The Art of Reconnection: Secolo + TABLEAU at Milan Design Week 2026

“What does it mean, today, to reconnect?” This is a question that underlies much of the philosophical discussions of the present moment, and it whispers in the background of the famous dictum of the philosopher Martin Buber: “All real living is meeting.” If living is meeting, then reconnecting is not merely re-establishing a severed connection but re-engaging the very process of relating.

In a time marked by geopolitical tensions, armed conflicts, and renewed polarizations between nations, the word “reconnection” carries additional weight. It no longer concerns only individuals or communities; it calls into question how countries look at one another, listen to one another, and acknowledge one another’s presence. In a world where borders are more and more lines of fracture than lines of exchange, to reconnect is to think about ways of dialogue that might cross differences of culture, history, and politics without abolishing them. From a sociological point of view, to reconnect means to think about the various ways of distance that shape our present: distance between individuals and communities, between center and margin, between human beings and nature—but also between nations that share the same historical moment while following different paths. From a political point of view, to reconnect means to think about the weakness of the bonds that link not only societies but also alliances, cultural networks, and economies.

Within this framework, one can think of design as a practice that is not just aesthetically or functionally relevant but also relational, even diplomatic, in a cultural sense. It is in this light that one can think of the collaboration between Secolo and TABLEAU as taking shape as a concrete exercise in reconnection. Secolo announces its first-ever collaboration with an external studio as part of Milan Design Week 2026, an exercise in starting a dialogue that goes well beyond the co-design of a product and into the creation of a shared imaginative universe. Not a simple creative graft, but a relational process that goes from product, graphics, and exhibition design, turning the Milan space into an immersive environment.

The entire intervention reflects on reconnection by interpreting design as a relational language. A language that places imagination, sharing, tactility, and the immediacy of gesture at its center; that rediscovers a spontaneous way of inhabiting, rooted in an emotional and almost primordial dimension — one capable of evoking the freedom and curiosity of childhood. In this sense, reconnection is not only social but also sensory: a return to the body, to touch, to presence.

Previewing the new collection, Secolo introduces three emblematic projects: two by TABLEAU — the Trace sofa and a reinterpretation of one of the brand’s most iconic side tables — alongside a new lounge chair designed in-house. Among them, Trace most clearly embodies the philosophy of the collaboration. Its continuous curves, generous proportions, and the possibility of being experienced from every side transform the sofa into a device for encounter — an object conceived to encourage sharing, to welcome the body, and to gently orient it toward others.

Simone Lorusso: In a historical moment marked by polarization and fragmentation, what does it mean for you to speak about “reconnection” through design? 

Salvatore Morales: Reconnection is essential now more than ever, more and more of our lives unfold in spaces without weight or texture, the digital world where we are always connected and yet more distant in terms of genuine closeness. Reconnection means bringing people back to matter. To something that resists speed. A sculptural object that occupies space with authority. A surface that reacts to touch. A sofa that invites proximity. If there is a responsibility, it is this: to reassert the value of human gesture in a hyper-digital world. Because design, at its core, is still a human act.

Julius Værnes Iversen: To speak about reconnection today is not about proposing a  grand solution to global fragmentation, but about creating situations where people can meet again through shared physical experience. Design has a unique ability to shape how bodies relate to space and to one another. With the TRACE sofa we were interested in creating objects and environments that encourage people to slow down, sit together, and inhabit the same moment.

In a time where much of our interaction happens through screens or within ideological divisions, simply creating a space where people feel comfortable enough to pause, touch, and share time together becomes meaningful. Reconnection, for us, begins with the body - with proximity, softness, and presence.

SL: Welcoming an external studio into your design universe is an act of hospitality. How did Secolo prepare “home” for this encounter? And what changes when the guest begins to rewrite the rules of the space?

SM: This is the first time Secolo has opened its doors to an external studio. What genuinely surprised us was how naturally the dialogue unfolded. From the very beginning, working with Julius and TABLEAU felt immediate. We found ourselves aligned on instinct where there was no need to over-explain. We were often arriving at the same ideas from different directions. New perspectives bring new ideas and a new idea in the hands of TABLEAU is the starting point for something wonderful.

SL: Levinas suggested that encountering the Other exposes us and compels us to step outside ourselves. In engaging with Secolo’s identity, did you experience this collaboration as a responsibility toward an already defined “Other”? How did the brand’s alterity transform your way of designing?

JVI: Every collaboration requires a certain openness and willingness to step outside your own habits and temporarily inhabit someone else’s perspective. Secolo has a very clear identity rooted in furniture culture and in the Italian tradition of domestic space. At TABLEAU we often approach design through material experimentation and sculptural thinking. Bringing these two perspectives together meant that neither side could remain completely unchanged.

Rather than adapting to an “other,” the collaboration created a shared territory where both languages could shift slightly. Secolo’s sensibility pushed us to think carefully about how an object lives within an interior environment, while we brought a focus on material process and surface expression. What emerged is something in between and not a compromise, but a hybrid space between two design cultures.

SL: Materials speak before form does. How do textures, surfaces, and softness contribute to creating an experience that invites touch rather than mere contemplation?

SM: Secolo has always treated furniture as functional sculpture. Materials speak volumes, they are seen first, felt second and then often even smelled and heard. They are our route into the journey of the product, the raw materials, how they are processed, how they are cut, joined, carved or shaped. In an era shaped by automation and AI-driven production, the imperfection of material and the trace of the hand regain strength. They remind us that design is not an image, it is an experience. There is something almost radical today about designing objects that demand physical presence.

JVI: The body understands material faster than the eye does. Softness, texture, and surface immediately communicate that an object is meant to be approached physically, not only observed from a distance. With TRACE we were interested in surfaces that carry subtle imprints and traces of pressure and process that make the material feel alive.

The showcasing for Milan Fashion Week at Secolo showroom functioned as a prelude to what will unfold during Salone del Mobile and later for 3daysofdesign. It introduced the tactile language of the project and the idea that design can engage the body before it engages the intellect. Ultimately the goal is to create spaces and objects that invite interaction including pieces that people instinctively want to approach, sit on, or touch. We hope for people to engage with one another while visiting our spaces and using our furniture.

SL: Trace has been described as an object that invites suspension and a sense of floating. In an era dominated by productivity and time optimization, is designing a sofa that encourages people to “lose track of time” a form of resistance?

JVI: Perhaps in a quiet way it is. Many environments today are designed around efficiency and constant activity. Designing a piece that encourages people to pause, even briefly, feels like introducing a different rhythm into that system.

A sofa is one of the few objects that openly allows inactivity. It creates a moment where time can stretch slightly. With TRACE we were interested in this feeling of suspension, where the body is supported and the urgency of productivity fades for a moment. In that sense the project invites a slower kind of presence - and perhaps that is a subtle form of resistance.

SL: The Milan showroom becomes a narrative scenography. How do you design a space that is not merely a container of products, but a generator of relationships? What social dynamics do you imagine unfolding within it during Design Week?

SM: We approached the showroom not as a display, but as an environment. An environment that shapes behavior. The installation designed by TABLEAU will be immersive and tactile. It will be less about looking at products and more about experiencing them together. During Design Week, I don’t imagine people simply walking through. I imagine them staying. Sitting. Talking. Taking off their shoes. Laughing. That shift, from consumption to interaction, is what turns a space into a generator of relationships. Design should not only be seen. It should be inhabited.

JVI: For Salone del Mobile we are transforming the showroom into a large immersive scenography rather than a conventional display. When visitors enter, the environment almost embraces them - every step is slightly cushioned and the body becomes more aware of weight, balance, and proximity. A gentle floral scent will fill the space, adding another sensory layer. Together these elements create an atmosphere that is less like a showroom and more like a tactile landscape. In such an environment people tend to behave differently. They slow down, sit closer, and spend more time together. During the intensity of Design Week we hope the space becomes a moment of pause - a place where visitors reconnect not only with the objects but also with one another.

SL: The design market is deeply competitive and novelty-driven. How do you reconcile the idea of reconnection — which implies slowness, depth, and relationship — with commercial logic and the accelerated temporality of fairs and design weeks?

SM: There is a paradox in Design Week: everything moves fast, yet only projects with depth remain. We don’t compete through novelty alone. We compete through coherence. Between product, production philosophy, material, and narrative. Secolo produces made-to-order pieces, zero stock, rooted in Italian craftsmanship. That rhythm is already slower, more deliberate. Reconnection, for us, is embedded in the process — not only in the concept. In a market increasingly driven by trends generated by algorithms, the human gesture becomes differentiation. A sculptural form developed through physical prototyping. A blind drawing applied by hand. These cannot be replicated by speed alone. The fair lasts a week. What remains is the relationship you build.

JVI: The rhythm of the design industry is undeniably fast, but that does not mean every experience within it needs to follow the same speed. Fairs like Salone del Mobile gather thousands of people who are curious and open to encountering something unexpected. Within that context there is also space to introduce moments of slowness. If a project manages to make someone pause, sit down, or start a conversation, then it has already shifted the rhythm slightly. Sometimes a brief interruption of speed is enough to create a deeper memory.

SL: Heidegger wrote that “dwelling” is the way mortals are on the earth — a daily gesture before it is an architectural one. In a time when national differences often become reasons for conflict or closure, your collaboration connects two cultures of dwelling, Italian and Danish. Did you discover different sensibilities in the way you understand home, comfort, and proximity? And how did this dialogue, rather than emphasizing distance, allow you to recognize shared values and build a space capable of speaking to a more universal and everyday human experience?

SM: You know, it’s something we’ve been discussing constantly, as perhaps is to be expected. There are differences between the two cultures of course, but more surprising maybe is how many similarities there are and how quickly we recognized common ground. The home, or the dwelling, is a place that is both extremely personal but also social, within this distinction there needs to be a space that provides both connection with yourself and with those who you invite in. This balance is not an Italian or a Danish understanding but a human one.

JVI: Italian and Danish design traditions are often described as quite different, but during the collaboration we discovered how many values they actually share. Danish culture tends to emphasize intimacy, calmness, and everyday comfort creating environments where people feel at ease. Italian culture often celebrates the social dimension of the home - gathering, conversation, and the expressive character of domestic space.

When these perspectives meet, they complement each other naturally. Both ultimately revolve around the same human needs: warmth, closeness, and the pleasure of spending time together. The project allowed us to recognize those shared values and translate them into a space and an object that speak to a more universal understanding of dwelling.

SL: If reconnection is the central theme of this collaboration, what should its long-term impact be? Is it an episode, a manifesto, or the beginning of a deeper transformation in how you conceive the role of design and the brand in the contemporary context?

SM: Certainly not an episode, more an ongoing request for a reconnection to lost values. We want the value of hand-drawn, hand-stitched to remain as strong as it once was. We’ve always rooted our manufacturing in artisanal techniques passed down the generations; there are those who see the intrinsic value of that. Unfortunately, the recent need for fast solutions, cheap alternatives and perfectly polished means that some compromise on what really matters in order to tick those boxes. In a hyper-digital era, the future of design lies in reasserting what cannot be automated: gesture, intuition, and physical encounter.

JVI: The TRACE sofa should be understood as part of a longer exploration rather than a single statement. The project unfolds in stages. The presentation earlier this year acted as a prelude, while theupcoming launch and installation at Salone introduces the immersive environment surrounding the objects.

The finale will take place during 3daysofdesign in Copenhagen, where the full-scale sofa will unfold as a large communal piece designed to bring people together. Its form encourages multiple bodies to occupy the same surface and engage with one another rather than sit in isolation. If the project has a lasting impact, we hope it will be in reminding us that design can create situations for connection - not only objects to look at, but spaces where people meet and engage. A moment of solidarity and warmth in a World with a fast rhythm and pace.