Coffee machines: The secret stars of Milan Design Week
28.4.2026
Translation: machine translated
Pictures: Pia Seidel
Espresso, moka, pour-over - coffee has long been a ritual. Now the machine should look like it too.
Milan is known for furniture that causes a stir. But if you took a closer look at Design Week 2026, you discovered the most exciting objects not in the living room, but in the kitchen. Unusual coffee machines are in vogue. And they should look better, feel better - and be more fun to use than ever before.
Concrete, Corian, no compromise
The «Anza R2 Concrete» espresso machine from Anza Coffee was on display at Deoron - a curated design platform that deliberately focuses on home accessories and furniture with attitude away from the big trade fairs. Launched in 2017 via Kickstarter and on the market today thanks to a successful campaign, it is still going strong.
Made from hand-cast concrete, this model looks less like a kitchen appliance and more like art. It boasts porcelain surfaces, matt black powder-coated steel and brass accents. «There has been surprisingly little new thinking in the world of espresso machines - especially given the attention paid to progressive interior design», Managing Director Per Ivar Selvaag tells Designboom. The «Anza Concrete» shows the way.
Hand-blown, handmade
In the Alcova, Worn Studio from Spain presented the set «Have A Coffee» for the first time in 2025. The exhibition by ex-Abitare editor-in-chief Valentina Ciuffi and ex-Domus editor-in-chief Joseph Grima staged design in abandoned industrial buildings or old villas - a fitting setting for designer Natalia Ortega, who combined a moka pot with two hand-blown glass cups: an object somewhere between utility object and work of art.
Ortega's signature is unmistakable: she works with small employees in the Spanish countryside, where traditional techniques meet contemporary design. For the Alcova Edition 2025, she created the tableware project «Plaite» together with Azerbaijani designer Aida Mahmudova. Slowness is her programme, not a disadvantage.
From AI to the kitchen
The story behind Tina Bobbe's work, which can be seen at Comune in Spazio IVY - a collective deliberately dedicated to non-commercial, process-orientated design practices - is also exciting. In 2023, the Dresden-based designer and researcher shared generative KI coffee machines on social media: surreal, brightly coloured, memphis-like, almost too unreal to be real. In 2024, she actually brought the first design into the world: the «Pipe Frame», a Memphis-inspired frame that transforms ordinary espresso machines into conversation starters, handmade in Germany.
Her «Stone Drip», a pour-over coffee maker made of natural stone, resin and glass, goes in a different direction: quieter, more material, but just as surreally beautiful.
Whoever looks at her portfolio inevitably wonders whether the objects are really real. They are. And that is perhaps the icing on the cake: that morning coffee suddenly feels like an escape from everyday life.
In a world full of generic devices, there is a growing hunger for things that tell a story - even at seven in the morning. The fact that Pinterest «Cafécore» was named one of the biggest living trends in 2024 fits the picture: the coffee corner at home has long been more than just a functional space. It is an expression of personal style.
These coffee makers are on our wish list
The designer pieces from Milan are not yet available at Galaxus. But that may change. Until then: a few alternatives that prove that good flavour isn't just in the coffee.
Moka pots
−7%
EUR57,95 was EUR62,01
Alessi Percolator Pulcina - MDL02/1 R - Rood - 1 kops - door Michele De Lucchi
1 Cup
Bodum Doppelwandiger Kaffeebereiter
1 l
Pour Over Kaffeebereiter
0.60 l
−7%
EUR57,95 was EUR62,01
Alessi Percolator Pulcina - MDL02/1 R - Rood - 1 kops - door Michele De Lucchi
1 Cup
EUR103,49
Alessi Espressokocher VITE 6 Tassen Aluminium/Sagegreen
6 Cups
Alessi Espressomaschine 9090/6
6 Cups
Aarke Coffee Maker
Header image: Pia Seidel
Pia Seidel
Senior Editor
Pia.Seidel@digitecgalaxus.chLike a cheerleader, I love celebrating good design and bringing you closer to everything furniture- and interior design- related. I regularly curate simple yet sophisticated interior ideas, report on trends and interview creative minds about their work.
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