Dutch Designers Explore New Approaches in Milan's Suburbs

Dutch designers Pete Fung and others are participating in 'Redesigning Design Weeks,' a multi-year program by the Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, in collaboration with the Dutch Embassy and Consulate General and Italian cultural agency cheFare. The project critiques mainstream design weeks for fueling gentrification, overtourism, and rising costs. Designers embedded themselves in two peripheral Milan neighborhoods—Chiaravalle and Quartiere Adriano—living like anthropologists to develop site-specific strategies addressing isolation and migrant integration. In Chiaravalle, Fung worked with unaccompanied minors at a local community, taking them to Fuorisalone exhibitions in April 2025, including a show on prison furnishings at Dropcity. Their autumn goal is to revitalize three kilometers of disused railway near the Abbey and Parco Agricolo Sud Milano, avoiding top-down narratives. Fung warns against design's tendency to oversimplify complex issues like gentrification and urban displacement.