TOother than Scandinavian minimalism: alla Design Week 2026 the gods and their Olympus of marble and travertine return.
Evoking a new Magna Graecia is primarily the English designer Luke Edward Hall with the installation “Aquae Mirabiles” for Buccellatiin Piazza Tomasi di Lampedusa in Milan.
Curated by Federica Sala and designed by Balich Wonder Studio, From the outside, the installation resembles an aquatic theater. Inside is a contemporary nymphaeumpopulated by the god Neptune with a group of naiads and mermaids, where you can discover the “Caviar” silverware collection.
A preparatory drawing by Luke Edward Hall for Buccellati’s installation.
Fornasetti’s optical illusions
From there to the living room is a moment: on the carpets born from the collaboration between Fornasetti and Cc-tapis, Ionic columns, sculptural profiles and mythical ruins appear, with all the irony of trompe-l’œil. The collection, entitled “Meta(physics)”, takes up some of the brand’s archive drawings, translated into warps and wefts that employ a wide variety of techniques and materials. They range from carpets hand-knotted using the Tibetan technique to tapestries embroidered by a collective from Uttar Pradesh, India.
Carpet and tapestry created by Fornasetti with CC-tapis
The new Romanity
The materials also revive from antiquity. And, surprisingly, the furnishings. The American group RHwhich inaugurates its first Italian showroom in a nineteenth-century building in the center of Milan, has an “Antic” collection in its catalog inspired by the glories of the Roman Empire. The pieces are made of Italian marble or travertine and the price is only on request. Among the highlights, an imposing table worthy of a modern Julius Caesar.
Table from the “Antic” series by RH.
Courses and resorts in classic design
Among the progenitors of the trend, one cannot fail to mention the capital/pouf by Gufram, a 1971 provocation by Studio 65 that has become a symbol of Radical Design. It takes the exact shape and size of the columns of the Erechtheion of the Acropolis of Athens, but remakes them in a lightweight version, in polyurethane, so it can be easily moved from one room to another in the house, like a very ordinary pouf.
The “Capitello” pouf by Gufram.
Same light-hearted look for the Venus set in the bookcase by Fabio Novembre for Driade. A 2017 project that draws inspiration from the wooden crates used in museums to transport statues.
The “Venus” bookcase by Driade.
Furniture or sculpture? What is certain is that classicism has taken back the scene, more irreverent than ever.