Milan Design Week 2021 has finally arrived, exploded in all its energy!
Last week Milan brought back the ever-moving machine of the Salone del Mobile, in an extraordinary version, accompanied by the districts of Fuorisalone threatened in the urban fabric of the capital.
The long-awaited autumn edition has aroused an ever more tangible ferment, which was followed by a positivity and acceptance by the whole population. A clear message of restarting a Milan that is rediscovered in all its energy and desire for innovation.
The digital edition in April has also increased the desire to return to the presence, between stands and creative installations!
We also looked around the Supersalone stands and the fuorisalone exhibitions, looking for ideas and inspirations, for a continuous update on trends and design ideas.
Here is our balance of this autumn edition between considerations and personal selection!
Between Fashion and Interior Design: care of visual
Over the years, the Fuorisalone has always been recognized for its thematic installations, on the edge between art exhibitions and immersive installation. In recent years, brands from the fashion world have been increasingly recognized.
In 2019 the most successful is certainly Cos at Palazzo Isimbardi with its unstructured portal in 3D printed volumes. Accompanying him, Hermès at the La Pelota complex and his attention to the handcrafted product, but also Missoni with Home Sweet Home staging a textile world permeated with saturated colors.
During the just ended Milan Design Week 2021, high fashion brands are once again recognized for their exhibition methodology and amazing sets. Hermès, Antonio Marras, Dior and Gucci certainly among the most nominated of this edition.
Hermès, Collection for the Home – La Pelota
The French haute couture house returns to Pelota with a dreamlike setting: 5 display totems hand-decorated by the scenographers of the Teatro alla Scala, reinterpreting the concept of “home”. Internally, divided into different themes, Objects from the Home collection that enhance the materiality, the artisan imprint and the meticulous work of the handmade. An installation that strikes and remains impressed not only for its aesthetic impact, but also and above all for the values transmitted and the emotionality of the space. To admire the obsessive attention to points of view, the architectural lines and the seriality of the graphics, the tactility of the materials enhanced by the objects that want to be touched and felt.
Dior, The Dior Medallion Chair – Palazzo Citterio
The theatrical installation commissioned by Maria Grazia Chiuri comes to life at Palazzo Citterio. The protagonist is the iconic Medallion Chair, in Louis XVI style, chosen by Christian Dior as the essential emblem of the French Maison for its elegance and its “Parisian style”. 17 artists and designers were thus invited to reinterpret the original chair, giving life to objects at the mercy of fantastic creation, conceptual and graphic reinterpretation. Provocative, witty, haughty, deconstructed, impossible. An installation that fully enhances the various chairs, making them the protagonists of a masterful staging.
Left: Ma Yansong, Meteor
Center: India Mahdavi, Swan
Right: Seungjin Yang, Blowing chair for Dior
Alcova – Former Military Hospital
The charm of abandonment enchants visitors to Alcova, creating interesting conceptual and visual contrasts with the design works. Among exposed systems, peeling walls and sinks with rusted pipes of the former Military Hospital, contemporary design takes center stage.
Here settings with a sophisticated and immersive scenographic impact meet exhibition environments with a highly expressive concept.
An example is Brassless, curated by Studio Vedèt for Nilufar Galley, whose stated goal is to accelerate the end of the brass trend. Extremely used material from 2017 to today, whose diffusion has been emphasized by the fast distribution of the internet and social media, the exhibition does not want to sanction the end of brass, but rather a denunciation of the decadence of trends.
With this logic, 13 talented designers, deliberately extraneous to contemporary trends, were selectedwhose objects experience the ductility, resistance, aesthetics and technical properties of metals. From gold, to pressed aluminum, passing through nickel and copper, but also silver and steel. Transparent Landscapes by Studiozero, on the other hand, investigates the theme of transparency, declined in a sensorial set-up, between visual and sound, and in the presentation of three iconic objects: a mirror, a carpet and a floor lamp.
On the upper floor of the Laundry building, instead, one finds oneself projected into the surreal atmosphere of A Clockwork Orange through the revisited reproduction of the Milk Bar curated by HEAD.
Nilufar Gallery, Brassless e Object of Common Use, Alcova
Transparent Landscapes, Studio Zero, Alcova
Korova Milk Bar, HEAD
Turri, Supersalone
La Casa Fluida, Elle Decor
ACQVA, Senato Hotel Milano
Ferri mobil, Supersalone
Left: De Castelli, Supersalone
Right: Kerakoll Design House, Kerakoll
Left: Connubia, Supersalone
Right: Between the lines, Luigi Ghirri, Mutina
Studiopepe per Mohd Milano
Between reflections and suggestive ideas: the importance of the concept
In this Milan Design Week 2021, the care of the concept and the message conveyed are undoubtedly given greater importance to the most successful installations. In addition to the aforementioned exemplary installations by Hermès and Dior, Nilufar Gallery by Alcova and La Casa Fluida by Elle Decor also find a double positive response.
The latter, already mentioned for the chromatic setting of its interiors, is even more appreciable because it is flanked by the development of contemporary themes.
The fluidity of domestic rooms gives light to some of the increasingly aware needs that the pandemic has left us.
11 environments decline these needs with increasingly flexible solutions and food for thought for the new domesticity.
La Casa Fluida, Elle Decor
Living Corriere, Double signature – Palazzo Morando
At Palazzo Morando, among the projects presented in Living Corriere’s Double Signature, Ugo La Pietra pays homage to the crafts of art and genius loci through Vasi Architettura / Natura. The message transmitted, between provocative and denouncing, aims to protect urban greenery, often included in architectural and urban planning projects to justify and try to restore balance to the continuous construction action to which cities are subject. The architectures then become the cradle of land within which nature should find life, but is instead bound.
Vasi Architettura/Natura, Ugo La Pietra per Doppiafirma, Living Corriere
Interni, Interni Creative Collection – State University of Milan
At the State University of Milan, the theme of nature, linked to its animal species, returns with Survival within the Courtyard of Honor. A raft, a modern Noah’s Ark, welcomes the iconic animals of Qeebo in an extreme rescue attempt from global warming, loaded by means of mechanical elevators.
The exhibition curated by Nanda Vigo with Ctrlzak in the west loggia also has an almost apocalyptic vision. Two large glass cases welcome artifacts and artistic creations in a lunar landscape, enriching them with an otherworldly connotation.
Survival, Qeebo
Saeturn, Nanda Vigo and Ctrlzak
Care of detail: textured leather inserts for high-end products
If the Fuorisalone reserved great surprises during Milan Design Week 2021 as regards ideas, themes and installations, the credit for the attention to details and finishes certainly goes to the products displayed during the Supersalone. various brands, giving up distinct and iconographic stands, focus attention on the products.
Here then is that details and finishes are even more appreciable.
Among these we mention Turri, whose sofas have leather-covered seams create interesting chromatic and material contrasts.
Also reflected in the detail of the armrest, in which a visible light structure is re-proposed that recalls the initial of the logo.
Also in leather are the CPRN handles with a semicircular development, matching the warm orange color of the doors, also used in the top.
Ceppi embraces the soft structure of a large sofa with containing tie-rods which, rolling around the exposed structure, then winds around the entire external perimeter. Porada embellishes a dark wood console with prestigious pull-out drawers whose handles are replaced by knotted laces.
An almost masculine complement, with an austere and modern look.
The theme of the lace is also found in Hausen, whose bookcase has shelves connected to each other by a metal profile that winds around embracing the individual elements.
Turri, Supersalone
Hausen (Left) e Porada (Right), Supersalone
Hausen (sinistra) e Porada (Destra), Supersalone
Materials among new trends, processes and sensations during Milan Design Week 2021
In the textile world, the well-identified address is witnessing the rebirth of bouclé both in light monochromatic shades and in two-tone variants.
Among the many examples exhibited in this Milan Design Week 2021 we can mention SEM Milano in Alcova and Porada itself.
Still as regards the fabrics, the chromatic choice and the thoughtful combinations of Hermès are masterful.
Turning instead to timeless marble, Salvatori’s proposals are extremely refined, as every year. Miniatures of domestic architecture are combined with objects of common use, made courtly by the eternal material par excellence.
To enhance its ductility, making it almost a fluid material, is the Agglomerati in Alcova proposal. Here the Palissandro marble seems to bend softly in an interesting interlocking game in the MASS proposal. In the Round Table variant, the same principle transforms the top into structural legs, gently unraveling like a soft fabric.
Also noteworthy is the new Antolini showroom inaugurated during Milan Design Week 2021 in Piazza Fontana. Here a spectacular open spot develops from the exhibition wall through double-sided strips. A perfectly successful scenographic effect capable not only of enhancing the beauty of the marble essences, but also the infinite processing skills. On the lower floor, different set-up methods expose the natural material distinguished by color, type or surface finish.
Left: Agglomerati, MAAS
Right: SEM Milano, Alcova
Antolini Showroom in Piazza Fontana
Conclusions of the Milan Design Week 2021 in the autumn version
After the digital edition of Milan Design Week, what remains of this edition finally in attendance is a great desire to leave. Milan, which seemed almost passable and turned off during the period of the pandemic, instead showed the great car in turmoil that was feeding itself. The spotlights are therefore turned off for this edition, ready to turn on again from 4th to 10th April with the traditional and beloved week of furniture.
See you then in 2022, ready to welcome the news!
