Rossana Orlandi has a reputation for plucking young designers from obscurity and launching their careers. An arbiter of taste, she is renowned for her interest in new ideas and offbeat design. So exhibiting work at her 19,000-square-foot shop-cum-gallery, located in a former tie factory in Sant’Ambrogio, has become a rite of passage for many of today’s top designers. As you walk around the warren of ever-changing installations, which seem to bleed together into a fantastic mass, you’re sure to spot an unexpected mix of objects. It’s more of a design hub than a gallery, a place to experience design with an open mind.
Time Out tip: A nearby clinic (Columbus Clinic, Via Michelangelo Buonarroti, 48) boasts two statues that caused quite an uproar in early 20th-century Milan. Two half-naked women in unmistakably provocative poses originally adorned the Art Nouveau home of wealthy entrepreneur Ermenegildo Castiglioni, which became known as Ca’ de Ciapp (“Buttocks House”). They were relocated to this spot in the 1940s.
