Milan Design Week
USM Modular Furniture x Snøhetta present RENAISSANCE OF THE REAL
Fondazione Luigi Rovati, Corso Venezia 52, Milan
Press Preview Day on Monday, 20 April, 10am-7pm
Public Opening from Tuesday, 21 April until Sunday, 26 April 2026, 10am-7pm
In a hyper-connected world where algorithms decide our desires, and images multiply faster than meaning, people are increasingly craving real experiences. We see acceleration become the norm, while slowness and intention become acts of resistance.
Even in the world of design, the digital often replaces the tangible, but USM serves as a steady framework that holds space for real connection.
At Milan Design Week 2026, USM and the transdisciplinary architecture studio Snøhetta will present THE RENAISSANCE OF THE REAL: a multisensory installation in collaboration with the Swiss artist and experience designer Annabelle Schneider. The work invites us to return to calmness and re-enter the present moment through touch, sounds and vision.
We are looking forward to your visit in Milan.
About Annabelle Schneider
Annabelle Schneider is a Swiss-born, New York-based experience designer and artist, known for creating transformative spaces that blend physical and virtual realms, fostering emotional connection and well-being. Her project BREATHE WITH ME (2024), which debuted at NYCxDESIGN, evolved into a globally travelling installation. Her interactive works unfold as immersive sensory environments — layered with sound, scent, and light — that recalibrate perception and heighten awareness. Rooted in the belief that presence cannot be downloaded, her work reframes physical space as a vital medium for human experience in a digitally mediated age.
About Snøhetta
Snøhetta is a global, transdisciplinary practice focusing on architecture, landscape architecture, interior architecture, art and product design. Projects often integrate a combination of interests, with their first significant commission being the revival of the ancient Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt in 1989. Snøhetta shares its name with the beautiful, remote, and culturally important mountain in central Norway. Creating places for people and communities to connect with each other and with the world around them is a primary motivation in Snøhetta’s work.
