This isn’t just a statement of intent. It’s a fact. First and foremost, a historical one: we were born in Milan nearly 100 years ago and never left. We’ve watched this incredible city grow, evolve, and change—at times strange, at times disappointing, but always fascinating: a magnet.

We see it in the data too. When we talk about Milan, our website and social media go on fire. We “break the internet,” as they used to say when Kim Kardashian did it. Because Domus is Milan, and Milan is Domus.

This is a city that hasn’t stopped growing since the 2015 Expo. But it risks leaving important parts of itself behind, forgetting who it is in the rush to become ever newer and more beautiful—with an ever-higher price tag that’s often unsustainable for those who live here. This is an issue we’ll increasingly focus on.

Many of us discover what Milan was before through the pages of the magazine we work on—the one you’re reading now. Especially through the archive. But rediscovering Milan also means understanding its present. Observing it to decipher its layers and, like an archaeological core sample, tracing back to how modern architecture, Gio Ponti, and countless other designers, both famous and lesser-known, changed it forever, building the foundation for what it is today. For us at Domus, engaging with the past is our way of looking to the future.

This year, we explored and reinterpreted Milan in many ways. First, through walks where we discovered the city with you. We did this in the center, in what some call “Milano Milano,” and in a historic, unjustly forgotten neighborhood that regained prominence with the opening of the metro: San Siro. But that’s not all—we also visited the RAI headquarters on Corso Sempione to mark 50 years since its first broadcast in 1954 and we present it to you through the pictures taken by Ramak Fazel, great photographer and longtime Domus contributor.

We also told the story of four Milanese houses by Gio Ponti that you might not know about. But it wasn’t just about Ponti: we also rediscovered the work of a great but often overlooked architect, Arrigo Arrighetti. His projects are essential to understanding today’s Milan, even the ones that no longer exist.

This year has marked two relevant anniversaries for Milan. The first one regards the opening of the first subway line 50 years ago: a project destined to influence all the public transport design and communication that followed in the city, and that is also considered influential on a global scale, thanks to the work of designers such as Albini, Helg and Noorda. 

But this year also marks the 100th birthday of one of the most celebrated Italian actors, Marcello Mastroianni. When Michele Antonioni directed him in La notte, maybe the two great Italian artists were not aware that movie would become a  manifesto for the freshly reconstructed post-war Milan. 

Milan, the city of design and fashion, is also the city of events and “weeks.” It wouldn’t be the same without its Design Week—probably the most important in the world. To capture what the city becomes during Salone and Fuorisalone, we enlisted the help of photography maestro Gabriele Micalizzi, who created a series of black-and-white shots capturing how we experience Milan in that week when everyone wants to be here. These are photos we won’t easily forget.

The building designed by Ponti with Fornaroli, Soncini and Bertolaia, where the history of Italian television began in 1954, is also the setting for a veritable essay on the transformation of interiors in the post-war period: Ramak Fazel’s photographs tell this story for Domus. Read more

We asked the Italian photojournalist to narrate Salone and Fuorisalone in his irreverent and always surprising way. Here are his photos, taken exclusively for us. Read more

Arrigo Arrighetti (Milan, 1922 - Siziano, 1989), a technician and designer employed at the offices of the Municipality of Milan, played an important role in the fertile architectural season of the post-World War II period. He was the creator of buildings and neighborhoods of great interest and was constantly committed, over the course of almost forty years of service, to promoting the creation of quality spaces with the resources then available. Not surprisingly, this civil servant was identified as early as 2012, the only Italian, by Reiner de Graaf of the OMA Studio as an exemplary case of an architect committed to the construction of society within the framework of the Biennale of Venice directed by David Chipperfield. Read more

The House in Via Domenichino (1928), the Torre Rasini (1933), the Laporte House (1935-1936) and the Residential building in the Ina Harar-Dessiè District (1951) are not among the most renowned of Ponti’s works, but they certainly aren't the least known. The portfolio created by Marco Menghi for Domus explores the interiors of architectures best known for their street facades, such as the famous Torre Rasini, and returns a precise and fascinating interpretation. Read more

Sixty years ago, Milan's first underground railway line was inaugurated, a model of integrated and functional design that radically changed the city and the lives of the Milanese, signed by outstanding names: Albini, Helg and Piva, and Noorda. Read more

100 years after the birth of Italian cinema icon Marcello Mastroianni, we follow him, Jeanne Moreau and Monica Vitti in La Notte, a film that is an architecture textbook, between Gio Ponti, Vico Magistretti, and the towers of an evolving Milan. Read more