Echoes of Memphis MDW26

 Milan Design Week 2026 Sagarminaga X Arte

During Milan Design Week 2026, we unveiled Echoes of Memphis, an installation developed in collaboration with ARTE.

But the project begins long before the installation itself.

Within the atelier, we explore how a material can move beyond its original function to become space, narrative and experience.

Every project starts with a precise reading of the client’s material. We study its behaviour, its language and its limits: how it falls, how it reflects light, how it can be tensioned, folded or fragmented. It is a process of understanding the material in order to shift it beyond its expected condition.

From this research, we develop scaled prototypes where the wallcovering becomes volume, paper turns into structure, and the remaining materials evolve into landscape.

Embroidery is introduced as a new technique, bringing greater depth and precision to the details.

Each test allows us to understand how far the material can be pushed without losing its identity. The process involves constant decisions: working with an all white palette to create depth without colour, constructing structures in delicate balance, reducing forms to their essential expression while preserving presence, and integrating different materials within a single visual language.

The technique remains almost invisible but it sustains the entire experience.

From the Atelier to the Space

What begins as a fragment within the atelier becomes a spatial scene in Milan.
The prototypes are assembled, scaled and refined within the real space, where light and movement transform the perception of the material.

This is how we work at Sagarminaga Atelier: transforming materials into spatial experiences that create narrative, content and lasting memory for brands.