Kulapat Yantrasast to explore Uzbek craft traditions in Milan design week exhibition

Textile installations hanging across the facade of Palazzo Citterio in Milan

Architect Kulapat Yantrasast has curated an exhibition exploring craft, cultural memory and environmental legacy in Uzbekistan for Milan design week 2026, as shown in this video produced by Dezeen.

Titled When Apricots Blossom, the exhibition will bring together new works by 12 international designers developed in collaboration with Uzbek artisans.

The project was commissioned by Gayane Umerova, chairperson of the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation (ACDF).

The exhibition takes its title from a 1930s poem by Uzbek writer Hamid Olimjon, with its message underpinning the exhibition's wider themes of renewal and resilience.

Architect Kulapat Yantrasast travelled across Uzbekistan to research craft traditions for an upcoming Milan design week exhibition.
Commissioned by Gayane Umerova of the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation, When Apricots Blossom brings together new works by 12… pic.twitter.com/RaiRbqcTq0
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The When Apricots Blossom exhibition will explore Uzbek craft traditions

The video follows WHY Architecture founder Yantrasast travelling across Uzbekistan, where he researched local craft traditions and material practices that remain embedded in everyday life, from textile production to food preparation and forms of dwelling.

Drawing on traditions from Karakalpakstan in northwestern Uzbekistan, the project will examine how craft practices can carry cultural knowledge across generations.

Kulapat Yantrasast observing an Uzbek artisan working on an embroidered textile — Kulapat Yantrasast travelled across Uzbekistan researching local craft traditions

Set to take place at Palazzo Citterio in Milan, the exhibition will unfold as a sequence of spaces organised around three elements central to everyday life in the region including textiles, food and shelter.

Designers including Bethan Laura Wood, Marcin Rusak and Fernando Laposse were among those invited to create new works in collaboration with Uzbek artisans.

The designers will reinterpret local materials and techniques across disciplines such as textiles, ceramics and woodwork.

Handweaving loom with brightly coloured threads used in Uzbek textile production — The exhibition will include works based on Uzbek textile traditions and handweaving

Installations will include a space centred on the yurt as a domestic setting, featuring a large-scale textile referencing traditional handwoven elements that adorn yurts.

Other elements will draw on culinary traditions and communal rituals, including the making and sharing of traditional Uzbek bread, reflecting its central and sacred role in everyday life.

Designers will present bread trays and traditional stamps known as chekich, which are used to imprint patterns into the dough, while bread will be produced on site during the exhibition.

Render of a circular pavilion with a lattice structure installed at Palazzo Citterio in Milan — WHY Architecture will present a pavilion informed by nomadic yurts

One of the exhibition's central elements will be a pavilion informed by traditional yurts, which are portable circular dwellings used by nomadic communities across Central Asia.

Designed by WHY Architecture, the Garden Pavilion will reinterpret the yurt's lattice structure and felt enclosure as a contemporary space for gathering. It will be used as a setting for talks, workshops and reflection within the palazzo's garden.

Interior of the pavilion showing a circular seating arrangement beneath a lattice structure — The pavilion will be used as a space for gathering, talks and workshops

The exhibition will form part of ACDF's broader cultural programme focused on the Aral Sea region. This also includes the Aral School, the Aral Culture Summit, which will return for its second edition in September 2026, as well as the Uzbekistan National Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale.

Through design, the exhibition aims to foreground local knowledge and cultural identity, exploring how cultural practices can adapt in response to these conditions.

Access to the exhibition and public programme requires registration via this link, including for walk-ins.

When Apricots Blossom will be on show at Palazzo Citterio in Milan's Brera district from 20 to 26 April 2026. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

Partnership content

This video was produced by Dezeen in partnership with Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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