Milano’12: Things in the city

    
The Milan Salone was way more than just the Fairgrounds. Fuorisalone (literally meaning outside of the fair) happened all around the city, including Zona Tortona, Brera, and the Triennale Museum, to name a few.

The Triennale di Milano mounted their annual Design Week exhibition series for the occasion. French brand Blackbody put up a show titled Wonderoled to explore the potential of OLED technology. Italian designer Alessandro Ciffo presented his Iperbolica series silicon armchairs. With no substructure, these mushy hyperbolic chairs take their final shapes from gravity, consistency of the cast, and the air volume trapped inside.

Blackbody’s Wonderoled exhibition with I.Rain by Thierry Gaugain on the left

Blossoms by CibicWorkshop

Alessandro Ciffo’s Iperbolica

Spazio Rossana Orlandi organized its exhibits around a former tie factory in the Magenta Neighborhood. Things on show here included Italian sculptor Benedetta Mori Ubaldini’s wire mesh (chicken net) objects and Slovenian designer Nika Zupanc’s Summertime lamps that look like huge bubbles. In the courtyard, there was Bocci’s 38 Series by Vancouver-based architect Omer Arbel. These blown glass lamps are well integrated with plants and a mechanical conveyor system.

Spazio Rossana Orlandi

Benedetta Mori Ubaldini’s wire mesh objects

Summertime by Nika Zupanc

Bocci’s 38 Series by Omer Arbel

After the stunning display at Design Miami/Basel last year, Nacho Carbonell continued to be a major feature at Rossana Orlandi. Just upon arrival, one could see the Soft LED Lightbulb Carbonell developed for the Dutch brand Booo, using rubber to contrast the conventional concept of fragile and cold glass bulbs. In the courtyard, the bronze chair Auditorium was sitting quietly. In the staircase, fragments of Silent Wall were hung on the wall – samples for an entire wall made of small soft pieces of pigmented polyurethane foam in the restaurant next door.

Soft LED Lightbulb by Nacho Carbonell for Booo

Auditorium

Silent Wall fragments

Carbonell’s work was also seen in other locations in Milan. At the Tom Dixon curated MOST show, Memoralia stood outside of an exhibition shed. At the Legacy show organized by INTERNI, Carbonell’s Bush of Iron chair had a stunning presence by a staircase.

Memoralia by Nacho Carbonell at MOST

Bush of Iron by Nacho Carbonell at INTERNI Legacy

Ingo Maurer, the German designer responsible for my favorite installation at the INTERNI show last year, presented several new works at his solo show at Spazio Krizia. The most eye-catching was an acoustical wall installation called Biotope, featuring green sponge and LED butterfly. Other impressive pieces included Candle in the Wind, a chandelier with flickering digital candle flames, and prototypes of a single LED candle in front of the LED Wallpaper.

Biotope acoustical wall installation by Ingo Maurer

Candle in the Wind by Ingo Maurer

LED Wallpaper by Ingo Maurer

Zona Tortona kept up with its cool and hip buzz this year. Temporary museum, special showrooms, pop-up stores, and of course, street bars and eateries. I spotted this stunning wood casting by Hilla Shamia. Aluminum flows into the cracks of a tree trunk, leaving dark burnt edges that mark the heated synthesis of the two materials.

Wood casting by Hilla Shamia

Bisazza and Established & Sons occupied Area 56 on via Savona. With bright light stripes wrapping around, Established & Sons’ show featured the Aqua Table by Zaha Hadid, the Iris series by BarberOsgerby, Quilt by the Bouroullec brothers, the Cape sofa by Konstantin Grcic, and the soft PVC dipped polymer lamps called Touch Light by Sylvain Willenz. Bisazza launched new bathroom furniture lines designed by Nendo and Marcel Wanders. The Wanders Collection combined the aesthetic of new antiques with the clean shape of a bar soap.

Iris series by BarberOsgerby (left) and Aqua Table by Zaha Hadid (right)

Quilt (middle) by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec

Cape sofa by Konstantin Grcic

Touch Light by Sylvain Willenz

Marcel Wanders for Bisazza Bagno

Marcel Wanders’s own company Moooi had a showroom a few blocks away. Moooi presented their new collection with the new campaign concept “Inside the Box,” portraying a product almost humanly wrapped by a naked person inside a (gift) box.

Moooi Showroom

Heracleum II LED lamp by Bertjan Pot

Altdeutsche Cupboard by Studio Job

In Brera, Salvatori presented their new finishes and furnishing complements at their showroom. The most impressive was Ron Gilad’s Soft Marble collection. Just around the corner, Dilmos put up a Ron Gilad show for a second year in a row. As implied in the titled “The Line, the Arch, the Circle & the Square,” the exhibition returned to the basic parts a designer deals with. I found it very intriguing to see the small Michael Thonet chairs holding the “56” Day Bed and the “56” Cabinet.

Soft Marble collection by Ron Gilad for Salvatori

“56” Day Bed

“56” Cabinet

Void stools and one of the “IX Mirrors”

    

Milano’12: Things at the Fairgrounds

There were thousands of exhibitors at the Rho Fairgrounds – no way I could see them all. For somebody as greedy as I am, it could be quite stressful. I made up my mind at the end: next time, I’d better strategize and prioritize, or simply arrive earlier in the day.

From what I saw, it seemed that funny shapes and bright colors were not as omnipresent as last year. But it was still a wide-spread trend, seen in brands from Italy, France, Denmark, and the Netherlands.

Dutch brand Leolux presented its new collection with blown up chandelier

Danish brand Softline’s Rio lounge chair by Busk+Hertzog

French brand Roche Bobois’s Sputnik chairs by Sacha Lakic, in good company with that book there

Campeggi launched iPouf lounge/speakers by Emanuele Magini

An earlier product from Campeggi: Airpouf stool/vacuum cleaner by Lorenzo Damiani

Casamania’s new Chariot is a mobile table with exaggerated wheels on the sides, designed by Gamfratesi

Fabio Novembre designed the 36h and 56h chairs for Driade, using an aluminum structure covered with woven plastic. He named the product after the temporal value each of them requires, in honor of the work of the skilled craftsmen who made them. They look odd, but actually they are quite comfortable. I also spotted the interior line of Sicis Mosaics called Sicis Next Art. It was so over-the-top that it made Fabio look tame. I kept wondering if it was responsible for Princess Beatrice’s hat at the royal wedding one year ago.

Driade’s 36h and 56h chairs by Fabio Novembre

Sicis Next Art

Of course it was not just about shapes. Some nice pieces explored the use of different materials, from the classics to the unexpected.

Glas Italia’s Nezu series by Jasper Morrison is made of a new double-faced
acid-etched glass, tempered and thermo-welded together.

Cor-ten furniture at the De Castelli stand

Univers series by Wolf Udo Wagner for Fischer Möbel uses foam-coating similar to Quinze & Milan’s.

Kenneth Cobonpue’s Cabaret series has thick fabric tubes woven over a steel frame.

Emporium’s Cora and Zoe chairs by Roberto Giacomucci are made from partially melted plastic
from recycling process. They look soft but are actually quite hard.

Mogg presented a dresser that looks like a pile of lumber.

Casamania’s Rememberme chairs by Tobias Juretzek are entirely made from old clothes.

Nani Marquina showed her new Chillida collection, which transforms
the Spanish master’s artworks into high quality rugs.

Many well-known brands took the opportunity to launch their new products. Magis, for example, presented the Pila chairs and the Pilo table designed by the Bouroullec brothers. They showed the designers’ consistent attention to form, materiality, and detail. Pila has a thin plywood seat and back supported on an aluminum frame almost invisible underneath, while Pilo features cast aluminum connectors between the legs and the table top. Marcel Wanders added some wicker-backed chairs to his Cyborg series. There were also Clouds and Birds – hanging sculptures made of metal mesh by sculptor Benedetta Mori Ubaldini, whose work was also shown at Spazio Rossana Orlandi.

Pila chairs and Pilo table by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec

Aluminum connector under Pilo

Wicker chairs by Marcel Wanders

Clouds by Benedetta Mori Ubaldini

Moroso showed products including the “Successful Living” collection with Diesel. The Moon chairs by Tokujin Yoshioka were shown again, but this year with a brushed metal texture.

Rock series, Diesel with Moroso

Moon chairs by Tokujin Yoshioka

Vitra presented the Grand Repos by Antonio Citterio. I actually found those hard plastic balloons and soft stuffed cactus very interesting.

Grand Repos by Antonio Citterio

Molteni&C launched the Grado° collection by NY-based Israeli designer Ron Gilad. It showed an intricate play with geometry. In the series of wooden and glass tables, he made use of 45° edges, shaving off the corners and softening the cubic shape. The 35° coffee table and 60° sideboard look like open boxes with very elegant thin metal wire frame.

45° tables by Ron Gilad

35° coffee table and 60° sideboard by Ron Gilad