Milan Design Week: A CMF sampler

With Milan Design Week a multi-disciplined experience now, the material offerings have greatly multiplied, along with the proliferation of displays, installations, and showrooms. As we walked throughout Milan, and beyond, we found too many great materials to completely catalogue, so we decided a sample of the various materials on display might be a best approach for a report.

Here are some that caught our attention:

Metals

Steel: steel is a perennial large-scale material at certain displays- usually in large palazzo courtyards. Weathering Steel, or ‘COR-TEN’ as it’s often called in America, was on poetic display at Lasvit, where the ‘Porta’ installation shared the courtyard with large glass panels(above), a bed of wood shavings and mysterious clouds of steam that gave the whole installation an eerie vibe and earthy smell. One expected Macbeth’s witches to appear out of the mist. But the steel poetically evoked the surrounding colonnades, as did the glass panels (see below).

Aluminum: We visited the Hydro installation at the Capsule pop-up display space and reviewed their newest offering, post-consumer aluminum that can be recycled and cast or extruded into a myriad of shapes. Hydro commissioned various artists to create sculptures, lamps, and decorative items. Their work seems to promise a bright future for a material which has a high embodied energy content- an endless recycling loop would make this material much more environmentally friendly.

Elsewhere, at Porro, a crisp origami-like bench called ‘Origata’ in bright red displayed aluminum’s potential as a substitute for iron and steel. Inspired by the efficient cutting and folding of Kimono fabric, the bench is assembled from a single sheet of aluminum and held together with screws. If combined with Hydro’s new alloy process, these could be sustainable public and private furniture in both indoor and outdoor settings.

Steel and aluminum furniture cropped up all over the city, and at the Salone, as did stainless steel of various finishes on cabinets and countertops at EuroCucina- a sign that metals are still appreciated even when softer furniture ensembles dominate some show stands.

Also, copper made an infrequent, but always welcome appearance, as a trim piece or a shade on a lamp. Matched with wood of a complementary shade, or the right shades of orange ( the unofficial color of the Salone) it spoke of great potential in interiors of all kinds- even automotive.

Fabrics

Leather is, as always, a big presence at the Salone. And not without controversy in the past decade or so, as the material itself and its tanning and preparation processes come under increased scrutiny. But as our sponsor, Bridge of Weir has demonstrated, environmentally friendly processes can be applied to bring about a superior leather product. Hopefully, this will become an industry standard in the near future.

Porsche celebrated the 60^th anniversary of it bespoke houndstooth pattern, Pepita, in a special exhibit that included new chairs with the fabric from Vitra. Houndstooth is definitely old school, but it seemed to find a new generation of fans at the exhibit, which may inspire Porsche to bring new interiors with Pepita as the signature element in an automotive interior filled with hyper-modern gadgetry.

Curtains and soft surfaces characterized many installations, a contrast to some of the metal-focused exhibits. There was sense that fabrics, and softer versions of classic furniture represents an antidote to the screens that dominate our lives, and soft fabrics are an integral part of these environments.

Glass

As mentioned above, the Lasvit installation, ‘Porta’ showed off large-scale panels of architectural glass fused together in Europe’s largest glass kiln. The panels were, for this installation, embossed with various patterns that distorted the view (along with the steam and the mirrors) to lend an air of mystery to the classical confines of the courtyard at Palazzo Isimbardi.

Elsewhere at the Palazzo, glass took center stage with various sculptural panels, and as always, Lasvit’s line of excellent sculptural lamps and chandeliers, all showing the opportunities inherent with the modern fabrication techniques of glass.

Up at the Salone, it was the EuroCucina year, and glass countertops were definitely a trend.

We have our doubts about glass as a countertop material, but there’s no denying the artistry of it, especially combined with wood or stone. Definitely not for homes with children. And glass at the most intimate level, eyeglasses were part of the fun this year, as heavy chunky frames ruled amoung those in the designer set. Some were quite an architectural statement on those faces.

Wood and stone

Obviously, wood has a strong presence at any Salone, with reclaimed or sustainably sourced woods in favor in the last decade. But additionally, different finishes can make the difference in a piece, whether a sofa, a chair or a cabinet or wardrobe. This year, grooved and texture panels on cabinets, credenzas, and some furniture show an industry looking beyond the heavily lacquered purity of modernist wood expression, though there was plenty of that too.

Also, on trend, novel wood finishes including charring, ombre finishes and others that move wood beyond just a material (however beautiful) and into a sort of abstract painting that is both decorative and structural.

Stone, too has a long tradition at the Salone, and returned with surprisingly traditional applications- tables, countertops, flooring and so on. But there were quirky alternatives live a travertine drink cart that must have weighed 150 Kilograms, and other interesting variations on traditional (wood) furniture like chests of drawers and ottomans that seemed interesting and a little too edgy for everyday living.

Plastics

Plastics regularly make an appearance at the Salone, with some applications being provocative, some cheeky and humorous, and some really pushing the boundaries of the material. The Capsule installation at their pop-up space was definitely the former, with plastic elements that snap together to form furniture, accessories, and even pods for office space. Archigram and the Metabolists would have been proud.

The “Going Bananas” installation was much more on the cheeky side, with banana shaped seats and settees, tables, and lighted totem poles of plastic monkey heads. There was a distinct Tiki Lounge vibe about the exhibit, though its palazzo setting was a bit off the theme.

But the real provocation (in a very good way) were the experiments in acrylic resin. Kohler introduced its x_ SRA toilet, a brutalist orange sculpture that seems a shame to hide away in your bathroom, although your guests might have a hard time determining what the thing is.

Equally provocative, and more surreal, were two pieces from Fenix, a source of resin experiments. There was a circular table with a ridge in the middle. A strange dining table? Yes, but also a ping-pong table (the ridge is the net). And nearby a vis-à-vis dual rocking chair- perfect for two lovers playing a game of “exquisite corpse”.

Eloquently provocative, was the light/lamp exhibit at Foscarini which incorporated PET, glass beads, and LEDs, some woven into cloth to create beautiful light fixtures. An intimate interweaving of materials and light, it seems to preview a future where light and wall coverings are beautifully intertwined.

Overall trends at the Salone and Design Week? Everyone will have their different take on things, but here are some we noticed: Orange was the colour of the week, followed closely by maroon or oxblood (because of the Gucci exhibit).

Variations on the classics- many classic modern themes, but tweaked with overstuffed upholstery, new applications of materials, or inverting materials (stone instead of wood, for example) to give a new perspective on old favourites. And the palazzos, many hosting installations in their gardens and courtyards, great spaces, and great dialogue between classical architecture and modern expressions of form, sculpture and materials (see Lasvit at top).

Many modular sofas were arranged to create conversation “pits” but in a more modern, relaxed way. Older pits of the classic modern era were fixed in place and frequently sunken into the floor, rigidly dominating the room. These modern proposals work within a larger room, but can be assembled in various arrangements, allowing for the flexibility modern life demands.

EuroCucina

Kitchens that transition into Lounges. Lounges that transition into Kitchens.

More than open plan schemes, there is a radical de-emphasis on formal dining and an embrace on an artful and very modern single space living, with a strong dialogue between kitchen elements and lounge furniture. Lots of high-tech in those Kitchens, too.

Milan is the new Geneva – The multi-disciplined design extravaganza of Milan thrummed with ten times the energy we have seen at recent car shows. Could Milan be the place for OEMs in the future? Quite possibly- already, a few are regulars. More will be coming.