The best of Milan Design Week 2019

The annual Salone del Mobile in Milan has evolved into much more than a humble furniture fair. Showcasing the very best highlights from the world of design, the fair welcomes hundreds of thousands of visitors each year and presents the works of emerging designers alongside new innovations from household names. At its 58^th display this week, the world-renowned show solidified its status as a pioneering creative platform, bringing together over 1,300 creators, design enthusiasts and the latest in ground-breaking projects.

Meanwhile, outside of the fair, exhibitions commissioned by design icons such as Vogue Italia, Louis Vuitton and Issey Miyake as well as unique installations by a variety of international artists take over the city. We share a visual guide of this year’s highlights.

Louis Vuitton Objets Nomades collection

Fusing the expertise of its creative designers, Louis Vuitton’s Objets Nomades collection showcases experimental and innovative home furnishings. The results of a new collaboration with Atelier Biagetti and Zanellato/Bortotto are displayed exclusively at this year’s Salone and featured Mandala-inspired forms, meshwork and block colouring.

LOEWE exhibition

Leatherwork and woven frames are prominent features in the exhibition by Spanish design house LOEWE, who were making their fifth appearance at the fair. With a focus on basketry and hand quilting, LOEWE enlisted a team of 10 international designers to create a series of pieces from lampshades to handbags.

Pavilion Porta Venezia

The large-scale installation “A Friend”, designed by Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama and presented by Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, was specifically envisaged with the framework of the Porta Venezia in mind. As the original demarcation point between the city of Milan and the countryside beyond, the gateway stands as a symbol of the relationship between the urban and natural world. Mahama explores this idea in the context of immigration and contemporary borders.

Life in Vogue

Vogue Italia’s offices are hosting a group of eight designers and architects for the second edition of Life in Vogue. The temporary interior installations have transformed the magazine’s offices into a visual gallery that offer various interpretations of the modern workplace, from minimalist brights and mood lighting to functional classics.

Samsung Electronics

Samsung have revealed a maze-like interactive installation, “Resonance”, at the Fuorisalone. The exhibition is composed of three zones – Empathy, Discovery and Immersion – in which visitors are invited to become active participants in the artwork. With the aim of offering each guest a unique experience, strings of light and projections of colour spectrums react to the movement, speech and breath of individuals as they move around the futuristic space.

Sala Reale

The exquisite Sala Reale in Milan’s central station once served as a private waiting room for the royal family. Most recently it housed furniture and interior products from various designers under Pleasure & Treasure. One installation showcases a range of marble and pastel furnishings with rounded edges and curved forms – all against candyfloss pink cloud backdrop and cushioned by a sea of Styrofoam.

IQOS World Revealed by Alex Chinneck

Coinciding with Design Week, British artist Alex Chinneck has ‘unzipped’ the façade of this Milan building, revealing its interior. Presented by Philip Morris, the installation titled IQOS World Revealed, evokes a process of transformation, in which the interior spaces, are radically changed through unlikely ‘openings’ in the cement pavement and stone walls.

Palazzo Litta Pavilion

Chilean architecture studio Pezo von Ellrichshausen has created a synergy between classical Milan and its contemporary re-imagining with its installation, Echo. The smooth, inverted pavilion structure is covered with a mirrored surface to reflect the baroque architecture of the buildings in the courtyard of the Palazzo Litta.

La Triennale di Milano

Paola Antonelli, the senior curator of architecture and design at MoMA, presented Broken Nature: Design Takes on Human Survival at La Triennale di Milano design museum. A range of furnishings and objets d’art, from numerous projects over the past three decades, explores the relationship between society and nature. The use of recycled cans and plastic, reflective surfaces and haunting depictions of the human form question our legacy as the connection to our surrounding environment continues to deteriorate.

KALEIDOSCOPE

Contemporary art studio KALEIDOSCOPE teamed up with luggage brand RIMOWA to create an exhibit comprising an installation, print publication and short film held at the Spazio Maiocchi, an art space founded in 2017 by Carhartt WIP and Slam Jam. Inspired by petrol stations and his of sci-fi, Spanish designer Guillermo Santomá has created something of a Back to the Future tribute in his GAS installation. Surrounded by neon tubing and analogue television sets, a customised car disturbs the ‘80s aesthetic with futuristic silver panelling whilst showcasing Santomá’s preoccupation with industrial materials and processes.

Zaha Hadid x Rosenthal 

Architects Zaha Hadid collaborated with Rosenthal, a world-leading designer of porcelain furnishings, to create a series of eclectic and elegant vases. The Lapp collection features ceramic forms with a high-gloss metallic finish pieces that mimic the fluid form of water droplets, whilst Weave showcases a range of matte pastel and black curved, angular vases.

Issey Miyake

This year, Issey Miyake invited Dutch designer Jólan van der Wiel to present Journey of a Raindrop: The strange attraction of water. An intricate maze of clear tubing suspended in the centre of Issey Miyake’s flagship concept store creates a visual cycle of water and perfectly expressed both the fragility and beauty of the natural world.

Tom Dixon

Following the success of the Coal Office in London, designer Tom Dixon revealed his first showroom and restaurant in continental Europe. The opening of the Manzoni was set to coincide with the Salone and also provided the setting for the launch of three product ranges. Bespoke pieces featured curved forms, marble surfaces and metallic accents to create a warm and inviting atmosphere for visitors. Of the project, Dixon said, “With the city being so active and engaging right now, it is the right time to forget being temporary and build something permanent.”

Fendi Casa

Partnering with architect and interior designer Cristina Celestino, Fendi Casa introduced its “Back Home” collection of home furnishings at the Via Solari exhibition space. Celestino has re-imagined plush armchairs, 1970s-inspired pieces and flooring whilst incorporating the brand’s recognisable Pequin striped motif throughout the series.

Follow Matteo Strocchia @matteostrocchia

Milan Design Week runs until Sunday 14 May across locations