Antolini transform a garden in Milan in a jungle of sounds : DesignWanted

Stone, sound, and the open air: at the Antolini® MilanoDuomo Stoneroom®, Milan Design Week 2026 became the stage for an installation that proposed something quieter and more radical than spectacle — a new language for the designed landscape, born from the encounter between Antolini®‘s material mastery and Bang & Olufsen’s vision of high-fidelity sound beyond the domestic interior.

The setting was already a statement in itself – a space defined by the depth and presence of natural stone, where the Italian brand’s seventy years of material mastery were embedded in every surface. It was here that the two companies chose to preview Beosound Haven, a landscape speaker that extends the Danish brand’s acoustic vision beyond the domestic interior, and to explore what emerges when two distinct but complementary forms of craft – one rooted in stone, the other in sound – are brought into dialogue with the open air.

Milan Design Week Exhibition ©Bang & Olufsen and Antolini®

The exposition, immersive through sound and design, centered the landscape speaker as the protagonist on which Antolini®‘s natural stone, through the Atelier program of Bang & Olufsen, blends perfectly with aluminium, sculpting the project’s distinctive sphere shape, creating a marriage of materials that felt entirely at home in this setting. The atmosphere was thought to show how the natural world can interact with digital sound, how green and stone can be combined with aluminium, the precision-engineered material the Danish brand has worked with since its beginnings.

Visitors were invited, through a symbolic threshold, to leave behind the chaotic sounds of the city and immerse themselves in a contemporary reinterpretation of a garden – a flourishing one, where green elements enveloped the space and guided them toward the core of the exposition: a reflective water table with droplets creating rippling waves, where sound became the focal point, drawing attention and inviting exploration. The surface featured Taj Mahal® quartzite in Matt finish, selected for its soft tonality and refined texture, enabling a subtle interplay between light, material, sound, air, demonstrating how knowledge can shape an emotional experience as powerfully as any technology.

Milan Design Week Exhibition ©Bang & Olufsen and Antolini®

Craftsmanship, sensory experience, heritage, innovation, acoustic expertise, a profound awareness of natural stone: the project brought the two brands together in a space that felt suspended from time, where sound and natural elements guided perception and created a new language for outdoor living. The Italian stone brand, a family-owned company with seventy years of expertise in crafting marble and natural stone for architectural and design projects worldwide, guided the collaboration – a mastery of materiality that gives the Danish brand’s acoustic vision a physical, tactile dimension it could not achieve alone.

Selected natural stones were explored across the collaboration, each chosen for its distinct depth, pattern, tactile quality, color, reinforcing stone as a primary architectural medium within the installation. This dialogue stems from the conviction that sound and design are not only deeply connected, but together capable of creating an architectural layer – one that, through the floral and sculptural stone surfaces of Antolini®‘s heritage, reshapes our perception and transforms the environments we inhabit.

Milan Design Week Exhibition ©Bang & Olufsen and Antolini®

The outcome is a material composition where acoustic performance and design coexist seamlessly, illustrating how sound, design, and materiality work together to shape the perception of space. This approach equally reflects the Italian company’s design philosophy, extending its expertise beyond interiors into outdoor environments, where natural stone plays a central role in defining atmosphere, texture, and, most of all, emotional depth.

Alongside the outdoor installation, the collaboration extends into a refined material exploration of the iconic Beolab 18 speakers, reinterpreted through Antolini®‘s natural stones in Matt finish. Each stone was selected for the distinct sensory world it evokes – the deep, mineral green of Amazonite®, the fossilized memory embedded in Retro Black Petrified Wood, the sweeping geological narrative of Patagonia Original, the graphic contrast of Dalmata®, the fluid movement captured in Cipollino GreyWave, and the warm, luminous calm of Taj Mahal®.

Produced in a limited series, each piece is uniquely defined by the character of its material – no two stones identical, no two objects the same – translating sound into a spatial and sensory experience across both interior and exterior environments. Building on this collaboration, introduced in 2025, the project marks a new chapter between the two partners, evolving a shared exploration of craftsmanship, innovation, and material excellence into the realm of outdoor living.

“In collaboration with Bang & Olufsen, we have moved beyond traditional design to embrace the open air. By blending the raw elegance of natural stone with precision sound, we’ve created a bridge between nature and technology. These landscape speakers are not just objects; they are a dialogue between the elements, transforming gardens and terraces into living galleries where history and avant-garde meet to host your most meaningful moments,” remarks Carlo Alberto Antolini, Owner of Antolini®.

What this collaboration ultimately proposes is a shift in how we think about the designed landscape – one where luxury is measured in intention, where the materials we choose to live alongside carry meaning, where sound becomes as considered an element as light or texture. In a design culture increasingly drawn to the boundaries between inside and outside, between the natural and the engineered, this project feels like a way to rethink the spaces we inhabit, taking them beyond four walls and recognising that they deserve the same depth of thought, the same commitment to craft, the same capacity to move us.