Are there gadgets and tech at Milan Design Week? You betcha. This year Bang & Olufsen, Lexus, Google, and Asus are collaborating with artists or launching their own cutting-edge designs. See what they’re showing off in Italy!
Milan Design Week 2025 (April 7–13) is in full swing. Artsy and design-minded types walk the city’s streets, moving from curiosity to curiosity. And while you might not associate tech with one of the world’s foremost design exhibitions, it’s a presence very much felt. Bang & Olufsen, Asus, and Google are all there, collaborating with artists—or showcasing their own creations—in ways that are surprising, beautiful, and future-forward. And I’m here to tell you about the ones I absolutely cannot stop thinking about!
Related: MWC 2025: the coolest laptops & phones we saw
Bang & Olufsen, in particular, has my attention. This week, the brand unveiled its Beosound Balance Natura speaker, made in collaboration with Italian natural stone purveyor, Antolini. A speaker that looks like a marble sculpture? Welcome to luxury home entertainment circa 2025!
Asus, too, showed off its Zenbook Ceraluminum Signature Edition Series, a laptop line featuring its proprietary material, Ceraluminum. The material is textured and stone-like, something I’ve never felt on a laptop before. Meanwhile, the material can be produced without traditional chemical processes, supporting sustainability.
Want to see how tech brands are working with art in 2025? Check out the products and projects below!
1. Bang & Olufsen Beosound Balance Natura Speaker
When I think of luxury speakers, stone and petrified wood don’t come to mind. But those are exactly the materials the Beosound Balance Natura Speaker uses. The speaker is a unique collaboration between Bang & Olufsen and Italian natural stone purveyor Antolini. For years, B&O has been at the forefront of creating speakers that are more than just boxes strewn awkwardly around a space—they’re sculptures. This artistic speaker, with a pedestal available in a palette of finishes from Antolini’s range, allows both brands to sing.
Antoli’s pedestal perfectly supports the Beosound Balance devices, allowing them to blend seamlessly into one another. Beosound Balance Natura Speaker comes in Antolini’s Exclusive Collection of natural quartz and Precioustone Collection of petrified wood. There are also Cristallo Iceberg, Cristallo Rosa and Cristallo Rosa ‘Wow’ natural quartz. The 160-million-year-old fossilized wood delivers colors and patterns formed through natural mineralization. It’s truly a remarkable product!
Products from the collection are made to order. Prices are available on request.
2. Asus Zenbook Ceraluminum Limited Edition Series
Asus is also making waves at Milan Design Week. Its “Design You Can Feel” exhibition centers on its brand-new Zenbook Ceraluminum Signature Edition Series. The laptops feature Asus’s patented Ceraluminum material. What is Ceraluminum? It’s aluminum merged with ceramic in a method that eliminates chemical processes. The result is a durable surface that is 3 times as break-resistant as anodized aluminum and is 100% recyclable. Interestingly, it feels like stone instead of metal.
Even cooler are the terrestrial colors: Obsidian Black, Pamukkale White, Terra Mocha, and Luminous Blue. In my 5 years as a product editor, I’ve never seen such beautiful laptop colors. I predict these laptops will be the sought-after PCs of 2025. Each limited edition Zenbook S will come with a laptop sleeve bag, Type-C charger, adapter, an Asus pen, a Ceraluminum mouse, and a booklet about the laptop model.
Asus hasn’t mentioned pricing or a release date. For updates, follow Asus on social media.
3. Lexus A-Un Black Butterfly Installation
Lexus is taking a conceptual spin at Milan Design Week 2025. In an exhibition aimed at bringing “man, machine, and mobility closer together,” the brand unveiled A-Un, an immersive installation inspired by its futuristic Black Butterfly cockpit interface. Lexus teamed up with Tokyo-based creative agencies SIX Inc. and STUDEO to bring this to life. The result is a dreamlike space that explores what seamless, intuitive communication between humans and machines could feel like.
Right next to it, Lexus also debuted Discover Together, a collection of interactive works from emerging creators reimagining how we relate to technology inside a car. The lineup includes pieces from Bascule Inc. (Japan), Northeastern University (USA), and the Lexus Designer Team (Japan)—each interpreting the Black Butterfly idea in completely different ways.
One of my favorites was Earthspective by Bascule. It turns voices into glowing cosmic artifacts that float through a digital world—a literal visualization of our energy shaping the future.
Both “A-Un” and “Discover Together” are open to the public from April 8 to 13, 2025, at Superstudio Più in Milan.
4. Google X Lachlan Turczan: Making the Invisible Visible
With years of critically acclaimed installations at Milan Design Week already under its belt, Google continues its winning streak in a collab with the renowned light and water artist, Lachlan Turczan. Titled “Making the Invisible, Visible,” the exhibit demonstrates Google’s design philosophy: a partnership between humans and technology.
Visitors view and interact with Lachlan Turczan’s latest artwork, Lucida (I–IV). It’s a series of ethereal spaces constructed entirely from light and mist. Visitors can walk through the “luminous veils” and experience how light can bend, flow, and form solid planes.
It’s all so cool and futuristic. The installation then shifts to explain how design influences the creation of specific Google hardware devices. We then see how invisible ideas become real at Google. Such a thought-provoking project!
The last line
The collabs at Milan Design Week 2025 are giving me plenty of food for thought. Art informs technology, and vice versa, like never before this year. I’m looking forward to products like the Asus Zenbook Ceraluminum Signature Edition Series, and I can’t wait to see Google’s design philosophy evolve as the year continues!
Lauren has been writing and editing since 2008. She loves working with text and helping writers find their voice. When she’s not typing away at her computer, she cooks and travels with her husband and two daughters.
