Casa Italia Milano Cortina 2026: "MUSA" Between Art, Architecture, and Landscape

For the XXV Winter Olympic Games, taking place from February 6 to 22, 2026, the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) is renewing the Casa Italia experience at its venues in Milan, Cortina d’Ampezzo, and Livigno. Following the experience of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games, IT’S once again serves as the designer of the Casa Italia Milan Cortina 2026 installations, a CONI project coordinated by Lorenzo Pellicelli, CONI Marketing Director.

Traditionally an athletes’ house and a space for official representation, this edition opens its doors to the public, transforming into a diffused cultural platform. Sport, art, architecture, design, and gastronomy come together to create a unified narrative of contemporary Italian identity, in dialogue with the international dimension of the Games.

Casa Italia Milano Cortina 2026: The Theme

Launched in 2016, the Casa Italia project arrives at Milano Cortina 2026 under the theme MUSA, reflecting its evolution into a cultural initiative. The classical figure of the muse becomes a metaphor for inspiration and a tool to tell the story of a plural Italy, shaped by historical, landscape, and cultural layers.

Within this framework, Casa Italia is defined as a narrative space where sport, art, and architecture reconnect, renewing the original bond between athletic discipline and artistic expression.

The Spaces: Mountains as a Guiding Thread

The project unfolds across three venues—Triennale Milano, Centro di Preparazione Olimpica Aquagranda in Livigno, and Farsettiarte in Cortina—with a unified design that takes the mountain landscape as its central reference.

The mountain serves both as a natural stage and a symbolic device: home to winter sports, a destination of historic Grand Tours, and a place of encounter between humans and nature.

Temporary architecture and interior design express this theme through a language of lightness, modularity, and reversibility. At the entrance of each venue, a reflective aluminum portal marks the threshold, creating a recognizable image that evokes high-altitude shelters and amplifies light and reflections.

The dialogue with the surroundings goes beyond visual openness: architectural elements frame the landscape, making it an active part of the spatial experience. Outside, aluminum dominates, creating dematerialized volumes; inside, wood introduces warmth, creating a more intimate, domestic atmosphere aligned with the concept of hospitality.

Between Milan, Cortina, and Livigno

In Milan, within the monumental halls of the Triennale, the installation takes on a more abstract character. In the Salone d’Onore, inclined surfaces and textile drapes redefine the height of the space, evoking mountain profiles, while the dominant white palette recalls snow and high-altitude light. The exhibition is divided into sections dedicated to different “muses”—from language to architecture, from landscape to innovation—intertwining artworks, iconic objects from the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, and immersive installations.

In Cortina, the Farsettiarte venue—converted from a historic cable car station—integrates the existing structure with a temporary pavilion facing the square. Prefabricated modular elements, inspired by alpine bivouacs, are designed for sustainability and reversibility. The path culminates in a view of the Tofane mountains, making the landscape an active backdrop. The interior favors warm materials and tones ranging from browns to ochres, creating an intimate, protective atmosphere.

In Livigno, Casa Italia acts as a dynamic hub within the Aquagranda Center. Here, the project takes on a more experimental approach: site-specific installations explore the relationship between body, environment, and athletic endeavor, while design reinterprets Alpine aesthetics with influences from the 1960s and 1970s. The space, animated by evening events and celebrations, translates the MUSA theme into a participatory experience, where art and sport share a common horizon.

The project is completed with the contribution of Italian design companies in furniture and lighting, alongside a comprehensive hospitality and gastronomy program, recently recognized by UNESCO as intangible heritage. The result is an integrated system where architecture, art, and landscape create a coherent experience, offering a contemporary vision of Italy within the Olympic context.

>>> Discover also the Eugenio Monti Sliding Centre in Cortina d’Ampezzo