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Zaha Hadid also found time to develop vases for Serralunga, as did Lovegrove and French designer Jean-Marie Massaud. All were huge and botanically-formed, though the negative volume of Hadid's piece was barely adequate for a single stem; the flower a flippant rationale for an otherwise highly emotional and extravagant product. Massaud also presented a chair, Ad Hoc, which embraced the Nature theme evident throughout the show. Literally realised by the cactus-like profile of his vase, Massaud's chair instead uses a leaf-like pattern in its mesh, bulging to define the seat back and base. Marcello Ziliani used similar floral decoration for 'Caprice', as did Philippe Starck on 'Miss Lacy', a stainless-steel chair for Driade.
Other notable work around the Tortona block included two Swedish companies making their debut, Vujj and Lyx. Vujj occupied a space near the Lexus installation (to be reviewed soon) and presented furniture in a range of styles, from pink wire-frames to squat sofas. The most interesting piece though was an ovoid chair that resembled a molten artist's palette with an innovative seam graphic. Conversely Lyx concentrated on more geometric shapes, cylinders and cuboids defining the styling concept of two of their sofas, but as with Vujj it was the more freeform work that stood out, using MDF sheets in evolving shapes to create a twisting bench. Exposing two-dimensional material as a component of a 3D piece was a popular theme this year, and contradicts the more sculptural approach propagated by Hadid and Lovegrove.
Back in Fiera, Salon Satellite, a platform for launching young talent, was celebrating its tenth anniversary. Here Car Design News caught up with Nolen Niu, an ACCD grad whose work has earned him a place at New York's equivalent furniture show, ICFF, and a spread in the New York Times. Niu's success demonstrates the necessity of a simple idea well-resolved, and this year presented a sofa inspired by a Star Wars X-Wing fighter. Accordingly the front elevation is an 'X' in shape, while the positions of the seat back and arm-rests encourage people to sit facing each other.
This is one side of Satellite but there are many other people who invert the concept/resolution equation, Katrin Greiling a good example. Most products aim to solve a particular problem, but Greiling goes one step further in creating a scenario centered on a fictitious character named 'Je m'appelle moustache', a lightbulb with a moustache, curiously. Her products are designed for him: she has a briefcase that doubles as a lightbox for spontaneous tracing (you never know) and stools with an identity crisis, believing as they do, that they are horses. Greiling has even produced felt carrots to feed them.
None of this will hit the broadsheets, but it demonstrates the abstract thinking that defines Satellite and vindicates another recent trend, the use of felt. Greiling gave hers a linear grain as if knitted, while a felt chair we saw used epoxy resin to negate other structure, and it proved a popular material with a handful of designers resurrecting carpet tiles. But the most apt use of it though was by a Japanese designer, Takehiro Ando -he had used felt to make more chandeliers.
Related stories:
Show Review: Milan Design Week 2006
Design Essay: Pseudomotive Design 
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