There was something new in the air at this year’s Milan Design Week festivities. Was it that there was just so much more to see? Was it the grandiosity of the installations, between retail giants at Salone in Rho Fiera to the previously more underground events such as Ventura Centrale and showroom events? We’re still trying to put our finger on it.
What was made abundantly clear is that Salone is no longer just a furniture fair; it’s a global event that reigns in the most obscure of studios to tech giants like Google.
What always tends to surprise us about Salone is that despite it’s inherently commercial nature and new tech-giant presence, it still manages to show us a number of experimental exhibitions that speak to the wonder of design and not just to commercial value. Despite it’s much larger scale in the year 2019, Milan Design Week managed to provide a number of sights that dropped jaws while also engaging a sense of responsibility in the design world, asking the community for more than just a collection of nice chairs. Included here is a selection of just a few of our favorite exhibitions and projects that we experienced during this year’s design week.
Lexus Design Award Pavilion
In addition to an exhibition explaining the finalist and winning projects form this year’s Lexus design Award (Algorithmic Lace by Lisa Marks took first place), Lexus’ massive pavilion featured a robotic and light installation by Japanese art and technology design firm Rhizomatiks.
Photo credit: Core77
Still / Life
Calico Wallpaper and Ladies & Gentlemen Studio truly created a calming oasis that we took pleasure in visiting after a long day at the fair.
Photo credit: Core77
Still / Life
The pieces created by Ladies & Gentlemen and Mud Australia were complemented by oversized flowers and striking gradient wallpaper from Calico, which enhanced the still live vignettes and gave the pieces a strong voice.
Photo credit: Core77
Nendo x Wonderglass: The Shape of Gravity
This year for Salone, Wonderglass teamed up with Japanese studio nendo to create Melt, a collection of glass casted furniture made by bending molten glass sheets onto steel forms and then melting the sheets together into furniture forms.
Photo credit: Core77
Nendo x Wonderglass: The Shape of Gravity
Wonderglass is a London based brand that pairs modern designers with traditional craftspeople to create contemporary design pieces. Nendo principal Oki Sato was matched with master glass craftsmen in Venice to create this collection.
Photo credit: Core77
Stone Island
Stone Island’s high energy installation abstractly walked visitors through the design process of their Nylon Metal material process. Projections on the floor and hanging prototype jackets mirrored the beginning stages on the left with the finishing stages where the garment is dyed on the right.
Photo credit: Core77
Benjamin Hubert x Cosentino
Hubert created an aqueous feel using glass chandeliers that were formulated in CAD thanks to a randomized algorithm that helped like mimic the refraction of water. One of the refreshing parts of this installation was its truly experiential feel (i.e. it felt much less like a Instagram trap and more like a getaway from the Salone madness).
Photo credit: David Zanardi
Benjamin Hubert x Cosentino
Benjamin Hubert of LAYER’s collaboration with materials company Cosentino at Ventura Centrale was an architectural exploration demonstrating what the material Dekton could do. “We used reflection, refraction, and light to show the material in a more architectural setting,” Hubert told Core77, “and one of the things that’s interesting about the process, when they produce the material they remove all of the water. We thought it would be a nice, kind of poetic moment to bring the water back”.
