Future in the Past / Projects, collections, archives, and site-specific installations connected by the theme of this eighth edition.

Lake Como Design Festival once again opens Villa del Grumello and its historic park to the public as the setting for a new exhibition itinerary. Future in the Past explores the relationship between memory and design, bringing together archives, manufacturing knowledge, and contemporary design practices. Far from presenting the archive as a mere repository of the past, the exhibition reimagines it as a living space capable of generating new possibilities. Future in the Past invites visitors to see the past not as something to be preserved unchanged, but as a body of knowledge to be reinterpreted through design. It is in the dialogue between heritage and innovation that design finds its capacity to imagine the future, transforming memory into a creative practice and the archive into a laboratory of possibilities.

Among this year's projects is Disegno Nomade by artist Lupo Borgonovo, in collaboration with Lithos Edizioni and Jaipur Rugs, whose large-scale drawings are based on buckles once belonging to the nomadic peoples of Eurasia. These contemplative images reveal traces of ancient ruined cities, zoomorphic forms, and barely recognisable faces. Alongside the drawings, five etchings retrace the outlines of the same buckles, exploring the memory embedded in metal. AG Fronzoni’s archival work enters into dialogue with his Collezione 64, published by Cappellini, where the boundary does not take on a decorative value, but a structural one. It becomes a space of tension and relationship: an element that defines, connects, and opens up new possibilities of interpretation between form, function, and design thinking.

For designer Nicolò Spinelli and Simonetto, the historic woodworking atelier from Meda, the border is not a limit but a threshold to be crossed. Their architectural intervention, designed by Elisa Ossino, takes the form of a gradient eucalyptus wood panelling that embraces the historic interiors while preserving their identity. Etel returns to the festival with a vertical exhibition dedicated to Lina Bo Bardi and her work as a furniture designer in Brazil. On display are some of her most iconic pieces, including the Carrinho de Chá and the Cadeira de Balanço. Proporzione Mediterranea invites visitors to rediscover the most fundamental idea of architecture: a space shaped in harmony with its landscape, climate, and the needs of those who inhabit it. Conceived by Annarita Aversa of Architetti Artigiani Anonimi and curated by Giustini Stagetti Gallery in 2022, the project stems from the designer's research into the vernacular architecture of the Mediterranean, particularly the vaulted houses of the Amalfi Coast.

The notion of the border as a site of creative exchange is explored by the Carla Badiali Archive, presenting a selection of drawings primarily derived from Carla Badiali's collaborations with Hubert de Givenchy and Pierre Balmain. The works reveal key aspects of her artistic research, including creative processes, the constraints of textile printing, and the influence of Eastern visual traditions. Eredi Marelli returns, entrusting the theme of "the boundary" to an extraordinary bar cabinet designed by Paolo Buffa in 1948. The piece is enriched with engravings based on Andrea Appiani's drawings for The Deeds of Napoleon, the decorative cycle that once adorned the Hall of the Caryatids at Milan's Royal Palace. Although the original decoration was destroyed during the bombings of the Second World War, it survives through these engravings.

1in16 – A border divided, a story shared curated by Francesca Brambilla, explores the relationship between integrity and separation. A single uninterrupted sheet of AnimaGrigia® paper is entrusted to each participating artist as an original, unified surface. Each work is conceived on this complete field and only reaches its final form through a process of division and fragmentation. During the festival, the notebooks created through the project will be sold as unique pieces, with all proceeds supporting the Wonderlake Como ETS Educational Programme 2026–2027, dedicated to primary and secondary schools across the provinces of Como and Lecco.

FUTURE IN THE PAST
Villa del Grumello
Como, via per Cernobbio 11
13-20 September 2026
10 AM - 7 PM
entrance with ticket