Each year during Milan Design Week we look forward to checking in on brands whose work we continuously admire. Normann Copenhagen is always an inspiring stop, and during our visit to Salone del Mobile in 2013, newcomer ,…
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While the latest in material tech is sure to generate buzz for your brand, sometimes taking a step back and looking to nature will work wonders for inspiring new designs. Italy’s Moroso did just this with…
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Decorative objects hand-cast in metals, marble and wood
First introduced this year at Maison et Objet, Eclectic by Tom Dixon, a new line of accessories by the influential British design studio, officially launches mid-October 2012. The aptly named line comprises miscellaneous “decorative artifacts” molded in heavyweight copper, brass, marble, cast aluminum and wood, modeled on actual trinkets…
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Swedish designers in Hong Kong explore sustainability as religion
It’s easy to become “design blind” at the world’s biggest design exhibition, I Saloni, and those rushing around to see the blockbuster names run the risk of missing the small gems hidden throughout. One such discovery for us was Boris, a Hong Kong-based company born of Swedish ex-pats trying to live as close to their suppliers and manufacturers as possible. Founders Katarina Ivarsson and Anna Karlsson started the company in 2009 and have since developed a unique style of work blending design, sustainability and technology in a way which is fast becoming the signature hallmark of Scandinavian output—even if it is based in another country.
This year the company presented its new collection, the Enlightenment Series, which explores the notions of multi-ethnicity and the part played by religion and spirituality in our contemporary lives while also focusing on sustainability. “In the light of different beliefs and with mixed religion touch points we present this series,” says Karlsson. “Religion is about believing in something and this is our reason for the religious perspective—personally, we believe in sustainability and want to show this devotion in our products.”
“We wanted to ask what happens when you dig deeper into the subjects of sustainability and religion from a design perspective,” adds Ivarsson. “What are we actually devoted to? Consumerism or sustainism? How important are the objects around us from a spiritual perspective and can we as designers fabricate spiritual products’?”
With the symbolic collection the company has paid close attention to the sustainable details for each piece, whether through efficient energy consumption during production or proper selection of materials. Each piece follows a specific train of spiritual thought—for example, the Seven Piece Mirror centers on a number with many spiritual connotations, from the seven chakras in Buddhism, to Christianity’s seven days of creation, to the more literal like the number of years bad luck you’ll get on smashing a mirror. Boris gives each piece of the mirror an added aesthetic touch to tie in the design elements found in places of worship. On a more directly visual level, the rosary necklace adds its form to the Rosary Lamp, with the beads adding structure to the otherwise slack form.
The Confession Box places a modern twist on the Catholic confessional, combining traditional materials with advanced technology. “When you place your phone into the box it will automatically recharge via inductive charging while also making a backup of your information. By doing so we mimic a procedure not far from the classic ritual of lightening ones load and coming clean,” explains Karlsson.
The ruffled Omikuji carpet references the fortune strips of paper left at Shinto shrines. “Inspired by the process of collecting prayers, we tied 1764 wishes together when we made the carpet,” says Ivarsson.
This combination of strong conceptual narrative and more accessible aesthetic and technique attributes sets Boris apart. For more information on the Enlightenment Series and other collections, visit the website.
The legendary designer on art and design, working with a rock star and staying fresh after 20 years with Kartell
Known nearly as much for his confident and quirky personality as for his innovative use of single mould injected polycarbonate, Philippe Starck has spent the last few decades changing the norm in product design. From an alien-like lemon juicer for Alessi to organically-inspired sofas for Cassina, Starck has expanded minds with innovative—and sometimes questionable—designs as one of the most prolific designers in contemporary culture.
While in Milan for Design Week we had the rare chance to catch up with the “über designer” himself during the debut of his latest collection for Italian furniture brand Kartell. Standing among a sea of cameras and curious fans, Starck reflected on his history with the iconic brand, working with a rock star-turned-furniture designer and the relationship between art and design.
Kartell is not a company, it is a philosophy. Thirty years ago I had this intuition that the future must be democratic, and I invented the idea of democratic design. Which is rising the quality, cutting the price and trying to give it to everybody. The only weapon, the only tool I found to do it was monolithic injected plastic. Twenty years ago it was not easy and the only company that had this philosophy was Kartell.
That’s why today everybody says that this booth is the center of the fair. Yes, it is because we deserve it. Because 30 years ago, even before the family of Claudio Lutti, Kartell had this vision. And I can tell you at this time it wasn’t very fashionable to speak about injected plastic this way—it meant cheap, bad things for low people and things like that. We had the courage to built a real proposal, a philosophical proposal, a political proposal. And finally we won. Because we are now at the beginning of the decline of Western Occidental civilization. People have less money but still want quality because we know what is quality, it’s difficult to change. And we must reinvent ourselves and reinvent our new economy of poverty. And Kartell is in the right place to do it.
Lenny is a friend of my daughter’s and finally after years she introduced me and we became friends. One day Lenny told me ‘I want to become an architect, a designer’. I said Lenny you are smart, very smart. When I see your different houses I am very impressed. Perhaps you can become a designer, become an architect. That’s why I brought him into the new SLS Miami Hotel and I brought him to Kartell. And you know where the design is boring him. You have thousands of models here and it’s always the same proposal—the same angle of view. Lenny can bring the fresh air of the night. Designers, we are from the day. He is from the night. We wake up at seven, he goes to sleep at seven. That changes the angle of view. We shall see. He is a young designer, he starts today. He has to work, so we shall see. But he is in a good position, he is very very smart.
It’s him. You know I don’t want anybody to tell me what I have to do. I don’t want to tell Lenny what he has to do. We gave him a chair. We gave him a nice opportunity to play with it and make what he wants. It’s life, we have to keep his freshness in mind.
Not the design. The life. Myself. I don’t try to be young, I try to be timeless. And to work with young people, to be married with a young beautiful wife, to have a young baby of 10 months—that makes me timeless, because I’m old now. That makes a difference. For example Friday morning we leave and Friday at noon I will be at my table working like a devil.
I’ve never just been about strict geometric, I’ve been known even more for organic lines. I have enough imagination to make both, or more. But this candle piece I made with Maggiar is about the magic of love. Because if you see the two pieces alone they cannot stand up, but together they make an art piece. This is about love. That’s why we decide to do it and I thank Maggiar for bringing this very nice idea, this very iconic and simple idea.
Clearly, it’s not the same word. It is not an art object, just a symbol of love. I am not an artist. I am just trying to be a designer, but it is not enough. And I’m not sure that the confusion now between art and design is very good for design. It is very good for art, because they have nothing more to say. But in design, finally we are more rich than in art.
Daring design in the form of American white oak and marble composite seen at Milan Design Week
There is always an abundance of innovative production techniques at Milan Design Week, though we saw few that rivaled the exquisite craftsmanship and unconventionality of Studio Thol‘s Bathtub. Dutch designer Thomas Linseen beautifully showcases the skeletal structure that gives the tub its shape, and the sculptural tub explores the limits of fiber-reinforced plastics and molded wood with its laminated strips of American white oak and a polyester and marble composite (which Linseen also developed).
By adapting the wooden frame’s shape from a Craftsman-influenced lounge chair, the tub lends a familiar feeling not often felt while submerged in water. During the tub’s construction process the inside surface is wrapped in fiberglass matting and filled with water, allowing the semi-malleable fiberglass to distend with liquid and subtly expose the skeletal wooden frame. Once the matting has taken shape the water is drained and a layer of marble composite is laid in its place. When it hardens the wooden frame skeleton is accentuated, “as you can see bones through skin.”
A continuation of Linssen’s 2006 graduation project from the Design Academy Eindhoven, the bathtub is now ready for production. Each handmade tub sells for €12,000 and takes up to two months to build. For more information on Linssen and his artisanal designs contact Studio Thol directly.
Wood, metal and formed concrete create some of the most creative designs around
by Graham Hiemstra and Evan Orensten
Milan Design Week is always full of surprises and this year’s fair was no exception. We found a strong presence of innovative furnishings mixing modern production techniques with the classic aesthetic of raw materials. From “melting” wood to laser cut marble and a table that can be formed in multiple shapes, here are five of our favorites.
One of the most intriguing pieces was Ferruccio Laviani’s design for Emmemobili. The massive wooden Twaya table is machine molded of countless layers of solid oak. Each corner of the expansive tabletop appears to melt, stretching the rough wood fibers into legs for a look unlike anything we’ve seen before.
Using over 400 wooden slats, the impressive Fan Table from Mauricio Affonso was a highlight of the Royal College of Art ‘s PARADISE show in the Ventura Lambrate neighborhood. Designed to “explore the role of tables as the infrastructure for social interaction,” the transformative design can be effortlessly expanded or contracted to meet the needs of its surroundings. As the rectangle legs are moved the shape changes along with the surface size. From circle to rectangle to square, the Fan Table is a work of pure inspiration and one of the most impressive designs we saw. Affonso, a Brazilian designer earning his Master’s at the school, is one to keep tabs on.
As part of the Vertigo exhibition, student designer Gaetano Gibilras instilled a sense of unknown with the VoroNOI table. Standing at 30cm high with a diameter twice the size, the stone and wood table was cut with innovative digital dissection techniques not generally seen in furniture production. Juxtaposing nicely against the milky stone top, each pinewood leg bares its own unique shape dictated by the unique VoroNOI diagram.
Also seen within the winding streets of Ventura Lambrate, Free Concrete was the product of Studio Itai Bar-On, part of the TLV Express collective. As the name implies, this sculptural piece is hand made with concrete, utilizing a customized bending process that allows the concrete to be rendered in lightweight, free form figures. The process allows for the choice of a smooth surface or a rougher, more natural texture, and this piece takes advantage of both with a smooth surface and a rough interior, to great effect.
Released just days before the fair, the TRI table is one of many inspiring pieces from the multidisciplinary design studio Thinkk. Created with the environment in mind, the table is made with powder coated aluminum and natural teak wood, and comes flat packed. We really appreciate the playful burst of color that extends through the tabletop, base and one of three legs.
Minimally designed seating finds strength in warped wood
While exploring Milan’s Lambrate neighborhood during last week’s Salone del Mobile, we found no shortage of inspiration outside the fair. Inside one of many abandoned warehouse-turned-exhibition spaces we came across a group of promising young designers from Tel Aviv. While each designer involved in the TLV Express collective did well to experiment with materials and technology, Michael Blumenfeld‘s TRIZIN Stools caught our attention with an elegant design aesthetic and original take on construction.
The series of TRIZIN stools—Triz meaning “wedge” in Hebrew—were designed to test the physical boundaries of raw wood while combining traditional woodworking techniques. Each piece is minimally constructed from little more than a few pieces of plywood, a centralized bolt and a great deal of tensioned pressure. Using minimal hardware and no glue or adhesives of any kind, Blumenfeld gives the stools their shape by forcing a wedge attached to the top of the legs between two flat pieces of wood. As the legs go in, the wood flexes to ultimately form a comfortably warped seat with increased rigidity and strength.
The light wood, flexed seat and exposed artisanal construction combine nicely for a clean modern aesthetic that to Blumenfeld “captures the moment of transformation, and the energy put into them by the manufacturer at the time of assembly.” To learn more about Blumenfeld and his TRIZIN see the gallery below.
Colombian wicker furniture and staff portraits
Unveiled in a flurry of buzz at the 2012 Salone del Mobile, Marni has created a collection of 100 colorful wicker chairs made by ex-convicts in Colombia re-assimilating into social and professional life. The chairs are constructed from metal frames with multi-colored PVC threads woven around the seat backs and armrests. The style of seat is traditionally Colombian, updated with Marni‘s reinterpretation of the woven pattern to create totally new color variations in line with the Milanese fashion house. They’ve also added small tables to go alongside the chairs either indoors or out.
Along with the new line of furniture, Marni presents “L’arte del ritratto” (The Art of Portraiture), a project by photographer and filmmaker Francesco Jodice featuring portraits of the chairs with Marni employees, technicians, craftsmen and collaborators. During Salone we caught up with Carolina Castiglioni, daughter of Marni founder and designer Consuelo Castiglioni, and the house’s director of special projects, to learn more about the project.
This is the third year we are presenting at Salone del Mobile, but each time we have come with a totally different project. For 2012, since we are a small family company, we loved the idea of portraying people as a family in one big picture in a charity context. The day of the shooting felt like a day off: we had fun. After each shot, Francesco Jodice asked us to freeze for one minute, during which he was filming, creating a living picture, which now is projected on the façade of the store.
Not for now, but we have recently opened a store in the Meatpacking District in New York for the Marni Edition, a slightly less expensive line. This is a new design concept for us, since everything inside of the space is mobile and transformable, and it showcases work of artists we love.
In the coming months, the exhibition of photographs and objects will be hosted in Marni boutiques worldwide, together with new portraits of members of the Marni team from around the world. The revenues from the sale of chairs will be donated to the ICAM Institute of Milan, a project whose aim is to help children of imprisoned women to grow up in a family environment.
The future of nightlife as conceived by a cross-disciplinary team of club-going creatives
“We wanted to show design in action, not on a pedestal,” said Heineken’s Global Head of Design Mark van Iterson as he walked us through “The Club”, the first project of their Open Design Explorations, a pop up nightclub in the Tortona district during Milan’s Design Week. He wasn’t kidding around. The culmination of a year’s work, it represents an ambitious collaborative research and design project that he led with a hand-picked team of 19 club-going young designers from São Paolo, Tokyo, New York and Milan.
The cross-discipline team, mostly students and young professionals, includes interior, product and fashion designers, architects and graphic designers. The crowd-sourced finalists were invited to present their ideas at Pecha Kucha events, at the end of which the team was selected. The team visited clubs in all four of those cities (we participated in the Tokyo tour), and shared and collaborated on ideas, leading to the design elements brought to life in the pop up club. Van Iterson coached the group along with Professor Buijs and six industry experts.
“It was new for everybody to co-create cross-disciplines, cross-cultures, cross-time-zones,” says van Iterson. “We collaborated in an online hub, a kind of virtual creative lab. Some were more comfortable in the open ideas phase, others more in the detailing phase, some fueled the overall concept, others stayed within their discipline. But that’s the beauty of diversity.”
The hub served to mediate ideas while the designers worked remotely. “The portal was the open lab where we all came together,” says van Iterson. “It was bridging all continents and timezones, stimulating cross fertilization and kept the creative juices flowing through new progress, new insights, new briefs.” Heineken sought to create the perfect club—the rare combination of place, space and crowd that makes for a good time. “If you get the energy, the interaction and the vibe right, the club is a great club,” relates van Iterson. “And design can play a crucial role in facilitating that.”
Similar to how car companies use concept cars to have a dialog with their fans and customers, Heineken sought to create a physical place to express new ideas, and to present them to the world’s largest gathering of design professionals during Milan’s Design Week, with the goal of having a conversation around innovation in the club space. Van Iterson’s expectations are realistic: “For sure, certain elements will never make it to ‘real clubs’, but other elements might impact on club design or Heineken design worldwide for future years.”
Uniting The Club’s three spaces—which include a lounge, bar and dance area—is an origami theme that is applied to every element, reflecting the “changing perspectives” concept that fueled the project. The layout takes a cue from the team’s logical sequence of a typical night out: Connecting, getting a drink, discovering, dancing, cooling down and ending the night.
Walking through the completed concept, we found innovative details throughout. A video-mapped DJ booth pumps out killer beats as waitresses in extravagant origami uniforms and custom-designed shoes serve Heinekens from an origami-shaped tray that rests comfortably on the arm and holds up to eight bottles securely so that servers can use their free hand to open the bottles with a matching opener. An interactive bar features video display counters that lets you order another round with the tap of a finger, and a massive display made from more than 2,500 Heineken bottles features programmed images interspersed with live feeds from the dance floor. A wall on the dance floor has numbered shelves to place your drink while you dance, and a black origami wall glows with graffiti from the attached chalk pens, allowing club goers to get graphic in a harmless way.
Open Design Explorations is one of several crowd sourced design initiatives Heineken is leading, which live at Heineken’s Ideas Brewery.
The Club will be exhibited until 20 April 2012 from 13:00 – 23:00 daily at Via Privata Gaspare Bugatti 3, Zona Tortona, Milan. Even the club’s construction was important. Because the club was designed to be easily transportable, assembled and broken down in a cost-effective and sustainable manner, it’s likely that you’ll see it an event near you soon. See more images of the concept club in our gallery.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
