Dearest Yellowtracers, Team Yellowtrace is back from Milan Design Week once again. Holy moly – what an amazing trip. Today I wanted to share with you some of my favourite moments from the #MDW14. Also, I wanted to explain that this year we are taking things to the next level with our Milan report, also known as MILANTRACE, Edizione 2014.

You see, with the proliferation of social media channels, blogs and websites, it feels like Milan Design Week gets washed over and forgotten in no time. Instagram pics are uploaded and #hashtagged, press releases are churned out, quick roundups are shared. But what about presenting it all in a cohesive fashion, addressing the highs and the lows of all the events, Milan’s culture and architecture, comprehensively exploring the sheer enormity and beauty of the World’s premier design event? Well, that’s where we come in.

The Italian Institute of Culture in Paris presents the first important retrospective on Nucleo, the Italian art and design collective led by Piergiorgio Robino. The exhibition was conceived by the Nilufar Gallery in Milan, and curated by Elena Giulia Abbiatici and Melania Rossi. It was set up under the “Promises of Art” program, which aims to promote young talents from the ultra-contemporary Italian art scene.

A home tour of architect Joseph Dirand’s luxuriously minimal Paris apartment where he discusses his preference for function over form in decoration.

The genius that is Alexandre De Betak of Bureau Betak strikes again (and again). This time with a knockout mirrored kaleidoscopic installation for Portuguese fashion designer Felipe Oliveira Baptista. Marking the 10th anniversary of the fashion designer’s line, the exhibition took place at Museu do Design e da Moda (MUDE), the design and fashion museum in Lisbon, Portugal.

Bricks. They’re probably my favourite. Bricks skillfully dispersed around a beautiful courtyard – ding dong! We’re journeying into the heart of darkness today, to Nyanza, Rwanda, where stands this remarkable Education Centre designed by Dominikus Stark Architekten. The photographs are from the architect’s website. To my eye, the low, bricky forms of this building immediately recall the Fredensborg houses by Jorn Utzon.

What once was an abandoned stable in rural Spain, became a special luxury estate in Extremadura under the expert guidance of Madrid-based practice ÁBATON Architecture.