Locatelli’s mosaic takeover

Massimiliano Locatelli has turned Milan’s SiMa Townhouse into a three-storey mosaic bar for Milan Design Week 2026, replacing the usual product-display format with an all-over interior installation. (wallpaper.com) The project is called SiMa Glazed Bar, and it occupies all three levels of the townhouse at Corso di Porta Vigentina 12 in central Milan. SiMa Townhouse normally operates as a cocktail bar and lounge, open Tuesday through Saturday from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. (wallpaper.com) (simatownhouse.com) Wallpaper reported that the installation includes ceramic mosaic surfaces, pecking chickens and tropical cocktails, with Locatelli using the bar itself as the exhibition. Robb Report Italia said the takeover unfolds as a vertical sequence of rooms, with each floor treated as a separate chapter in one continuous narrative. (wallpaper.com) (robbreport.it) That approach lands in a Milan Design Week season that is leaning harder into food-and-drink formats alongside furniture and lighting launches. DesignWanted said this year’s program is full of hospitality activations, and listed SiMa Glazed Bar as one of the clearest examples of bars becoming the main event. (designwanted.com) The timing also matters because Milan Design Week 2026 runs across late April, with citywide programming clustered around April 19 to 26 and the Salone del Mobile fair drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors. Forbes said more than 300,000 people attend the fair alone, while Dezeen’s events guide places the week’s main run from April 20 to 26. (forbes.com) (dezeen.com) Locatelli framed the project around mosaic as an old Milan language rather than a novelty material. Wallpaper traced that reference to the city’s early-20th-century apartment entryways, including Luigi Caccia Dominioni’s Galleria Strasburgo on Corso Europa 10, where tiny ceramic tiles form a shooting-star motif. (wallpaper.com) Other coverage filled in the construction method. Zero said the surfaces are made from tiles that were cut, numbered, painted by hand and kiln-fired before being assembled into square modules. (zero.eu) The site itself is part of the story. Locatelli Partners previously described SiMa Townhouse as “the most narrow townhouse in the center of Milan,” with three floors organized around bar-and-dining, a communal table and an upper lounge. (locatellipartners.com) By opening week, the bar was already functioning as a social hub as much as an installation. Say Who reported that Locatelli Partners unveiled the project on April 10, 2026, to a crowd of designers, curators and industry regulars, turning a working cocktail address into one of the week’s set-piece interiors. (saywho.co.uk)