setting — a converted canal-side warehouse — is the kind of space that makes you rethink the relationship between food and architecture. ...