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• Review of I Saloni 2007
• Review of SaloneSatellite 2007
• Preview I Saloni, 2008
• “X” Marks The Spot! #2
• Review of Milan Design Week 2008 – Notes from the Design Zone

By Oliver Spies

“There is nothing really new,” was the opinion expressed by a few curious visitors that had an early start at the Milan’s Furniture Fair, commuting between the events in the city center and the fair grounds. This year, the quest for exceptional design objects, groundbreaking innovations and the next new thing proved to be difficult for journalists and attendees. Early press coverage that was published while the fair was still going on did not go overboard with praise for “newness” either, but was that truly the case?

Were there no innovations to speak of? There is a good chance that the attendees got carried away by the exceptionally foul weather in Milan. As a matter of fact the overall mood in the city center changed to the better when the continuous rain made way for the sun and at last it became clear that some things actually had changed:

As crowded as a fun fair: events throughout the city during the Milan Furniture Fair © photo visual research Even more so than recent years, the “Zona Tortona” exhibition area turned into Milan’s party district with a steady stream of visitors – even at night – lured by loud music and drinks at the many bars. Bridge to “Zona Tortona” – Milan’s biggest design party district © photo Dominico Rocca

Designersblock party: electronic music in an empty city pool © photo visual research

A few Dutch designers took advantage of the attendees’ urge for mobility. They simply followed the crowd with their mobile-home-turned-exhibition space conversions.

Dutch mobile-homes-turned-exhibition space conversions © photo visual research

Exhibition at a parking space: nobody can beat that rent © photo visual research

A couple of innovative entrepreneurs even went so far as to pull their design objects (sofas!) on pushcarts behind the flock of visitors, trying out the maxim: if the visitors do not come to the sofa, the sofa needs to come to them …

The increase in the number of manufacturers who buffed up their collections by enlisting star fashion designers was not the only indication that furniture design is the new fashion statement. It was also to be seen in the fact that some companies’ presentation booths took on more and more the appearance and atmosphere of a fashion show. Tall walls and, at times, even “bouncers” in black tuxedos prevented an unobstructed view of what was going on behind the scenes.

Just like before a major fashion show: picture taking prohibited … and nobody seems to care © photo visual research

One of the biggest, most obvious trends of recent years is the desire of consumers and manufacturers for “true” customization. Highly crafted and ornamented objects are ostentatiously presented as one-of-a-kind pieces. In many cases the design becomes merely a tool for brand communication. The accessible, stunningly elaborate Jet Set installation by Jaime Hayon was the most significant culmination of this tendency.

One of the most spectacular highlights of this years show: the Jet Set installation (covered in Bisazza tiles) by Jaime Hayon © photo visual research

In extreme cases, star furniture designers even dedicated their talents to illustration and surface design, as seen in the Triennale exhibition at the Museum of Design, where Karim Rashid, in cooperation with the laminate manufacturer Abet Laminati, combined slabs that feature extremely bright surface patterns in highly contrasting color schemes to create two spacious, experimental rooms.

Surfaces with patterns function as a “negated definition of space”: Karim Rashid for Abet Laminati © photo visual research

Yet, under the same roof, one could also find clean, down-to-earth exhibition concepts, e.g. manufacturer BASF authentically staged the design process of their Myto plastic chair by the designer Konstantin Grcic. The documentary-like presentation portrayed the collaboration of the designer with the big industrial manufacturer. This exhibition’s design was particularly remarkable because of its originality in staging a manufacturing plant situation.

Factory workshop installation: BASF presents the design process for a new plastic chair © photo visual research

Dutch designer Maarten Baas chose a likewise low-key setting to showcase his extremely colorful modeling clay furniture. Attendees, designers and buyers met in the handicraft-ey ambience of a car repair shop (the only extra was the counter that was installed). The showcased “smoked chair” (Bass’s extremely charred wooden chairs) and the steel-skeleton chairs covered with resin-modeling clay are among the most iconic statements of current European design.

The Baas trademark in a Milan car repair shop: colorful modeling clay furniture and “Smoked Table” © photo visual research

“Smoked Chair” by Maarten Baas © photo visual research

Following the same material aesthetics, several newcomers to the recent trend of “assembling-design” combined old parts of broken furniture with synthetic materials to create designer pieces with appealing, recycling-focused features – not always new, but mostly eco-friendly.

Re-use of old furniture parts: chair by the Dutch designer Jetske de Groot © photo visual research

Not only design forward trends, but also technical innovations met with great interest from trade visitors: The AR + RFID Lab of the “Royal Academy of Art” of Den Haag presented a high-tech device that creates computer-generated full-scale projections – seen through special wired glasses – of pieces of furniture that were actually at a different location. In theory, it is possible to organize entire exhibitions – with the help of QR-codes – without a single object having to leave the designers’ studios.

Innovation at the “Royal Dutcheese” exhibition: a camera installed in the helmet identifies 2D-codes on the floor and projects 3D-simulations of the piece of furniture onto the glasses of the user © photo visual research

Only after this strenuous but interesting week at the biggest and, by far, most important design fair worldwide in Milan have we come to realize what the actual innovations in contemporary design are. The auteur design of the 80s with its high esteem for handcrafted one-of-a-kind pieces has made a comeback. Comparable with haute couture shows in Paris, the profile of designers and manufacturers is increasingly manifested in short-lived trends and precious, innovative surface designs.

And not to forget the after-show parties that make it worthwhile, even on their own, to come to upcoming design fairs, such as the next one, in NYC …