Salone del Mobile.Milano, started in 1961 by 13 Italian entrepreneurs to annually showcase furniture from Italy, is a much anticipated and anticipated celebration of furnishings and accessories. Italy has always been home to cutting edge design, attracting designers from around the world.
This year, in its 61st edition from April 18-23 in the Fiera Milano district in Rome, the exhibits are conveniently spread over a single level for ease of exploration. EuroLuce, the lighting design event returns after four years. The Salon Satellite features young designers under the age of 35, and facilitates relationships with businesses. Wandering through cathedrals, galleries and squares, Milan’s backdrop is enriching, where the ancient blends with antiquity and the modern with high-tech, providing seamless experiences in bespoke heritage environments. With new technology stressing the need to conserve resources, protect human rights and reduce environmental impact, sustainability is a buzzword. Here are some designs that caught on property plusMobile tracker:
1. Icons of Design Collab
Cobra Lamp by Martinelli Luce | photo credit: martinelliluce.com
Italy has always honored its various masters of the arts, from polyglots like Da Vinci and Michelangelo to today’s Versace. Iconic brands shape design movements by creating a strong sense of look and feel. The Highsnobiety Magazine collab showcased furniture pieces by renowned designers since the 1920s, from Ana Maria Ferrieri to Jonathan de Pas and others. These head-turners are eye-openers for an early innovative use of plastic and distilled simplicity. Our pick is the Cobra Lamp by Martinelli Luce, which illustrates how mundane, everyday objects can inspire enduring forms that become classics.
2. A circular turn
Doorknob by Atelier Landon of Morocco | photo credit: maison-objet.com
I’m a big fan of clever single-ingredient use. This gorgeous doorknob by Atelier Landon of Morocco brings mystical Eastern symbolism to blend with modern technology and skill in a single spin. Reminiscent of Indian Bidri-ware and decidedly craft inspired, the knob is deceptively simple and made of brass wire. The beauty of this 10 cm high knob of 8 cm diameter lies in its ability to transform the coil into a circular shape, which resonates with nature like the sun, moon, planets and stars. Like those famous lines of Blake – ‘To see a world in a grain of sand…hold infinity in the palm of your hand.’
3. Beyond the Bath
Introverso washbasin by designer Paolo Luppian | photo credit: antoniolupi.it
Once functional spaces, bathrooms have exclusively become sanctuaries where you can pamper yourself and spend dedicated time in wellness. Covering an area of 17,000 square meters with 172 exhibitors, the focus of the 8th edition is on sustainability. The Introverso washbasin by designer Paolo Luppian for Antoniolupi uses faceted layers of Carrara marble, which you can literally break to create a jagged look. The transparency of the stone and the shape of the sculpture is further enhanced by the possibilities of other dimensions – sound and touch. When you slide your fingers on the marble, you can hear the natural music.
4. Bend it like a bamboo
From Jacqueline Collection | photo credit: special arrangement
Gacy’s ‘haute culture’ explores intimate spaces of living with new collection launching at Milan Design Week. Inspired by nature, the bathroom fittings feature subtle interactions that trace the regenerative element of water. Bamboo, a material never before used in bathrooms, makes its debut in the faucet designs of the Jacqueline collection. The hollow bamboo roots are hand-selected, ensuring a seamless adaptation to the design, complementing a sense of natural well-being and harmony.
5. Spark of Inspiration
Euroluce | photo credit: special arrangement
Salon’s exclusive international lighting exhibition, known for bridge technology and poetry, architecture and design. Based on the theme of the City of Lights, the centerpiece of the 31st edition of the biennial titled EuroLuce has been set up at Aurore Plaza. The strong interdisciplinary nature of the event manifests itself in the architectural photography by Hélène Binet titled Nature, Time and Architecture. Seven major exhibits take place in ‘intermezzos’ or modular structures of recyclable wood, which allow the spaces to pause and reflect.
6. Peel and sit
Daroga and Aurel’s Beba Chair | photo credit: draga-aurel.com
Drago & Aurel’s Beba chair may be a take-off from Eero Saarinen’s Tulip Chair, with its clear reference to a blooming flower. Still, there’s something very cocoon-like about these sculpted forms that alludes to the haute couture corset. From the beginning of modernism, ergonomics and comfort went hand in hand with the whole ‘form and function’ adage, the two inevitably clashing when a designer valued the beauty of form or when function was given utmost priority. In chair design in particular, it has become essential to provide comfort for the body and take its shape to provide support. In a painted resin fiber frame, the Beba almost resembles an unzipped handbag, comfortable to sit on and sink into.
7. Where the Stones Speak
Created by Christian Mohamed | photo credit: @cristian.mohaded
Furniture has always given designers the license to tell stories. Beyond the obvious function of seating, eating, storing, etc., a piece of furniture becomes a canvas of expression. Commissioned by Loro Piana, designer Cristian Mohaded brings the Andes tradition of stacking rocks – a practice also familiar by Canada’s Inukshuks – in his ‘Apacheta’. This concept of sacred offering inspires his generation of esoteric motifs in his organic furniture that is sparsely modern yet spiritual. Mohamed Loro uses earthy colors to evoke sky, earth and stone with Piana’s discarded fabric.
8. Light Weaver
‘Evolutionary Pattern of Fabrics’ by Kawashima Celcon Textiles | photo credit: kawasimaselkon.co.jp
Whether shoji screens are room dividers or tatami mats, Japanese traditional crafts bring together the exquisite art of weaving to create cohesive surfaces admirable in interior spaces. The resulting minimalist design contributes to a calm and meditative feel to the spaces. ‘Evolutionary Patterns of Fabrics’ by Kawashima Celcon Textiles is another step in this direction, taking forward the traditional Japanese way of mediating spaces by layers of translucency. The manipulation of light has been admirably achieved to achieve tremendous finesse, exploring traditional Nishijin techniques, incorporating modern technology and innovations.
The author is a brand strategist with a background in design from SAIC and NID.