The 2026 Compasso d’Oro confirms one thing: the finest design does not simply create beautiful objects. It interprets the way we live, inhabit, move and consume. The 29th edition of the ADI Compasso d’Oro Award, held on 22 May at the ADI Design Museum in Milan, honoured 20 projects, alongside 38 Honourable Mentions, 3 Compasso d’Oro Young awards and a number of lifetime achievement prizes.
The theme of this edition
The theme chosen by ADI is clear: “design as a critical reading of the world”. A dense phrase, yet a highly tangible one. It means looking at design as a tool capable of addressing sustainability, inclusion, industrial innovation, the quality of living and design heritage. Not only products, then, but also systems, services, research, materials and new forms of responsibility.
An international jury to interpret the present
The awards were assigned by an international jury composed of Giovanna Carnevali, Executive Director and Head of Design for Expo 2030 Riyadh; Lorenza Baroncelli, Director of the Department of Contemporary Architecture and Design at MAXXI; Giovanni Brugnoli, President of Fondazione Imprese e Competenze per il Made in Italy; Luciano Galimberti, President of ADI; and Jasper Morrison, the British designer and one of the most authoritative voices in contemporary design.
The selection offers a broad and multifaceted picture. Alongside sofas, lamps and chairs, there are cars, bicycles, graphic design projects, medical devices, solutions for emergency housing, digital tools and research into the design system itself. It is a faithful image of the present: the home remains central, yet it is in constant dialogue with the city, mobility, health, culture and the environment.
The ceremony at the ADI Design Museum
The award ceremony took place at the ADI Design Museum in Milan, a symbolic venue for Italian design. Here, the Compasso d’Oro is not merely an award, but a living archive: each edition adds new chapters to a collection that tells the story of more than seventy years of design culture.
During the ceremony, the institutions underlined Milan’s role as a capital of design and an international laboratory for Made in Italy. The most interesting message, for those furnishing or designing their own homes, concerns quality: today, a well-designed product cannot be limited to form alone. It must endure, respond to real needs, use materials intelligently and create a more conscious relationship with domestic space.
Young talents and masters of design
The 2026 Compasso d’Oro Young awarded three projects: Sentimetro by Alessandro Brutti, StainEraser by Beatrice Duina, Filip Malata and Francesca Corona, and Uno by Erik Bruno Kollmorgen and Vincenzo Magni. This is a category worth following closely, because it anticipates the languages and sensitivities that, in the coming years, will enter companies, design studios and perhaps also our homes.
The chapter dedicated to the Compasso d’Oro Lifetime Achievement Awards was equally significant. Among the names closest to the world of interiors are Paola Lenti, awarded for her research into technical yarns, colour, outdoor living and circularity; Alberto Meda, a master of structural lightness and of the meeting point between engineering and design; Patrizia Moroso, a key figure in experimentation across craftsmanship, industry and international design languages; and Pietro and Antonio Galimberti, connected to Flexform’s culture of understated, timeless elegance.
Among the Product Lifetime Achievement Awards, three icons speak directly to design lovers: the Sedia ’64 by AG Fronzoni for Cappellini, the Eros table by Angelo Mangiarotti for Agape, and the Tavolo con ruote by Gae Aulenti for FontanaArte. Three very different objects, united by a rare quality: they do not seem to belong to a closed chapter of history, but continue to suggest ideas for contemporary interiors.
Exhibition and permanent collection
Until 4 June 2026, the projects shortlisted for the 29th ADI Compasso d’Oro Award are on display at the ADI Design Museum. The exhibition offers the opportunity to examine up close the products, services, systems and research projects selected by the ADI Permanent Design Observatory. The museum preserves around 2,500 objects and documents that have been awarded or selected throughout the history of the Compasso d’Oro.
For anyone who loves design, it is a valuable opportunity: seeing an object in person makes it possible to understand its proportions, materials, construction details and spatial presence. These are qualities that no image can fully convey.
The awarded products
The 20 Compasso d’Oro 2026 winners form a highly diverse map. Among the winners are Vicino da lontano, a project designed to improve the lives of refugees; the Airo Vision+ coffee machine; the Array sofa; ATM Manifesto; the Bilboquet lamp; the graphic design project for Casabella; the D’Antan armchair; the Felix R railway robot; the Fiat Topolino; the Genny Zero wheelchair; Litokol Microcemento; the Model Zero loudspeaker; the Nuance acoustic device; the Salone del Mobile.Milano Annual Report; Spaghetto 3D; the Steelnovo bicycle; The Glitch Camp; the Trespolo stool-table; the Wing museum display case; and the inflatable catamaran X-FUN.
This variety says a great deal about contemporary Italian design: not a discipline confined to furniture design, but a design culture capable of entering very different sectors while maintaining its focus on form, function, impact and industrial quality.
Browse the winners’ gallery
Award-winning furnishings: ideas for the contemporary home
For Designbest readers, some of the winners deserve a closer look. Array, the sofa designed by Snøhetta for MDF Italia, interprets upholstered furniture as a domestic landscape: not simply a seat, but a fluid platform for conversation, reading, working and experiencing the living area with greater freedom.
Bilboquet by Philippe Malouin for Flos brings to the table lamp a subtle balance between playful gesture and technical precision. It is the kind of object that works beautifully on a desk, on an important bedside table or in a reading corner, because it combines sculptural presence with everyday use.
D’Antan by Raffaella Mangiarotti for De Padova works with memory and comfort. Its value lies in its ability to evoke the familiarity of an armchair without slipping into nostalgia: a measured presence, suited to elegant, warm and quietly sophisticated interiors.
Trespolo by Giulio Iacchetti for Orografie, halfway between a stool and a side table, speaks instead of the new versatility required by domestic spaces. Small, mobile and hybrid, it is a complementary piece designed for homes where every element must be able to change role naturally.
