ESAD took part in the Triennale Milano 2026, in an exhibition led by the Japanese architect Toyo Ito – one of the most influential voices in contemporary architecture – alongside the Design Association – Liberal Arts Institute and the architects Kazuyo Sejima, Manabu Chiba, Sou Fujimoto, and the firms Klein Dytham Architecture and Onishimaki+Hyakudayuki.
In “One Earth – House of the Heart”, presented during Milan Design Week at the “Superstudio” venue, five leading international schools come together: the University of Tokyo, the Politecnico di Milano, the Umeå School of Architecture, Aalto University – and ESAD. Not as a guest, but as an active participant.
“The House of the Heart created by children is not merely an architectural model. It embodies compassion, hope and a vision for the future.” Ichiro Fujisaki (chairmair Design Association - Liberal Arts Institute)
The starting point? A workshop during ESAD Week that brought together 20 students from the Interior Design degree course with 20 pupils from EFANOR School, aged between 11 and 12, with the aim of imagining the home and living in the future, expressing themselves through drawings and models.
The result? Models that are now on display at one of the most prominent international design platforms. The exhibition showcases the outcome of a series of five workshops
in which 100 children of various nationalities and cultures worked alongside 100 higher education students studying architecture and interior design: the University of Tokyo (Japan), Politecnico di Milano (Italy), ESAD (Portugal), Umeå School of Architecture (Sweden) and Aalto University (Finland).
But the most important thing isn’t the object.
It’s the process.
Children and students thinking together.
Experimenting without fear.
Building ideas before they know if they’re possible.
That’s what’s coming to Milan.
As part of the “Peace Island” installation, these proposals envision futures through the eyes of those who have not yet been shaped by them – and show what happens when education leaves the classroom and enters the real world.
At ESAD, you don’t just learn to design.
You learn to test ideas in a real-world context – and to take them as far as they can go.
Sometimes, even as far as Milan.
The project was coordinated by lecturers Maria Milano and Paulo Seco.