SEYMOURPOWELL
Image: The Joyful Absurd, The Unexpected Welcome by Moooi. Photography by Seymourpowell
materials and finishes to a newly elevated position. One lovely example was Matti Syrjälä’s Säilö Container set – with unfinished birch bark providing a unique and jewel-like lid to each container. Another academic group that impressed was the University of Art and Design Lausanne (ECAL). We were enchanted by their ‘Iceland Whale Bone Project’, which was focused around materials originating from the Icelandic sea - all flotsam and jetsam found on the beach. Charlotte Baverel’s ‘Gríma’ mask for example was composed from raw and primitive seal, shark and whale skins and bone.
SOFT SANCTUARY
Our ‘always on’ digital culture is creating a desire to escape from our hyper-connected lives, and causing us to seek refuge in safe comfort of familiarity. As a result we are seeking moments of sanctuary in our physical spaces, allowing us to re-charge and re-gain our equilibrium. The Soft Sanctuary trend seems to offer a welcome and reassuringly familiar break from the frenzy of the modern age, with soft forms, calming colours and inviting tactile surfaces seen across Milan this year. It’s unsurprising that design superstar Patricia Urquiola seems to be at the forefront of this trend, with her trademark warmth and tactility apparent in almost everything she does. Muted and sometimes nostalgic pastel shades were everywhere, with dusky pinks and greys being a popular choice. Often these palettes were kept
fresh and modern with more vivid accents in yellow or coral as demonstrated in Patricia Urquiola’s Lana Mangas collection for Gan, whose chunky knitted textures remind us of cosy jumpers.
But this trend was also manifested in physical form, with soft rounded furniture a strong theme. Chairs and sofas with ergonomic curves and seductive padding seemed to want to embrace the sitter in a generous hug. Jamie Hayon’s ‘Catch Chair’ for Copenhagen-based &Tradition is a single piece, anthropomorphically shaped chair that appears to be reaching its arms out to you.
Furniture that ‘relaxes with you’ was found at the Miyazaki Chair Factory’s exhibit. Their pursuit of quality craftsmanship and ergonomic pleasure has resulted in a collection that is soft at every imaginable touch point – the curved armrests of the IS Lounge chair were particularly pleasing. The From Yuhang exhibition offered a calming sanctuary from the bustle of Zona Tortona. Their designs fuse traditional Chinese crafts with contemporary design.
DIGITAL FANTASY
As digital inputs become an ever more omnipotent part of our lives, the boundaries of our physical and digital worlds are blurring. In the same way that screens are no longer a border between us and our content, so our content is beginning to bleed into our physical spaces. These digital forays into the physical space often take the form of interactive
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experiences that allow us to escape the humdrum of daily life. In Milan we observed this at Universal Everything’s ‘The Art and Science of Fit’ installation for Nike, where “intricate multi coloured woven patterns dance across the screens intelligently conforming and fitting to the silhouette of the visitor.” (Nike) Artist/designer duo Carnovsky’s ‘Zigzagging’ for fashion house Missoni, was another fantastical exhibit. An immersive light, colour and sound installation that felt a bit like walking into a giant kaleidoscope. Whilst we felt it would have been best suited to a party venue, the innate sense of dream-like fantasy was powerful.
Along with influencing our spaces, the trend for Digital Fantasy is also having an effect on the colour, material and finish of the products. Across the fair we witnessed optical effect fabrics, vivid and iridescent surfaces and surreal graphic gradients as seen in Droog’s ‘Family Vases’ and the ‘Wood Bikini Chair’ by Werner Aisslinger for Moroso. Powerful flashes of impossibly vivid colour were everywhere, as seen in Stefan Diez’s ‘This That Other’ seating series available in an eye-popping neon pink. Vivid colour was used to tell the time at Spazio Rossana Orlandi, where we spotted MA Student Jay Hyun Kim’s ‘A Moment’.
NOMADIC DESIGN
Great global unrest and upheaval, along with maturing wireless and cloud
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