In collaboration with the Embassy and Consulate-General of the Netherlands in Italy and the cultural organisation cheFare, the Nieuwe Instituut invites designers based in the Netherlands to apply for the second edition of Redesigning Design Weeks – CIVICITY. The 2026 programme will be curated by Peter Zuiderwijk and Karin Mientjes of Collective Works, who have also curated the 2025 edition.

The selected applicants will spend a two-month residency in Milan, developing context-specific strategies and speculative design responses that critically examine the environmental, social and spatial challenges surrounding large-scale urban design events. Their initial findings will be presented at Milan Design Week in 2026, together with the final outcomes of the 2025 CIVICITY residents. Building on previous research, the 2026 residents will expand this knowledge. The final outcomes of the 2026 residencies will be presented at Milan Design Week 2027.

Background

CIVICITY forms part of the multi-year Redesigning Design Weeks research and residency programme. This programme is a response to the increasing global presence of design weeks as key cultural and economic events, questioning the sustainability and inclusivity of their current formats in their host cities.

Redesigning Design Weeks critically reflects on Milan Design Week, one of the largest design events, as both a cultural platform and an urban stress test. CIVICITY explores how design can contribute to creating more sustainable, inclusive and future-oriented urban environments, focusing on Milan as a case study and collaborative ground.

Thematic framework

CIVICITY 2026 will focus on the following key themes:

• Urban and social unsustainability: addressing challenges such as housing affordability, environmental impact, transportation and social exclusivity.

• Design as process: shifting the focus from outcomes to relationships, methodologies and long-term value.

• Local narratives: integrating crafts, knowledge and material flows into experimental design practices.

• Participatory methods: encouraging co-creation and dialogue among diverse stakeholders.

The Redesigning Design Weeks project aims to create a ‘toolbox’: a methodological framework that evolves over time and is open to continuous updates. With a focus on reimagining the sustainability of design weeks, this toolbox will compile tested, failed and proven concepts, along with designs from multiple design week residents and key insights from the curators, contributors and diverse stakeholders. It will be shared as an open-source resource.

Deliverables

• A central aspect of the residency is the documentation and sharing of the process, through a ‘diary’. The essence of the project lies in establishing long-term relationships with local partners, organisations, processes and relationships, and documenting progress over time. Proper infrastructure for documentation and communication will be in place.

• The final outcome of the CIVICITY project residencies in 2027 must include a physical design element that gives the work a tangible presence.

• The designs of the residents should include a design hypothesis for scaling up or replication, in order to achieve a systemic impact at a local level.

As part of the toolbox framework, the CIVICITY team will produce small publications that bring together theoretical contributions from the curators and diary-like process reports by the residents. These publications will aim to preserve the complexity of the communities’ experiences and avoid reducing them to simplified narratives. The input behind the publications can also be shared across other channels, ensuring that the work and the theoretical framework reach both local and international audiences.

Residents must also be able to navigate situations linguistically. Working in Milan requires inventiveness when language becomes a barrier to relating to local people. Equally important is the ability to adjust and reformulate one’s position during the residency. The programme looks at the redesign of design weeks while also requiring residents to reflect on their own position. Designers will engage with multiple audiences, including the design community, visitors to Milan Design Week and the local communities they work with. This demands reflection, adaptability and a clear method for keeping track of findings.

As Pete Fung, resident from the first edition reflected: “Design often risks flattening urgent issues such as gentrification or displacement into simplified, bourgeois narratives that do not capture the complexity of lived realities.” CIVICITY resists this simplification, situating design alongside the promises and complexities of everyday life. The common design promise of ‘better and improved’ must be weighed against the unfulfilled promises that many communities have already experienced.

Residency format

The selected designers or architects will take part in a hybrid residency, combining on-site engagement in Milan (two physical stays), alternating with remote work and reflection in the Netherlands. The selected residents will be assigned one of the following locations in the city: BARRIO’S in the Barona neighbourhood, or FONDAZIONE ABITIAMO in the Niguarda neighbourhood. These places are connected to Milan’s cultural and design infrastructure, while also being firmly embedded in their local communities.

The residency requires an active approach. Residents are encouraged to take the initiative, to create their own encounters and to set up situations that invite exchange. These can take the form of workshops, events or small gatherings, sometimes supported by a spatial setup that makes such activities possible. Taking an active approach in this way often makes it easier for local communities to relate and respond. Design in these situations works less as a finished product and more as a tool to spark dialogue and encounters.

Residency structure:

• First stay in Milan: April 2026. A period of approximately three weeks, including Milan Design Week – 20 – 26 April 2026.

• Remote work period: between residencies.

• Second stay in Milan: Sepember – October (exact dates TBD) 2026. A period of approximately five weeks.

• Final presentation: Milan Design Week 2027.

Support includes:

• Designer fee: a fixed fee of €10,000 excluding VAT. This is to cover two months in Milan as well as remote work in the Netherlands, documentation of the work and its process, hosting workshops in Milan with local communities, contributing to the methodology, attendance at Redesigning Design Week events in Milan and the Netherlands in 2026/ 2027 and the presentation at Milan Design Week 2027.

• Ongoing curatorial and institutional guidance.

• Connecting designers with local communities and networks.

• Support from the Critical Friends group – a collaboration with different stakeholders in the city of Milan.

• Venue for the event at Milan Design Week 2026 and the venue for the presentation of the final work at Milan Design Week 2027.

• A production budget of €4,000 excluding VAT for the production of in-between presentations and testing as well as the final output of the work.

Please note that the above budgets are fixed and not subject to alterations. The total financial support is calculated for one designer.

The following expenses will be compensated: Residency trajectory, 2026 to 2027

• Designer’s fixed fee and available production budget, as described above.

• Travel to and from Milan (by train) from the Netherlands for two residency periods.

• Accommodation in Milan, or Greater Milan, for two residency periods.

• ‘Studio’ space in Milan, or or Greater Milan, for two residency periods.

• Per diem (food, travel, etc.), up to a maximum of €40 per day when in Milan.

Who should apply?

We invite applications from designers, architects and other creatives who feel that their practice fits this brief, are currently based in the Netherlands, and who have an active design practice that engages critically with social, spatial or environmental issues. Applicants should demonstrate an interest in working with local communities, experimenting with participatory methods and contributing to the broader discourse on design and sustainability.

We are looking for designers/architects who demonstrate:

• An activist approach: a commitment to challenging norms and addressing systemic inequalities.

• Collaborative mindsets: the ability to engage with diverse communities, contributors and curators.

• Narrative skills: the ability to craft impactful stories tied to real-world contexts.

• Process-oriented thinking: a readiness to prioritise relationships and methodologies over outcomes.

• Playful experimentation: an ability to combine investigative rigour with intuitive engagement.

• Urban awareness: an interest in urban development, material flows and the environmental and social roles of design.

Residents should be prepared for the complexity of Milan, its design scene and its neighbourhoods, and should be able to engage deeply with local ecosystems while reflecting on their own global practice and the themes of CIVICITY.

How to apply

Applications must be submitted in English before 24 November 2025, and include the following documents:

• A reflection on this brief (one or two pages maximum), describing your interest in CIVICITY and how your practice relates to the themes of the programme, as an initial proposal for the project. For more guidance on the reflection, see the paragraph below.

• Your portfolio (five pages maximum); a PDF with relevant projects and descriptions.

• Your CV.