Milan, April 7–13, 2025

During Milan Design Week, the Cloisters of San Barnaba will host Opendoor, the event by door — La Repubblica’s magazine — dedicated to the world of outdoor living.

Opendoor is a surreal and dreamlike garden where, among trees and columns, visitors can explore nearly 1,000 square meters of outdoor lifestyle innovations, including outdoor furniture, wellness, fashion, mobility, and gastronomy.

“[…]We wanted to create a kind of oasis — a Garden of Wonders that would invite pleasure and togetherness. A place where nature and artifice, art and design, speak to and blur into each other. A meeting space, a place for exchange, and — why not? — for rest. That has always been the democratic function of urban gardens, and in many ways, it still is”
says architect Luca Molinari, curator of the event.

An idea fully embraced by Orticolario, which is in charge of the green layout, designed by Vittorio Peretto. The project draws inspiration from the concept of the urban eco-garden, highlighting native plants for a sustainable, resilient, and low-water landscape.

“I’ve been used to wearing glasses with lenses made of leaves. Everything I see and read automatically passes through the green filter of a potential parallel with plants. Even if the subject has nothing to do with the plant or landscape world, my thoughts inevitably end up applying themselves to it. I call this process cerebral photosynthesis, and it’s from this perspective that I approach the design of green spaces like the one in the Cloisters of San Barnaba,”
explains Vittorio Peretto, president of Hortensia.