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www.thedesignermagazine.com
Barbara Chandler carried her camera around Milan Design Week… THE
Milan Furniture Fair 2011 – in Italian its majestic name is Salone Internazionale del Mobile - was a resounding
success in this its 50th year. Alongside the furniture halls was Euroluce, a splendid array of lighting. Between them, these shows attracted 321,320 visitors, 2 per cent up on 2009, the year of the last Euroluce and nearly 6,000 journalists and other media poured in from around the world. A Sunday public opening pulled in 32,870 punters.
The ultra-modern show halls and arcaded walkways, to which
the Fair moved in 2006, is a 40 minute metro ride out of the city. But within Milan itself the town was pushing 400 design ‘events’ including shows, happenings, talks and installations. It’s true to say that this year design in Milan was about
novelty, emotion and imagination, rather than function, let alone
sustainability. Thus we had bookshelves shaped like robots, a huge turning head of a garden chair, and cupboards printed with cloudscapes, and the facade of housing blocks. A mere nod to recycling were the chairs made from resin-bonded old fabrics. Tord Boontje, Professor and Head of Design Products at our own RCA, did a plywood kit for Moroso which can be cross-stitched into a chair. It’s typical of his often playful approach. A big trend all round was the textiles used as chair coverings – not patterned, but very heavily textured, with deep quilting, or plait-like effects. At Euroluce meanwhile, there was more of an emphasis on
energy-saving, with LEDs calling the most stylish shots. Around Milan city, there were more Brits showing than ever
before. Design Junction, a new venture in Tortona, pulled in some top names, including Anglepoise, Modus, and Benchmark, and was
“BURSTING AT THE SEAMS, MILAN’S APRIL DESIGN-FEST IS ALMOST OUT OF HAND”
Benjamin Hubert wins my award for most prolific newcomer. He is a young Londoner who had masterminded 12 projects at the Fair and around Milan (although one was cancelled due to the earthquake crisis in Japan). At only 27, Hubert is confident and talented, and has a flair for exploiting unusual materials. These include a flexible silicone polymer for a light inspired by Moroccan roof tiles, and a pendant lamps made from 3D woven polyester borrowed from the bedding industry. “But I wish people would concentrate less on my age and more on my work,” he said.
Milan’s architecture is visual respite from non-stop design. Tortona Design Week takes place all around this lovely bell tower - the old name of Zona Tortona has gone, along with the financial failure of the company that coined it.
www.tortonadesignweek.com
Incidentally, most prolific ‘old-comer’ had to be Karim Rashid. At his 15-year Milan retrospective we saw some of the over 3,000 products – yes, really – that he currently has in production, working for over 300 companies in 35 countries.
www.benjaminhubert.co.uk www.karimrashid.com
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