If Milan Design Week is the ‘grand masquerade ball at which the design industry cosplays aristocratic elegance’ then 3daysofdesign is either a wellness retreat for an industry on the point of burn-out or, more optimistically, the soft-launch of a better future. Even the strapline for this year’s theme, Make This Moment Matter, encourages ‘a collective recalibration from more to meaningful.’

CEO and managing director, Signe Byrdal Terenziani, says: “It’s not difficult to make the world a better place. Start small, think big.” And she is taking her own advice. Despite being a relative newcomer to the design scene (3days was launched in 2013 versus Salone del Mobile’s 1961 origins) and hosting just 400 brands to Milan’s 1,900, 3daysofdesign is asking bigger questions — and promising some big answers. 

Sustainable flooring company, Tarkett, will present Beginnings & Endings, an exhibition curated by design futures consultancy TILT. “We have relished the opportunity to collaborate with Tarkett and support their material storytelling, as they genuinely recognise their responsibility as the long-term custodian of their materials,” says founder Caroline Till.

According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, more than 80 per cent of a product’s environmental impact is determined at design stage and Tarkett collaborators Yinka Ilori, Laurids Gallée and Christian + Jade will demonstrate the potential of designers as agents of change. 

“Discovering that Tarkett’s linoleum is made from mostly natural ingredients made us see it differently — as something both humble and technically interesting,” say Christian Hammer Juhl and Jade Chan. “We were also interested in its circular story: a material designed for long use, but with a system for return and recycling at the end of its life. That made it a meaningful starting point for a project about continuity, transformation and reuse.” Their installation will challenge the hierarchy between architecture and furniture, as well as being designed for disassembly and reuse after the fair. 

Meanwhile, Materials Matters is back for a second year with a tight curation of 19 material-led brands. Cyprus-based Pit-To-Table’s architectural surfaces are made from agricultural waste, while multidisciplinary design studio PriestmanGoode’s ‘Route to Zero’ framework integrates sustainability at every stage from concept to delivery.

The American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) will explore its place in the environmental eco-system with Wood for the Trees. In collaboration with British furniture manufacturer Benchmark and London-based design studio Mitre & Monday, the exhibition will take visitors on an immersive journey from seed to product. The eastern forests of the United States provide a rare example of recovery in a wider context of loss: from ‘stumps and ashes’ a century ago to 40 million acres of trees now growing at twice the rate they are harvested. 

Related: Eugeni Quitllet in Milan

While Beginnings & Endings, Material Matters and Wood for the Trees offer big answers to big questions, 3daysofdesign also promises smaller, less expected answers. The image chosen to illustrate this year’s theme is a paper fortune teller, implying that there are choices to make, games to play and surprises in store. Perhaps Anglepoise giving away its 500^th repaired lamp; maybe 12 Swiss and Danish designers reimagining the second life of a sailcloth; or possibly Bomma’s Fragments of Light, an immersive installation created from upcycled crystal fragments. Or something else entirely. But if you’re open to it, you must just spot the seeds of the future — ways to make the world a better place by starting small and thinking big.

3daysofdesign runs from 10th – 12th June, 2026.

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