Highlights from Ventura Lambrate 2016.

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Left: Space Frames by Studio Mieke Meijer. Right: Entry to the show “Maybe blue would have been better” by Studio Mieke Meijer and Studio Jeroen Wand. Photos © Nick Hughes/ Yellowtrace.

A series of conceptual lights by the magician of glass that is Pieke Bergmans. Top image shows her PHENOMENEON – the first irregularly shaped neon light, which launched at last year’s Dutch Design Week. Bottom left is an old favourite from her series ‘Light Blubs’. Bottom right features a glass concept titled Freeze. Photos © Nick Hughes/ Yellowtrace.

I have to start off by saying that these kinds of reports always feel like an overwhelming task. Why? It’s a delicate balance trying to give you a proper overview while not overwhelming you with too much information so you don’t faint from a giant scroll, or switch off and pass out due to the length of the post. Argh! A the same time, I feel a huge sense of responsibility to do these types of events justice – to best represent the designers who were showing at Ventura Lambrate 2016, to give you a taste of the atmosphere via our own photos while revealing some of the detail of the beautiful product, the concepts and ideas that captured our imagination. But enough about my problems – let’s get stuck into it already!

Now in it’s 7th year, Ventura Lambrate is a curated design exhibition precinct located in the industrial area of North-East Milan. The event is brought to life by the Dutch studio Organisation in Design. I have to admit that last year, Ventura Lambrate left me feeling quite flat and underwhelmed, which meant that this year we only allowed a fraction of the usual time to explore this area. Once we arrived – I was quite pleasantly surprised – however, this has resulted in me literally RUNNING between different shows and warehouses, while the two boys were shooting. I was scoping the next thing, and running back and forth to get the rest of the team so we wouldn’t waste any time in the short couple of hours we had there. Alas, I have to say I’m really pleased to see that Lambrate had such a strong show this year, with so many incredible designers and displays on show. Sure, the event is still a far cry from the romantic beginnings when the central warehouse used to rock the house, alas there is still no denying that this is a unique event that captures the true spirit of creativity. A diverse mix of up-and-coming designers from around the world, leading design schools and established names all coming together for the same cause – the ultimate celebration of design.

Here are our highlights from Ventura Lambrate 2016.

Envisions – products in process, curated by Simone Post, Sanne Schuurman, Iwan Pol. “As the realms of design and manufacturing converge and the designer increasingly takes on the role of both inventor and maker, production is subject to change. Deconstruct and disrupt, reverse and reinvent: creatives seek to shake up the status quo by exploring previously undiscovered paths in the process. Envisions is a group exhibition that showcases everything but the end product. The collection of work aims to offer new insights to different phases that would normally never be seen by the public’s eye.” Photos © Nick Hughes/ Yellowtrace.

STUDIO OINK has created a small collection of unrecognisable objects, in collaboration with Aimee Bollu. The design process was based around the structure of the unknown; the two design studios have never met, interacting with each other only through social media. Found materials from each other’s cities were collected, traded and consumed, with the outcomes nestling alongside each other in the completed collection. ‘Design with the unknown’ was an exploration of unfamiliar territory for materials, processes, and people. Creating in different countries, time zones, ideals and expectations, where the only common language is the unknown. Photo © Nick Hughes/ Yellowtrace.

Still life by STUDIO OINK with Aimee Bollu.

Holed & Indefinite Vases by Studio E.O. Left: Holed collection of boxes and storage objects made from timber and aluminium. Right: Indefinite Vases are both sculptures and containers. Functional or decorative. The contrast between the cut stone and the form of the hand blown glass emphasises the relation between space and object, an interplay between a fragile material and its solid counterpart. Photos © Nick Hughes/ Yellowtrace.

Material exploration by Superface.

Boring Collection, Lensvelt Contract furniture and Space Encounters Office for Architecture. “Boring Collection was conceived and developed out of dissatisfaction with the appearance of affordable project furniture. The aesthetic of contemporary office furniture is pretty much dictated by legislation and therefore often detonate with the rest of the interior surroundings. Boring Collection does not pretend to be more beautiful, in fact; Boring Collection does not claim any attention. To the last detail, the furniture is a modest soft grey, and all shapes are archetypical, straightforward and discrete, with only one goal: to draw the eye to the things that actually matter.” The installation was accompanies by rims of A3 paper which the visitors were encourages to scrunch up and throw on the floor or nearby bins. The most fun we had all week! Photos © Nick Hughes/ Yellowtrace.

More from the Boring Collection event by Lensvelt. Bags of FUN! Images courtesy of Lensvelt.

Noni Exhibition explored the themes of Finland being a country of stark contrasts with a profound effect on its inhabitants, who are surrounded by the natural world that oscillates between harshness and sublime beauty. These ideas are expressed from the personal perspectives of a group of eight young designers living in Finland. Top: Pigmentprints on paper by Reeta Ek. Bottom left: Monoliitti blackened oak and glass containers – an ode to figural urns – by Collin Townsend Velkoff. Bottom right: Loon ceramic lamp by Iseult Uhlemann. Photos © Nick Hughes/ Yellowtrace.

THE JOURNEY OF THINGS is a collaborative exhibition which showcased unique crafted objects and their source of inspiration by six German designers, inviting the viewers to imagine the journey each individual item went through. Right: Dyed Wooden Textiles by Elisa Strozyk – a material that is half wood-half textile, sitting somewhere between hard and soft, challenging what can be expected from a material or category. It looks and smells familiar but feels strange, as it is able to move and form in unexpected ways. Photos © Nick Hughes/ Yellowtrace.

THE JOURNEY OF THINGS. Left: Ceramic Surface Mirrors by Elisa Strozyk. Right: Schoemig Porzellan.

THE JOURNEY OF THINGS: Ora by Joa Herrenknecht.

THE JOURNEY OF THINGS. Left: Heimat ceramic lampshades by Guillaume Neu Rinaudo & Birgit Severin. Right: Circle by Studio Milena Kling.

The Re Rag Rug exhibition by Studio Brieditis & Evans is the result of our one-year experimental project where the designers challenged themselves to create 12 unique rugs in 12 months, in 12 different techniques, using excess remnants of fabrics from the textile industry, all without using a loom. Photos © Nick Hughes/ Yellowtrace.

24 Hours in the Life of a Swiss Cuckoo Clock by HEAD–Genève Students. The cuckoos have already travelled around the world, from Paris to Langenthal, from Montreal to Boston and Hong Kong and Geneva, however at Ventura Lambrate, the clocks were displayed in an unprecedented scenography. The students were challenged to reinvent the iconic Swiss time-piece, giving a contemporary take while following an underlying principle: to uphold the necessary high standards of the traditional cuckoo clock and to tell the hours with a repeated song. Photos © Nick Hughes/ Yellowtrace.

Left: Bird Cage Clock by Dorothée Loustalot. A small pet bird tamed to tell the time, the canary marks the seconds by swinging in its cage. It acts as a pendulum, a poetic refrain on the passage of time. The twelve metal bars stand for the hours, with the gold one for 12 o’clock acting as a reference point. Right: Sémaphore by Wendy Gaze. The roll of paper measures out an entire year. It is printed as it unrolls. The ribbon of paper that gradually unravels across the floor is a material representation of the time that has passed, while at a glance we can count the time that remains.

The exhibition ‘Stories by the Water’ by furniture design students from University Of Gothenburg explored heritage in the region of Dalsland/Sweden, an area heavily influenced by its water. The artefacts show each student’s connection to the region, where the programme is located. Through new encounters with local life, students from Sweden, Taiwan, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Venzuela and Croatia each created pieces of furniture that are contemporary interpretations of history and local traditions.

Left: Marbelous by Jonatan Appelfeldt. “Back in the days “Jernkroken” was an important place for the people in the area. They were shipping out timber to the boats that brought them down the canal and further out into the country. A hook was mounted in the pink granite stone which arose from the need to attach boats to the land so that they couldn’t drift away. The need for the hook has become less over the years and it doesn’t get used in the same way as it was before. So in this project my starting point has been to work around the hooks form and its function to create an object that has the feeling off it but also a feeling of the water floating past this beautiful stone and how they connect to each other.”

Right: Sophie Hardy’s round table Breaking Surface looks simple at a first glance, but the faceted edge reveals over sixty layers of paper. “Inspired by two facts that I encountered during my research in Dals Långed. The disappearance of the paper industry that once created the village, and the abundance of international inhabitants that now live there. I wanted to use paper as my material to represent hidden potential and concealed beauty that I believe exists in the layering of a multicultural community. I formulated my concept using the inspiration and meaning I discovered in interactions with a Syrien Artist named Habib Alraii. His qualities like many others are hidden to others due to lack of communication, integration and social labels we have adopted. Breaking Surface is a synonym for something to emerge from under a surface. I hope to encourage discussions around integration, appreciation and celebration of the things that make us different or qualities we do not yet know about each other.”

Photos © Nick Hughes/ Yellowtrace.

Hot Wire Extensions by Studio ilio. The duo use electricity to form solid objects from wire and waste 3D-printing powder.

Bringing together 26 of Norway’s brightest stars of design and craft, Structure is a brand new initiative intended to showcase the vision, innovation and artistry behind Norwegian contemporary creative scene. Making its debut at Ventura Lambrate, Structure is the brainchild of three organisations: designers’ union Klubben, contemporary craft resource Norwegian Crafts and paint manufacturers Jotun, shown in collaboration with the Norwegian Centre for Design and Architecture. Structure invited participants to respond to the themes ‘structure or ‘trace’ – whether in terms of a mark of a prior existence, a small amount, a path, or an act of tracking. The result was a broad spectrum of unique interpretations, including innovative material applications, structural experiments and imaginative aesthetic effects. The exhibition was curated by Norway’s renowned interior stylists Kråkvik & D’Orazio and editor-in-chief of Swedish design magazine Residence Hanna Nova Beatrice. Wowee – what a line-up! And the results simply speak for themselves as this was by far one of the strongest shows at Ventura this year. Photos © Nick Hughes/ Yellowtrace.

A couple of favourites from Structures exhibition – Aerial by Falke Svatun and Porcelain Sheets by Christina Peel.

Another favourite from Structures exhibition – Navigate Tiles by Vera & Kyte.

Iraq-born, Amsterdam-based Hozan Zangana is inspired by language, tradition and rituals; essential elements in our world that do not occupy a physical space. Left: Elegant display of Zangana’s various decorative objects, such as vessels, paper-weights, vases and candle holders on a slender steel frame shelf. Right: Based on the elongated elegant S in Kufic script, Zangana designed a bench made from the wood of a tree from the waters of the Dutch Zaanse Schans. The bench’s long, slender horizontal shape gracefully rests on two short legs. All parts are very soft and smooth. The timber is coated with infinite layers of Indian ink. Photos © Nick Hughes/ Yellowtrace.

Australian design represent – the beautiful Polar Desk Lamps by Melbourne designer Ross Gardam. Photography by Haydn Cattach.

Left: Six Dutch designers – including Studio Mieke Meijer, De Intuïtiefabriek, Lex Pott, Visser & Meijwaard, OS ∆ OOS and Michiel Martens – were challenged by the supplier of decorative surfaces Baars & Bloemhoff to transform their surface materials into tangible products. Right: PLUSDESIGN gallery presented M/MAISON, a series of domestic objects by M/M (Mathias Augustyniak and Michaël Amzalag, Paris). The M/MAISON collection presents a selection of duos signs-as-designs developed over the past four years through a collaboration with Dior Homme. Conforming to their own rule of adding a new piece to each of their exhibitions, M/M have designed the Citronnier ou Laurier (Lemon Tree or Laurel), a modular “illusory object that reflects the world around“. Photos © Nick Hughes/ Yellowtrace. Photos © Nick Hughes/ Yellowtrace.

Kiss My Name installation by Kassiewijle, suggested that: nothing is certain but death, But dowdy flowers in a dull vase next to a pine coffin? Over our dead body!” Visser & Meijwaard, Studio KnockOut and Linda Nieuwstad present a setting in which you would want to be found dead. For the departed, nothing but the best. In other words, Kassiewijle is a colourful alternative for the farewell. Because a last impression can be left only once. Photos © Nick Hughes/ Yellowtrace.

Form&Seek group show featured the work of 24 designers from 9 countries. Shown here is Colour of the day light by Laura Lynn Jansen and Thomas Vailly.

Form&Seek group show: Plantation by Alicja Patanowska.

Form&Seek group show: Eye of the Light by Malgorzata Mozolewska.

Form&Seek group show – Left: Softie Wanted by Mandy Roos and Victoria Ledig. Right: Loom Bound by Rive Roshan.

That about covers it. Of course, there was so much more I could share with, but ain’t nobody got time for that, right? Having said this, if this sort of thing floats your boat pretty hard, you can find many more images, products and other lovely moments from Ventura Lambrate 2016 in the gallery below. Enjoy!

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