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Five things – dare we say trends – that we noticed at Milan Design Week 2024
From colour and materiality to textures and even the odd column, here are some offbeat, oblique observations from the great Italian festival of design.
2. Burgundy and variations thereof
We couldn’t list trends without at least one colour observation. This time, it was all about those luscious burgundies – stretching in and around deep or clay reds, all the way to softer pinks. Notable sightings came with some serious design heft. First, there was Álvaro Siza’s pieces for Bottega Ghianda: simple, essential and yet with a strangely weighty presence, just like most of the Portuguese master’s architectural works.
Meanwhile, at Laufen, Roberto Sironi staged one of the more intellectual highlights of Milan 2024 with his exhibition, Colour Archaeology. This work traced the evolution of colour in ceramics over a long, global history stretching back to Ancient Egypt and elsewhere. Finally, Baxter’s display at The Clay House typified the placement of burgundy, maroon and pink tones withing a terracotta setting.
Monobrand Milano, Baxter.
3. Same piece, different finishes
Similar to the first point above, we also noticed that variety in terms of texture and finish was taking place not only in the juxtaposition of materials but also within the same objects. To put it simply, rough and smooth parts of the same whole.
At once rugged and refined, V-ZUG’s Time and Matter display, with HENRYTIMI, made stunning use of this approach by integrating kitchen appliances into seemingly monolithic stone pieces defined by different finishes – for instance, rough sides and functionally smooth tops.
Elsewhere, AHEC commissioned Giles Tettey Nartey to create Communion, which explores Ghanaian culture and everyday ritual with a food-prep table featuring a variety of forms and textures in a materially monolithic object.
Time and Matter, V-ZUG with Elisa Ossino and HENRYTIMI.
The theme is also a continuation for Paola Lenti, whose strikingly colourful pieces are often no less notable for their different the ways in which lava stone achieves a quality of being both hard and soft at the same time.
Paola Lenti, photograhy by SergioChimenti.
4. Going around in circles
Alongside various forms of reuse, the sustainability focus was on circularity. It should, of course, be on circular economy – the latter word underlining the need for any truly sustainable industry to be a whole system, not just one brand. Short of the downfall of the capitalist economy, this remains a distant goal; all the same, let’s commend some of the work being done to create products with minimal waste on their own terms.
In fact, in the context of climate and housing crises across the world, it has to be said that some of the more ostentatious presentations struck a somewhat deaf tone. Blatant greenwashing is probably worse than ignoring the issue altogether, but genuine attempts at introducing circularity and reuse are the way to go.
Arper.
5. Long live the column
Stepping a touch into left field, we couldn’t but notice a preponderance of phallic objects – mostly decorative and in some way playing on the classical connotations. Over and above the fine architectural settings with their own columns, it seems that a number of installation designers, brands and individual practitioners went out of their way to reframe the (sometimes not so) humble old column.
COLONNE, an installation of six monolithic columns, “epitomises simplicity and substance.” These pieces are made by hand in Italy, exclusively for Galleria Rossana Orlandi by Benedetto Fasciana and Antonino Sciortino.
Salone del Mobile
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