studio mo man tai reshapes urban leftovers into walk-through color field in milan

studio mo man tai assembles threshold from fragments in milan

At the entrance to the Cavallerizze, studio mo man tai presents Re-campaign as a saturated, walk-through sequence of color. Installed during Milan Design Week 2026 within the 5VIE district, the project reworks discarded large-scale advertising banners into fifteen fabric portals that form a permeable gateway.

Once stretched across facades and engineered for maximum visibility, these materials are cut, layered, and recomposed into an environment that privileges movement over message. The installation marks a shift from image to encounter, where what used to be looked at now becomes something to pass through. ‘We are interested in shifting perception,’ share Ulrike Jurklies and Paul Bas, the duo behind studio mo man tai. ‘We take materials that once served clear, functional purposes and reposition them. When you walk through them or see yourself reflected in them, you become part of the narrative.’

Rather than neutralizing their origin, the banners retain their visual noise. Fragments of pixels, gradients, and graphic residues remain embedded in the surface, generating unstable color fields that respond to light, wind, and the presence of bodies. The logic of advertising is quietly inverted. Instead of projecting a fixed narrative outward, Re-campaign disperses it. Meaning becomes ambient, contingent, and shared. Visitors do not consume the image as much as they activate it through movement.

all images courtesy of studio mo man tai

Re-campaign takes banners from billboard to atmosphere

Developed by studio mo man tai in collaboration with BIG Impact and blowUP media, the Re-campaign also foregrounds a circular approach to production, using recycled PET and PVC-free banner materials as a starting point for spatial construction. ‘We were fascinated by the idea of reversing scale and intention,’ note the designers. ‘These banners once functioned as background for commercial narratives. By cutting them up and recomposing them, we give them a new foreground — one that is physical, tactile, and open-ended. Unlike other large-scale installations; this vibrant gateway—full of color, energy, and stories—is now carefully packed into two boxes, ready to travel and hopefully bring its spirit to new places soon.’ The Eindhoven-based studio takes surfaces designed for speed and impact and slows them down, extends them in time, and reorients them toward experience.

In this transition from facade to interior, from spectacle to atmosphere, Re-campaign points to a different way of working with what already exists. Not by erasing its past, but by allowing it to be reconfigured into something open, provisional, and in flux.

studio mo man tai cuts and weaves discarded banners into layered textile grids

a parallel installation across the district

Elsewhere in the 5VIE district, at Via Cesare Correnti 14, studio mo man tai presents Reflecting Diverseness, first developed for Dutch Design Week 2025. The installation translates demographic data into a field of mirrored acrylic flowers, each representing a portion of Milan’s population.

Together, the two works operate at different scales yet share a common approach: transforming existing material and information into spatial experiences that shift with participation. One builds a passage from visual surplus, the other a reflective landscape from data inviting visitors to move through, and momentarily reframe, the environments they inhabit.

a sequence of coloured portals stretches through the Cavallerizze

the installation casts a dynamic pattern of shadows onto the ground

unstable colour fields change with movement

strips of banner material extend downward

pixel fragments and gradients remain visible across the fabric

introducing kinetic edge to the structure

blending hues into a constantly evolving visual surface

Reflecting Diverseness at Via Cesare Correnti 14

a glittering spectacle revealing a precise socio-political dataset (read more here)

project info:

name: Re-campaign

designer: studio mo man tai | @studio.mo.man.tai

event: Milan Design Week 2026

location: Cavallerizze, 5VIE Network, via Olona 4, Milan, Italy

collaborators: BIG Impact, blowUP media

photographer: Amir Farzad | @amirfarzad.official

This article is part of designboom’s Dreams in Motion chapter, exploring what happens when we treat our dreams and reveries as an active, radical rehearsal for impending material realities. Explore more related stories here.