If you've ever wanted to step inside a cloud, a new installation at Milan design week might be the closest thing to it. Swiss furniture brand USM teamed up with architecture studio Snøhetta and artist Annabelle Schneider to create Renaissance of the Real, a multi-sensory installation that wraps visitors in a softly undulating textile membrane - and it's as dreamy as it sounds.

Where furniture meets atmosphere

At the heart of the installation is USM's classic Haller storage system, the modular grid of chrome tubes and coloured panels that has been a design icon since the 1960s. But here it isn't just shelving. The Haller system forms the structural skeleton for a textile skin that appears to breathe around visitors, cocooning them in something that feels far more like an art experience than a furniture showroom.

That tension between the familiar and the otherworldly is clearly intentional. USM's heritage product becomes something almost unrecognisable - a scaffold for atmosphere rather than objects. It's a clever reframing that says a lot about where design is headed right now.

Why this kind of experience matters

Milan design week has always been a place where brands push beyond the product itself, but Renaissance of the Real feels particularly well-timed. There's a real hunger right now for physical, sensory experiences that offer something screens simply can't deliver. An installation you can walk into and feel around you hits differently than anything you can scroll past.

Snøhetta, the Oslo-based studio known for blurring the lines between architecture, landscape, and interior design, brings exactly the right sensibility here. Their work often explores how spaces make people feel, not just how they look. Pairing that approach with Annabelle Schneider's artistic vision and USM's precision engineering creates something genuinely surprising.

The bigger picture

For USM, it's also a smart brand move. Positioning a storage system - a deeply functional, utilitarian object - within an immersive artistic context invites people to see the product with fresh eyes. You're not just thinking about where you'd put it in your home. You're feeling something about it first.

That emotional layer is increasingly what separates memorable design from forgettable design. And if a piece of furniture can make you feel like you're standing inside a living, breathing structure, it's clearly doing something right.

Renaissance of the Real was reported by Dezeen as part of their Milan design week 2025 coverage.