Mosaic takeover at SiMa Townhouse

Massimiliano Locatelli has turned Milan’s SiMa Townhouse into “SiMa Glazed Bar,” covering the three-storey venue with ceramic mosaic murals for April’s design crowds. (wallpaper.com) The installation runs from April 11 to April 26, 2026, at Corso di Porta Vigentina 12, during the city’s wider Milan Design Week program. (zero.eu) (dezeen.com) Locatelli Partners said the project occupies the townhouse’s full height, with each of the three floors treated as a separate chapter in one continuous interior story. (robbreport.it) The surfaces are made from hand-produced tiles that were cut, numbered, painted and kiln-fired before being assembled into square modules. Robb Report Italia said the ceramic production was carried out in Vietnam. (robbreport.it) (zero.eu) Wallpaper said the staging mixes mural craft with bar theater, including pecking chickens and tropical cocktails, instead of treating the mosaics as static wall decoration. (wallpaper.com) That approach fits Milan Design Week’s off-fair circuit, where bars, shops and private buildings are routinely remade as temporary installations alongside the main Salone del Mobile events. (dezeen.com) The setting also matters because SiMa Townhouse was already a Locatelli project: the studio describes it as a 2020 Milan venue with three floors for drinks and dining, and calls it the narrowest townhouse in the city center. (locatellipartners.com) SiMa’s own site lists the ground floor as bar and dining, the first floor as a communal table, and the second floor as a lounge, giving Locatelli a ready-made vertical sequence to rework for the takeover. (simatownhouse.com) The project’s language is historical as well as theatrical. Wallpaper and Zero both frame it as a contemporary return to ceramic storytelling traditions that stretch from ancient Greece to imperial China and, more locally, to Milan’s decorated entryways. (wallpaper.com) (zero.eu) For now, the result is a cocktail bar that doubles as an installation until April 26, with the mosaics carrying as much of the narrative as the drinks list. (zero.eu) (wallpaper.com)