Alcova has redefined how contemporary design engages with historical and unconventional spaces, transforming abandoned and historical buildings into immersive exhibitions. It has activated diverse locations to showcase emerging talents, experimental projects, and research-driven design. Each edition fosters a global dialogue on sustainability, material innovation, and new production methods, creating a dynamic intersection of past and future.

From April 20–26, 2026, Alcova returns for its eleventh edition, unfolding across two extraordinary sites that each, in their own way, capture the essence of Milan’s urban identity.

We’ll be opening up new, unseen spaces within the Baggio Military Hospital, a vast, verdant complex in the Primaticcio district, originally designed in the post-WW1 era. Our second site will be the legendary Villa Pestarini by Franco Albini, the only villa designed by the great pioneer of Italian rationalist architecture in Milan. Today a private residence, it has never before been accessible to the public.

NEW SPACES WITHIN THE BAGGIO MILITARY HOSPITAL
The return to the Baggio Military Hospital marks a renewed encounter with a site that will be familiar to those who visited Alcova 2021-22. This time, Alcova brings the site back to life by opening new, previously inaccessible spaces, from a church with its former rectory to a historic archive, inviting visitors to deepen the layered memory of the place. Over time, the complex has continued to evolve, poetically weaving the built and natural landscapes together into an ever-changing ecosystem that blurs the boundary between natural and man-made. 

VILLA PESTARINI, A RATIONALIST GEM
Just a few kilometres away, Villa Pestarini will open its doors to the public for the first time. Dating back to 1938–39, when Franco Albini was just 33 years old, the villa stands as one of the clearest expressions of Italian rationalism. Its geometry is deliberate and restrained, a white rectangular shell, glass-block façades, and large windows framing the garden. Meticulously preserved over the decades by owners devoted to its legacy, the house remains an almost miraculous testimony to Albini’s unique balance of discipline and poetry, and one of the most authentic expressions of recurring themes in his work: the shallow marble staircase, sliding partitions, and bespoke furniture that form his signature combination discipline and poetry. It is a space that feels suspended in time.

Together, these two locations form an architectural dialogue between preservation and reinvention. Within this framework, Alcova will once again host a constellation of designers, studios, companies, and institutions: a temporary microcosm of the creative voices shaping design culture today.