Triennale Milano

Set to open on 13 May, the 24th edition of Triennale Milano International Exhibition will explore the theme of Inequalities.
"We are born unequal – all of us," said Milan Triennale president Stefano Boeri. "Not only because of the genes we inherit, but because of our families, our surroundings, the particular corner of the world in which we are born. From the very beginning, we are shaped by differences and marked by inequality."
"Sometimes they present themselves as opportunities, other times as constraints," he continued. "They may serve as resources, as foundations of identity that evolve over time, or as chains that hold us back, bonds from which we must struggle to break free."

Tosin Oshinowo's Ngarannam village is also included in the exhibition. Photo by Tolu SanusiOccupying the historic Palazzo dell'Arte in Milan, which has hosted the International Exhibition since 1933, the exhibitions and pavilions will be spread across two floors.
The ground floor of the building will focus on geopolitics of inequalities, with the majority of exhibitions concerned with cities.
"The cities of the world are in fact the place where the challenges of reducing global warming and overcoming inequalities intersect," explained Boeri. "They are the place where the challenge of the coming decades will be won or lost."
"Without the leadership of the cities, without their coordinated action, if they cannot meet the great challenge of reducing and containing inequalities of income, social class and education and cannot reduce disparities in access to services, information and data, any policy of an ecological transition is doomed to failure," he continued.

A pair of shelters by the Norman Foster Foundation will be featured. Photo courtesy of the Norman Foster InstituteHighlights will include the thematic exhibition Cities curated by Nina Bassoli, which aims to raise "questions about the new dialectic between wealth and poverty, society and community, ecologies and cities and the surprising forms in which they manifest in urban settings today".
It will include an installation focused on the Grenfell Tower fire, promoted by Grenfell Next of Kin.
Also on the ground floor, Towards an Equal Future by the Norman Foster Foundation will focus on the housing crisis in emergency contexts. The exhibition will include a pair of 1:1 scale prototypes of emergency housing shelters.

The 471 Days installation will focus on Gaza. The main staircase leading up to the first floor, where the International Exhibition continues, will contain an installation by Filippo Teoldi.
Named 471 Days, the piece aims to transform data from the war in Gaza into a visual experience "to explore war, one of the most dramatic manifestations of inequality".

Theaster Gates is creating an installation at the event. Photo courtesy Theaster Gates Studio and Mori Art MuseumOn the first floor, the exhibitions will be focused on biopolitics of inequalities.
"The first floor of the Palazzo dell'Arte is devoted to the biopolitical implications of social, economic and gender inequalities, in particular on habits, styles and life expectancies in contemporary societies, beginning with a look at the biodiversity of and in social bodies," said Boeri.
"The biopolitics of inequalities sheds light on the immense differences in the possibility over the course of a lifetime to access resources that were not available in the original conditions."

The installation will be named A Clay Biography. Photo courtesy Theaster Gates Studio and Mori Art MuseumThis space will include a special project curated by artist Gates. Named A Clay Corpus, the project aims to "tackle inequalities from the standpoint of lost and found craftsmanship".
It will transform the space of Ettore Sottsass's Casa Lana into a research facility dedicated to a vast collection of Japanese ceramics from the town of Tokoname, known for its ancient pottery traditions.

Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley have curated an exhibition on bacteria and buildingsAlso on this floor, the exhibition We the Bacteria: Notes Toward Biotic Architecture by Colomina and Wigley will explore the intersection of bacteria and buildings.
According to the curators, health is closely tied to inequality. The reduction in microbial diversity over the past century is reportedly among the causes of many modern diseases, while bacteria are increasingly resistant to antibiotics, something that is leading to more deaths each year.
The exhibition will examine the role architecture can play in encouraging interspecies coexistence, where microbes and bacteria are seen as allies rather than enemies.
Another exhibition presented on the first floor is The Republic of Longevity – In Health Equality We Trust, curated by Nic Palmarini and Marco Sammicheli, which examines how people’s life spans are directly connected to their access to resources.
For more information, including how to purchase tickets, visit the Triennale Milano's website.
Triennale Milano International Exhibition takes place from 13 May to 9 November 2025 at Triennale Milano, Viale Emilio Alemagna, 6, 20121 Milano, Italy. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.