It's the day when the professionals leave the city and the weekend visitors flock to the installations: the Friday of Fuorisalone marks the transition from insider to general public. The queues are getting longer, the atmosphere is changing towards the Fuorisalone weekend and Design Week is entering its most lively phase. Those who have been following our compact guide to the highlights of the last few days will notice the change: from today Milan also belongs to the curious and the citizens, ready to discover the installations in every corner of the city centre.

Among the main events this Friday, Hydro stands out, with recycled aluminium objects designed by big names in design, and the exhibition dedicated to Nanda Vigo at the Fabbrica del Vapore, which is also offering a rich evening programme for the occasion. It's worth braving the crowds to visit the Artemest apartment, one of the most popular (and crowded) spaces in this edition, and the Casa Mutina, where design meets photography in an artistic project. These are very different spaces and installations, but what they have in common is that they have quickly become the talk of the town this Design Week.

With the exception of Alcova, Fuorisalone 2025 seems to be very concentrated in the centre of Milan, without too many surprises in the outskirts or unexplored areas to discover. The result is a more geographically compact edition, but no less rich in content and unmissable events. And after so many daily events, don't forget to give yourself a real break: even in the midst of the design frenzy, you need to take a breather now and then in one of the quieter places of the week, to recharge your batteries before the final rush of the weekend.

Hydro's project is every designer's dream. In this case, the “lucky ones” are Sabine Marcelis, Keiji Takeuchi, Cecilie Manz, Daniel Rybakken, and Stefan Diez, who move seamlessly between product design and exploration. They’re beautiful, they’re colorful, they’re design. The star of the show is Circal 100R aluminum, which reduces its carbon footprint by rethinking the production chain. Everything happens within a 100-kilometer radius, from the recovery of waste materials to the final production of the project’s objects. Special mention goes to Diez, who created a series of recycling bins made from recycled aluminum: it doesn’t get more “circular” than that.

Off the beaten path of the “usual” Design Week spots, but still conveniently located, Fabbrica del Vapore – with its many, many exhibitions – is the perfect place to see beautiful things without the stress. Especially in a Fuorisalone where everything seems obsessively, and somewhat monotonously, downtown. The exhibition dedicated to Nanda Vigo stands out, on view till April 21st. With a simple layout, it's the multitude of images that do the talking. There are photos, project drawings, posters, and much more. Given the flatness of what we've seen this year during Design Week, it's hard not to get excited.

We also recommend two other exhibitions: one by Lorenzo Damiani, focusing on wood; and another, all digital, curated by Tabacchi, Beyond the Anthropocene, where Siconolfi’s Hidden City and Deborah Hirsch’s beautiful work on endangered wildlife (also on display at American Express in Brera) shine. There’s also a rich evening program curated by Lele Sacchi, featuring electronic music giants like Dettmann and Hawtin.

Design Week is an event with many souls and styles: it is both inclusive and elitist, contemporary and historic, with all the shades in between these opposite ends. L'Appartamento by ArteMest, an online platform selling pieces and products from top Italian brands, embodies the event’s most luxurious and exclusive spirit. Now in its third edition, it reaffirms the format of taking over a domestic space, this year in a beautiful late-19th-century building on Via Donizetti.

The craftsmanship of the past – the marbles, wooden elements, and wrought-iron decorations – interacts with that of the present – the objects and furniture selected from the ArteMest catalog by six designers and artists, arranged in six themed rooms. The Foyer, The Reading Room & Studio, The Grand Salon, The Dining Room, The Entertainment Room, and The Bedroom are the stages that form a rich, almost intoxicating, and utterly eclectic journey.

In the Brera district, it’s worth stopping by Casa Mutina, one of the most intriguing spots of the week – if only for the house itself, elegant and suspended in time. Being Mutina occupies the underground spaces of the house with an intense, immersive photographic exhibition, while a site-specific installation in the courtyard contrasts with the intimacy of the interior. Brigitte Niedermair’s images inhabit full-scale reconstructed rooms as large as film sets, where light takes center stage and everything seems to speak of desire. It’s a different, and surprisingly poetic, way of telling the story of matter.