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| Edited By: Ashiesh Shah |Source: DNA |Updated: May 04, 2018, 10:20 PM IST
All eyes were fixed firmly on Milan last month as the entire global design community made its way to the city to either showcase or explore innovative new design. In the world of design, few events generate as much buzz as Milan Design Week. One of the world’s most compelling design showcase, the fair is undeniably the place to to gauge the direction design is taking for the next year.
From furniture and product launches in the overflowing Rho fairground, to the alluring exhibitions and installations, pop-ups and parties in the city’s cobbled streets and hidden courtyards. Milan’s many creative districts feel like an endless design gallery also known as Fuori Salone. With over 600 exhibits across the city, it’s impossible to see everything. But what I love most about Milan Design Week is perhaps the coming together of designers and brands from across the world, these are my favourite collaborations from this year.
Well known for their annual collaborative showcase, this year Ceaserstone and Snarkitecture created an installation that investigated the notion of a social hub. The meditative installation was set inside the Palazzo dell’Ufficio Elettorale di Porta Romana.
COS collaborated with Phillip K Smith III on an immersive installation at Palazzo Isimbardi. The mirrored structure directs people along its circumference of the courtyard until they are faced with reflections of the Renaissance architecture on the mirrored inner surface, which peels away to reveal an almost 360 degree view of the sky.
Hermès presented a new home collections at Museo della Permanente. The exhibit comprised an eclectic line of objects, furnishings, fabrics, and wallpapers was presented within an architectural project conceived by Charlotte Macaux Perelman, co-artistic director of Hermès Maison together with Alexis Fabry. Seven architectural structures entirely covered with Moroccan zellige (a small square tile made of glazed earthenware), are a play of elements of colour, form and craftsmanship.
1stdibs, the go-to online marketplace for vintage and antique recently expanded to include contemporary design. This year, they asked around 30 inventive designers to create one-off works for ‘A New Breed’ — an exhibition on display at Piazza San Sepolcro. From a bookcase by Fernando Mastrangelo to burnished brass-and-silicone chair by Christopher Gentner, this was an absolute favourite.
Lindsey Adelman and Calico Wallpaper decided to collaborate when they discovered that they were each experimenting with corrosive chemical reactions. The presentation titled “Beyond the Deep, brings together Adelman’s artistic lights and Calico’s murals. Drop fixtures feature patinated brass rods, some in a verdigris finish, and blown-glass shades reminiscent of rising bubbles are juxtaposed against digitised watercolour brushstrockes and salt eaten surfaces.
