Redesigning Design Weeks
In 2025, Nieuwe Instituut and Milan-based cultural organisation cheFare launched CIVICITY: the first edition of multi-year residency programme Redesigning Design Weeks, inviting designers to critically rethink the social and environmental impact of design events on their host cities. At Milan Design Week 2026, the resident designers of 2025 (Pete Fung and Studio Method) present their results, while 2026 residents Demo– practice and Ned Kaar provide insight in their first explorations.
Design weeks around the world have become key events where designers, companies and visitors can meet and exchange ideas, expertise and ambitions. But with such events increasingly contributing to local pollution, rising living costs, housing crises, social inequality and over-tourism, the current design-week model is unsustainable.
CIVICITY
Rooted in the Latin civis, meaning citizen, CIVICITY emphasises the connections between people, place, and participation. For CIVICITY 2025, the first in the series of Redesigning Design Weeks residencies, designers Pete Fung and Studio-Method (Riel Bessai and Pedro Daniel Pantaleone) were invited to immerse themselves in Milan’s urban, social, environmental and cultural ecosystems over the course of two months.
In 2026, new resident designers Demo– practice and Ned Kaar will spend two months in Milan, working with local communities to develop design solutions that critically examine the environmental, social and spatial challenges surrounding large-scale urban design events. Their research and proposals will be grounded in collaborations with local community organisations: Barrio’s in Milan’s Barona neighbourhood and Fondazione Abitiamo in the Niguarda district.
The outcomes of the 2025 residencies of Pete Fung and Studio-Method, as well as the first findings of Demo– practice and Ned Kaar, will be presented at Milan Design Week 2026.
CIVICITY was made possible with the support of the Embassy and Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Italy.
“There’s hope in the peripheries” — feature in DAMN Magazine by Nuria Ribas Costa
➝ Read moreRedesigning Design Weeks
In partnership with the Embassy and Consulate-General of the Netherlands in Italy and Milan-based chefare, the Nieuwe Instituut launched Redesigning Design Weeks, a multi-year residency programme inviting Netherlands-based designers to critically examine the sustainability challenges of design weeks and to rethink existing practices. Using Milan Design Week as a case study, the initiative builds on other Nieuwe Instituut projects, such as New Store and Redesigning the Designer, that aim to challenge existing structures and test alternatives in the real world.