The Embassy of Italy in Kosovo marks the 10th edition of Italian Design Day, dedicated to Re-Design, featuring a special guest: Gaetano di Tondo, President of the Olivetti Historical Archive.
The tenth edition of Italian Design Day 2026 is confirmed as one of the most important events for promoting Italian excellence abroad. This year’s focus is the theme “RE-DESIGN. Regenerating spaces, objects, ideas and relationships,” which goes beyond a simple statement and reflects a very current need: to rethink the way we live in spaces, how we design the present, and how we build more conscious relationships.
Organized by the Embassy of Italy in Kosovo, the initiative will take place at the Autostrada Biennale Hangar, choosing Prizren as its stage—a city with a strong cultural and architectural identity, symbolizing historical layering and dialogue between different languages.
The event, scheduled for Friday, April 10, will open with welcoming remarks by Chiara Castaldo, Deputy Ambassador of Italy in Kosovo, together with Leutrim Fisheku and Vatra Abrashi, directors and co-founders of Autostrada Biennale, a long-standing partner of the Embassy and a reference point in Kosovo’s cultural scene, as well as the Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism, Nora Arapi Krasniqi.
The main moment of the event will be the speech by Gaetano di Tondo, President of the Olivetti Historical Archive Association and Vice President for Communication at Olivetti. He will offer a reflection on the value of Re-Design in Olivetti’s history and heritage: a unique opportunity to share a concrete example of how innovation, culture, and social responsibility can create sustainable models and visions for the future. This will be followed by an open discussion, enriched by the contribution of Professor Flaka Xerxa Beqiri, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Pristina. The event aims to bring into dialogue industrial vision, historical memory, and academic education, returning design to its deepest essence: as a tool that shapes change.
In this context, Tondo’s reflection highlights the cultural value of design as a key to understanding innovation and guiding contemporary transformations:
“Olivetti has always experienced Re-Design as a way of thinking: the belief that every development becomes stronger when design enhances technology, makes complexity more understandable, and places the human being at the center. In this way, change gains meaning, and that meaning becomes a real force that guides the future.”
At the end of the open discussion, a visit will take place to the exhibition “Olivetti in Femininity,” dedicated to the role of women in Olivetti’s iconic advertising campaigns.
Italian Design Day 2026 is not presented merely as a celebration, but as an opportunity for reflection and dialogue between past and future, between aesthetics and function. A moment in which design returns as a concrete tool of regeneration and as an instrument that opens new shared perspectives.
The Italian Design Day in the World, now in its tenth edition, is promoted and coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture. The annual edition includes a broad program of promotional activities worldwide, organized by the network of Embassies, Consulates, Italian Cultural Institutes, and ICE offices abroad, in cooperation with key actors in the internationalization of the wood, furniture, and design sectors. The project is part of the strategy for promoting Italian excellence, with the aim of advancing these sectors in foreign markets—which account for over 3% of total Italian exports.
