The super architect Kengo Kuma on display at the Bonsai Museum, a magical place on the outskirts of Milan

The Crespi Bonsai Museum in Parabiago, near Milan, is hosting an exhibition during Fuorisalone featuring the new carpet collection "Faces" by Indian brand Jaipur Rugs, created in collaboration with renowned Japanese architect Kengo Kuma. The museum, founded 35 years ago by Luigi Crespi, houses the world's most important collection of author bonsai outside Japan, including a thousand-year-old Ficus retusa. The 16 carpets in the collection reinterpret the facades of iconic buildings by Kengo Kuma & Associates, translating their rhythm, depth, and sensory memory into wool and regenerated viscose, displayed among the bonsai and in the museum's zen garden.

This matters because it highlights a cross-cultural dialogue between Japanese architecture, Indian craftsmanship, and the living art of bonsai, emphasizing shared principles of layering, light, and air. The collaboration underscores how contemporary design can engage with traditional art forms in immersive, non-literal ways, and the choice of the Crespi Bonsai Museum as venue reinforces the growing trend of using unique, culturally resonant spaces for brand activations during design weeks.