the CINEMA OF DREAMS DURING MILAN DESIGN WEEK 2026
ROOM FOR DREAMS opens its doors on Monday, April 20th, with a multilayered takeover of the ME Milan Il Duca exploring dreams as rigorous tools for social and cultural transformation. During Milan Design Week 2026, the project unfolds across the Aldo Rossi-designed hotel at Piazza della Repubblica with large scale installations, live talks, daily rituals and a dedicated cinema space. Designed by Paf atelier, the Cinema of Dreams is the beating heart of our temporary creative ecosystem – part installation, part screening room, entirely its own world.
Brought to life in collaboration with visionary archives and filmmakers, the daily program is curated through designboom’s lens of Utopian Optimism. Proposing a different way to encounter creativity during Milan’s busiest week, audiences are invited to explore movies, short films and video interviews which celebrate ideas that dare to dream, stories that shift perspectives and creatives whose projects champion curiosity, playfulness and innovation.
EXPLORE THE DAY-TO-DAY CINEMA OF DREAMS PROGRAM HERE!
visual by Paf atelier for the Cinema of Dreams
MOVIES, SHORT FILMS AND VIDEO INTERVIEWS throughout the week
Each day kicks off with an inspiring compilation of Advice to the Young by some of the world’s leading architects, artists, photographers, and writers, screened in partnership with the Louisiana Channel, the video production platform of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark. Through this partnership, the program also features a series of video interviews that offer direct insights into the creative minds shaping culture today, including Sir Peter Cook, Mariko Mori, Balkrishna Doshi, among many others. Full-length movies and documentaries are screened every day, including E.1027: Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea, the Swiss docufiction film directed by Beatrice Minger and Christoph Schaub exploring the life of the Irish architect and her iconic 1929 modernist villa on the Côte d’Azur; Koolhaas Houselife by artists and filmmakers Bêka & Lemoine, which tells the story of Rem Koolhaas/OMA’s 1998 house in Bordeaux through the stories and daily chores of Guadalupe Acedo, the housekeeper; and Vija. The Impossible Portrait, also by Bêka & Lemoine, a vibrant, witty, and heartfelt portrait of Latvian-American artist Vija Celmins.
Architectural documentations by 9sekunden, directed by Patrick Voigt, take viewers into the works of today’s masters, including John Pawson, Heatherwick Studio, and David Chipperfield. On Wednesday, April 22nd, the program is dedicated to Earth Day, featuring a special compilation of films addressing themes of ecology, material cycles, and our relationship with the other species that inhabit our planet. Throughout the week, the Cinema of Dreams also amplifies voices from our global creative community with films by designboom contributors, such as Sculpting This Earth by Victor van Aswegen, which follows artist Strijdom van der Merwe over four seasons as he creates land art in remote South Africa; and Art Walker by Tayfun Sarier and Zeynep Oguz, a surreal, playful short film following the journey of a mysterious painting through the city of London.
Two premieres will also be unveiled at the Cinema of Dreams: The Talented Mr. Robi by Carlo Ratti Associati and Makr Shakr on Thursday, April 23, at 16:00; and Seeing Further by OPPO and designboom, a short film captured entirely on its latest flagship device, Find X9 Ultra, during the week, and premiering on Friday, April 24, at 12:00.
EXPLORE THE DAY-TO-DAY CINEMA OF DREAMS PROGRAM HERE!
visual by Paf atelier for the Cinema of Dreams
A SENSORY CAPSULE BY PAF ATELIER at room for dreams
Designed in collaboration with Paf atelier, the Cinema of Dreams takes the form of a spatial and sensory capsule, a journey through different layers of the imagination, where space becomes a tool for projection, suspension, and inner displacement.The project explores the way a dream can become a design material in its own right: a language, an atmosphere, an experience.
Conceived as a cinematic experience, the project does not tell a linear story. Instead, it opens up a mental territory shaped by images, sensations, and possibilities. For Paf atelier, dream is not a decorative escape; it becomes a way of producing narrative, intensity, and new forms of attention. At a time when the outside world is often marked by acceleration, uncertainty, and noise, this installation instead claims a space for slowing down, optimism, and projection. More than a simple space, the project stands as a living manifesto where material, technology, and storytelling intersect in the service of an active imagination. With this project, Paf atelier affirms a simple conviction: today, designing spaces also means creating the conditions to dream, to believe, and to make other futures perceptible.
EXPLORE THE DAY-TO-DAY CINEMA OF DREAMS PROGRAM HERE!
visual by Paf atelier for the Cinema of Dreams
The Cinema of Dreams is free for all upon registration. Discover the day-to-day program in detail here, and RSVP to access the space here.
project info:
location: ME Milan Il Duca, Piazza della Repubblica, 13, 20124 Milano MI
dates: April 20–26, 2026 (public days: April 21-26)
opening hours: 10:00 – 20:00 daily
partners: SolidNature, Paf atelier, Ressence, La Marzocco, OPPO, INDX|GLOBAL
cinema partners: Louisiana Channel, 9sekunden, Bêka and Lemoine, Beatrice Minger & Christoph Schaub, and more
supporting partners: Pernod Ricard, Topologie, Pedrali
production partners: Uppercat, Chedo Event Solutions
partnering creatives: OMA/AMO, Migrating Lines, Fritto FM, Rosa Calix
event producers: Claudia Decaro, Giulia Geromel
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