Even before the fog machines kicked in and filled the air with a gentle mist, Lasvit’s Milan Design Week 2024 showcase in the courtyard of Palazzo Isimbardi was an exercise in ethereal magic. Demonstrating the full extent of the Czech glass-maker’s powers, a line-up of supersize, doorway-shaped panels (some encased in Corten steel and almost five metres high, others freestanding) stood like portals in a cosmic warp room, as if ready and waiting to transport visitors to distant corners of the world.

In a way, the fused glass frames, fabricated in Europe’s largest kiln, were indeed a teaser of other, far-off attractions. Lasvit art director Maxim Velčovský designed the installation (dubbed Porta) to market the company’s architectural fabrication capabilities, encouraging potential collaborators to dream up their own similarly ambitious projects.

Closer inspection revealed a range of charming surface treatments: The bed of someone’s sneakers had been imprinted into one panel, while another featured a mottled relief that evoked lunar craters. So even though the doorways (which went on to win the Fuorisalone Award, recognizing the year’s best off-site exhibition) didn’t technically lead anywhere, they still shimmered with the promise of things to come.