Hospitality & Retail Design in Italy

01 — how we work

The obvious restaurant opens beautifully and ages badly

Anyone can draw a room that looks good on opening night. The difficult part is the room that still works at full service on a Saturday, and still looks new after two years of it.

We design commercial spaces from the operation backwards: covers, flow, acoustics, maintenance, and the materials that survive a fifteen hour day. Then we make them yours, because a format that looks like everyone else’s is a format nobody remembers.

arcHITects is a Milan studio founded in 2009, working with operators and brands across four continents. No templates: every project cut to the client, the site and the story.

Design that holds up at full service, when every table is taken and the room is loud.

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Tell us about your project

We reply within 24 hours. English, Italian.

4.500

square metres, MediaWorld HQ

Three floors of offices and retail space, designed and supervised as one project.

2009

founded in Milano

230

projects

continents

24h

reply time

02 — what we open

Four kinds of commercial space

Single locations and formats designed to be repeated.

Restaurants and bars

Kitchen flow, covers per square metre, acoustics and the front of house. Myke Fish & Burger, La Piadineria, Alice Pizza, Rossopomodoro, Salvatore Cuomo.

Hotels and rooms

From the lobby to the room typology. OAK Hotel, Grand Hotel Continental, Hotel d’Inghilterra.

Retail

Shopfront, circulation and display, designed around the way the product is actually sold.

Offices and workplaces

MediaWorld headquarters, 4.500 square metres over three floors, and iWorkHere, selected for Best Italian Interior Design 2018.

Museum Of Senses, Milano · Grands Prix Du Design 2026, Gold, Museums — Museum of Senses, Milano · Grands Prix du Design 2026, Gold, Museums

03 — how we work

Concept, permits, opening

Feasibility and format. We check what the unit allows, what the local rules require, and what it costs to get to opening. Written, before you sign the lease if possible.

Concept and identity. Interior, materials, lighting and the graphic elements that carry the brand into the space. We have designed both, for the same clients.

Permits, fire and accessibility. Change of use, ventilation, fire filings and accessibility. The technical part that decides whether the opening date holds.

Site and opening. Tender, supervision, snagging and handover, with a countdown to opening day.

04 — formats

Designed once, opened many times

Myke Fish & Burger opened in four locations, Milano, Bergamo and beyond, from one design language adapted to four very different units. La Piadineria and Alice Pizza the same.

A format is not a copied layout. It is a kit: materials, lighting, signage, furniture and a construction logic that survives a unit with the wrong shape and the wrong ceiling height.

What it gives an operator is speed. The second opening costs less than the first, and the fifth is a schedule rather than a project.

For international brands entering Italy it also gives compliance: the kit is drawn against Italian rules from the beginning.

Salvatore Cuomo Café, Manila · Bigsee Design Award 2022 — Salvatore Cuomo Café, Manila · BigSee Design Award 2022

05 — the sequence

Four steps

First call

The unit, the concept and the opening date you have in mind.

Feasibility

What the space allows, what it costs, and whether the date is realistic.

Design & permits

Concept, technical drawings and the filings, including fire.

Site & opening

Tender, supervision, snagging, handover.

06 — places that opened

Openings, not renders

Ruzza Orologi & Bags in Milan won the INT Interior Design Award 2025. Museum of Senses Milano won Gold in the museums category of the Grands Prix du Design 2026. North Wind Apartments, an 1896 building on Lake Garda converted into six short rent units, won the ICONIC AWARD 2024. Salvatore Cuomo Café in Manila won the BigSee Design Award 2022 and Best Restaurant 2020. Myke Fish & Burger, La Piadineria and Alice Pizza opened across Italy. Food Court 4.0 in Gavirate.

Published by Arketipo, InStore, Mark-Up, Retail Design Blog, Technoretail and Il Sole 24 Ore.

Ruzza Orologi &Amp; Bags, Milano · Int Interior Design Award 2025 — Ruzza Orologi & Bags, Milano · INT Interior Design Award 2025

North Wind Apartments, Campione Del Garda · Iconic Award 2024 — North Wind Apartments, Campione del Garda · ICONIC AWARD 2024

questions we get

Before you write to us

Can you handle the permits for a change of use?

Yes. Change of use, ventilation, fire filings and accessibility are part of the scope. It is usually the part that decides the opening date.

We are a foreign brand entering Italy. How does it work?

We act as your local studio: we translate the brand standards into drawings that comply with Italian rules, file them, and supervise the works.

Do you design the graphics as well?

Yes, when it helps. Signage, menu boards and brand elements have been part of several of our projects.

How early should we involve you?

Before signing the lease, if possible. A two hour feasibility on the unit has stopped more than one client from taking the wrong space.

Can you repeat a design across several locations?

That is what a format is for. We have done it for four Myke locations, and for La Piadineria and Alice Pizza.

Do you work outside Milan?

Yes, across Italy and abroad. Our projects include Manila, Muscat, London, Athens and New York.

ready?

Tell us about the opening

The unit, the concept and the date you are working towards. We answer within 24 hours.

Ruzza Orologi &Amp; Bags, Milano · Shopfront — Ruzza Orologi & Bags, Milano · shopfront

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HOTELS, RESTAURANTS AND RETAIL — ITALY

HOSPITALITY & RETAIL DESIGN IN ITALY