{"id":641467,"date":"2026-04-30T22:23:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T22:23:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/641467\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T22:23:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T22:23:17","slug":"milan-design-week-2026-selection-and-wasl-tower-in-dubai-this-weeks-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/641467\/","title":{"rendered":"Milan Design Week 2026 Selection and Wasl Tower in Dubai: This Week\u2019s Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Milan<\/a>Renaissance of the Real by Annabelle Schneider and Sn\u00f8hetta, Milan Design Week 2026. Image Courtesy of USM<\/p>\n

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https:\/\/www.archdaily.com\/1041100\/milan-design-week-2026-selection-and-wasl-tower-in-dubai-this-weeks-review<\/p>\n

Across cultural platforms, heritage sites<\/a>, and institutional developments, this week<\/a>‘s news reflects how the built environment<\/a> is reshaped through processes of transformation, reinterpretation, and public engagement. From archaeological reactivations and adaptive reuse<\/a> strategies to museum expansions and large-scale international gatherings, architecture operates across multiple temporalities, balancing preservation<\/a> with contemporary use and spatial continuity with evolving cultural programs. Within this context, ArchDaily’s selection of installations and exhibitions<\/a> from Milan Design Week 2026<\/a> highlights how design weeks increasingly function as curatorial frameworks for experimentation, while global events and institutional projects continue to expand the formats through which architecture is produced, shared, and debated.<\/p>\n

\"Milan<\/a>\"Milan<\/a>\"Milan<\/a>\"Milan<\/a>\"Milan+ 6<\/a><\/p>\n

Global Platforms, Events, and the Circulation of Ideas\"MilanWhen Apricots Blossom by Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation, Milan Design Week 2026. Image Courtesy of ACDF<\/a><\/p>\n

Following six days of exhibitions, installations, and industry exchange, Milan Design Week 2026 <\/a>and the 64th edition of Salone del Mobile.Milano<\/a> concluded with over 316,000 visitors from 167 countries, reaffirming Milan’s central role within the global design calendar. Among the week’s coverage, ArchDaily’s selection of installations and exhibitions<\/a> from across the city highlighted a series of projects presented during Fuorisalone, where this year’s programming, framed by the theme “Be the Project,” foregrounded process-driven experimentation, material research, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Across these works<\/a>, installations increasingly operated as spatial and material tests rather than finalized displays, reflecting a broader shift in how design weeks function as platforms for research and exchange. In parallel, the UIA World Congress of Architects 2026 Barcelona has announced its full program<\/a>, expanding the format of the event into a distributed, city-wide framework. Structured around the theme Becoming. Architectures for a Planet in Transition<\/a>, the Congress combines lectures, exhibitions, workshops, and itineraries, emphasizing research-based practices and cross-disciplinary exchange while situating Barcelona itself as an active site of engagement.<\/p>\n

Related Article ArchDaily\u2019s Selection: 15 Installations and Exhibitions from Milan Design Week 2026<\/a> Heritage Access and Adaptive Reuse<\/a> Across Contexts\"Milanhe new access to the spaces behind the Rotonda of the Pantheon. Courtesy of Direzione Musei Nazionali Citta di Roma. Image \u00a9 STARTT architecture \/ Alessandro Penso<\/a><\/p>\n

This week’s developments also highlight how architecture continues to mediate between preservation and transformation through strategies of access and reuse. In Rome<\/a>, STARTT’s Pantheon \u2013 Micro Architectures for Archaeology project<\/a> introduces a new visitor route through previously inaccessible areas behind the Rotunda, revealing layers of archaeological fabric while maintaining a clear distinction between contemporary interventions and ancient material. Rather than restoring the monument itself, the project reframes its broader urban and historical context. A parallel approach emerges in Minneapolis, where Minoru Yamasaki’s former Northwestern National Life Insurance Company headquarters is set to be converted into a hotel<\/a>. The proposal retains the building’s defining formal elements while introducing hospitality and public-facing functions, reflecting broader shifts in the reuse of mid-century office buildings. Extending this discourse of institutional and spatial expansion, the Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach has commissioned Johnston Marklee<\/a> to develop a new campus addition building on Arata Isozaki’s earlier framework. The proposal introduces a new exhibition pavilion alongside outdoor civic spaces, reinforcing the museum’s role as an open cultural interface embedded within both landscape and urban context.<\/p>\n

\"MilanNorthwestern National Life Building, Marquette Avenue, Minneapolis. Image \u00a9 w_lemay via Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0<\/a>On the RadarUNS Completes Wasl Tower in Dubai<\/a> with Climate-Responsive Ceramic Facade\"MilanWasl Tower in Dubai by UNS. Image \u00a9 Ahmad Alnaji – SARAB<\/a><\/p>\n

Completed in downtown Dubai<\/a>, Wasl Tower by UNS<\/a> in collaboration with Werner Sobek<\/a> introduces a 302-metre-high mixed-use development along Sheikh Zayed Road, adjacent to the Burj Khalifa<\/a>. The project combines hotel, residential, office, and public functions within a vertically organized structure that integrates programmatic diversity with a continuous facade system. The tower<\/a> is defined by a terracotta ceramic envelope composed of thousands of fins that act as a passive shading device, reducing solar gain and supporting thermal regulation while responding to the building’s orientation through parametric design<\/a> strategies. Positioned as both an infrastructural and climatic system, the facade draws on regional material traditions while addressing contemporary environmental performance standards.<\/p>\n

OPEN Breaks Ground on Meitu Cube Visual Arts Center in Xiamen, China\"MilanCube of Change: Meitu Cube Visual Arts Center Xiamen, China. Image Courtesy of OPEN Architecture<\/a><\/p>\n

OPEN Architecture<\/a> has begun construction on the Meitu Cube Visual Arts Center in Xiamen, China<\/a>, a coastal cultural facility scheduled for completion in 2028. Located along the city’s eastern shoreline, the project is conceived as a cubic volume that incorporates a high degree of spatial and programmatic flexibility, responding to shifting cultural and technological conditions. The building organizes a series of interlocking gallery types, including black-box and white-box spaces, alongside circulation routes, terraces, and public areas that can be reconfigured for exhibitions<\/a>, performances, screenings, and events. Integrated landscape elements, including sunken plazas, rooftop terraces, and stacked greenery, extend the architectural system into the site, establishing transitions between interior space, public realm, and coastal environment.<\/p>\n

Alvisi Kirimoto Completes Piazza Giuseppe Meroldi in Rome<\/a> as Part of the “15 Roma” Urban Regeneration Program\"MilanAlvisi Kirimoto_Piazza Giuseppe Meroldi (Ex Campari), Render. Image \u00a9 Flooer<\/a><\/p>\n

Alvisi Kirimoto<\/a> has completed the redesign of Piazza Giuseppe Meroldi in Montespaccato, within Rome’s XIII Municipality, as part of the 15 Roma urban regeneration program developed around the principles of the “15-minute city<\/a>.” Once a parking area and weekly market site, the square has been transformed into a public space structured through two complementary conditions: a green, landscaped zone with newly planted trees and shaded resting areas, and a mineral paved surface designed for flexible use and community activities. A continuous paving strategy ties the composition together, while the adjacent municipal building, now home to the Biblioteca Cornelia, extends the intervention’s civic role with co-working, study, and multifunctional community spaces, reinforcing the square as a local point of social and urban exchange.<\/p>\n