Mosaic cocktail bar takeover

Massimiliano Locatelli has turned Milan’s SiMa Townhouse into a ceramic-clad cocktail bar for Milan Design Week 2026, wrapping all three floors in mosaic murals. (wallpaper.com) The project is called SiMa Glazed Bar, and it occupies the full townhouse at Corso di Porta Vigentina 12 in central Milan. SiMa’s own venue description says the building already runs across three levels, from a ground-floor bar and dining room to an upper-floor lounge. (simatownhouse.com, locatellipartners.com) Wallpaper reported that Locatelli used the takeover to revive mosaic tile murals, a craft with a long history in Milan apartment entryways and public interiors. Zero said the new surfaces are made from handmade tiles that were cut, numbered, painted and kiln-fired before assembly. (wallpaper.com, zero.eu) The timing matters because Milan Design Week 2026 runs from April 19 to April 26, when brands and studios across the city use temporary spaces to stage installations alongside the Salone del Mobile fair. Event guides from Dezeen and other outlets describe a citywide program built around exhibitions, pop-ups and one-week transformations. (dezeen.com, designweekguide.com) This year, food-and-drink venues are taking a bigger role in that program. DesignWanted’s Milan Design Week 2026 roundup said hospitality activations are moving from side events to central attractions, and it listed SiMa Glazed Bar as one of the week’s featured bar projects. (designwanted.com) Locatelli’s studio has described SiMa Townhouse as “the most narrow townhouse in the center of Milan,” a compact setting that already mixed drinks, dinners and site-specific furniture before the redesign. The 2026 intervention keeps that bar format but turns the building into what Robb Report Italia called a ceramic “narrative” spread over three floors. (locatellipartners.com, robbreport.it) Other coverage has framed the installation less as a conventional fit-out than as an immersive set. Say Who reported that Locatelli Partners unveiled the space ahead of the fair with a crowd of designers and curators, while T Magazine México described the bar as a temporary spatial takeover built around ceramics as an architectural language. (saywho.co.uk, tmexico.mx) By the time Milan Design Week opens, SiMa will still be serving drinks at the same address, but the bar will also function as one of the week’s walk-in design installations. That combination of hospitality, craft and spectacle is exactly how several 2026 guides are describing Milan’s design calendar this month. (simatownhouse.com, wallpaper.com, livingetc.com)