After its launch in March, the tenth edition of the Italian Design Day in the World (Italian Design Day – IDD) continues in Slovenia with Italy’s participation in the BIG SEE Festival 2026, scheduled in Portorož on 21–22 May, from 10:00 to 18:00. The initiative is curated by the ICE Office in Ljubljana, the Embassy of Italy, and the Italian Cultural Institute, in cooperation with Zavod BIG–BIG SEE.

Italy’s presence forms part of the broader strategy for the integrated promotion of Italian design, aimed at strengthening international dialogue and further enhancing the visibility of Italy’s design and architecture system in Slovenia and across the region.

Within the BIG SEE Festival - the leading sectoral event in Slovenia, bringing together architects, designers, and professionals from across Southeast Europe through exhibitions, conferences, award ceremonies, and networking opportunities - Italy will be represented with an institutional stand dedicated to the exhibition Città in Scena. Urban Regeneration: the Italian way to a sustainable future.

Promoted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and produced by ANCE, Associazione Mecenate 90 ETS, and Fondazione Musica per Roma, the exhibition offers a comprehensive overview of the most recent Italian experiences in urban regeneration. The exhibition path, articulated into seven thematic sections, highlights Italy’s extraordinary design and construction vitality, capable of transforming and reinterpreting urban space throughout the country.

Through a selection of significant projects, Città in Scena showcases not only the quality of the interventions but also the variety of the solutions adopted - an expression of the technological and construction expertise developed in recent years, representing one of the most relevant manifestations of contemporary Made in Italy. The exhibition thus proposes a concrete reflection on regeneration as a tool for building more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient cities.

Italy’s participation in the BIG SEE Festival is also fully aligned with the theme of the 2026 edition, Too Much? What is just enough?, which invites reflection on proportion and design quality in an era marked by overproduction, overconsumption, and information overload.

In this context, the focus of the Italian Design Day 2026 – RE-DESIGN. Regenerating spaces, objects, ideas, relationships – finds full expression, presenting regeneration as a concrete response to the need to rethink development models in a more balanced and sustainable way.

Through the exhibition Città in Scena, Italy reaffirms its commitment to promoting a contemporary design vision that combines urban quality, innovation, and attention to communities, actively contributing to the international debate on the future of cities.

The Italian Design Day in the World 2026 is promoted and organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and by the Ministry of Culture – Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity.

According to the latest data published by the Slovenian Statistical Office, in 2025 total trade between Italy and Slovenia in the furniture and lighting sector reached a value of over EUR 164 million. Italy confirmed its position as Slovenia’s second-largest partner, after Germany, with a market share of 11.2%.

Press release Citta in Scena - english.

Exhibition Città in Scena. Urban Regeneration: the Italian way to a sustainable future: