Darc Milan Design Week Supplement

Milan Design Week 2022 Lee Broom | Lasvit | Olga Hanono | Archiproducts | Moooi | Tom Dixon | Aqua Creations

| Preciosa

STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD

The Decorative Design Directory is the ultimate annual worldwide directory for the decorative lighting design industry, featuring a comprehensive listing of independent lighting designers and suppliers around the globe.

To make sure that you are included in the 2022 edition, email s.quiligotti@mondiale.co.uk with your up to date information.

www.darcmagazine.com/3d/

Sarah Cullen • Editor

The [d]arc media team was out in full force to cover Milan Design Week this year, and what a full-on trip it was!

The soles of our feet were not used to pounding the pavements so heavily after a pause on large industry events over the last couple of years - but it sure felt good to be back out there again.

Brands and designers mark Milan Design Week in their calendars as a pivotal occasion for launching new pieces. And as such, we found ourselves overwhelmed with editorial content when we arrived back in the office. So, with this in mind, we decided to produce a Milan-specific digital supplement for you to sink your teeth into.

Included in this specific digital magazine, we bring you some exclusive interviews I had the pleasure of conducting, with the likes of Lee Broom, Olga Hanono, and Tom Dixon. I was lucky enough to see first-hand these designers' new collections, installations, and collaborations with well-known brands. We also discussed inspirations, how their brands and teams handled the struggles of the last few years, and what the future holds.

Furthermore, the team had the pleasure of attending multiple showroom events, openings, and celebrations. In these pages, we have covered an array of these events, amazing installations, and the hottest new products unveiled.

Join us as we step back into the streets of the Tortona and Brera districts and re-cap some of the best and most beautiful decorative lighting pieces from Milan Design Week 2022.

Cover: A Life Extraordinary

Moooi, Milan Design Week 2022

Welcome

STEP INTO THE…

The UK’s only dedicated lighting specification exhibition

22 & 23 November 2022 Business Design Centre Islington • London

www.lightexpo.london

LET THERE

ROYAL MYCONIAN, MYKONOS, GREECE 18-20 OCTOBER 2022 www.darcsessions.com

BE LIGHT

The networking event for specifiers and suppliers of international lighting projects

Contents Interviews 012

Lee Broom | Divine Inspiration

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Olga Hanono | Lladró | Firefly Collection

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Tom Dixon | Twenty

The Magazine Managing Editor | Helen Ankers h.ankers@mondiale.co.uk +44 161 476 8372 Editor | Sarah Cullen s.cullen@mondiale.co.uk +44 161 476 9401

Events

Contributing Editor Matt Waring

038 Design Destinations | Archiproducts and Alcova Across both design destinations, numerous brands presented the latest decorative lighting pieces to launch this year.

Media Sales Manager | Stephen Quiligotti s.quiligotti@mondiale.co.uk

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+44 7742 019213 024 Showrooms and Par ties In addition to the various product launches that ocurred throughout Milan Design Week, the buzz continued way into the evenings when brands hosted cocktail par ties to network, meet old and new friends, plus launch their new showrooms.

Design Artwork | Dan Seaton d.seaton@mondiale.co.uk Editorial | Mel Capper

Installations & Products 010

Installation Focal Point | Lasvit | Sanctums

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Installation Focal Point | Preciosa | Composition in Crystal

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Installation Focal Point | Louis Poulsen | Taveggia café

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Installation Focal Point | Aqua Creations | ON/

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Installation Focal Point | Moooi | A Life Extraordinary

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Installation Focal Point | Giopato&Coombes | Into The Bloom

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Installation Focal Point | Flos | See The Stars Again

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Installation Focal Point | Servomuto | Venus in Lycra

m.capper@mondiale.co.uk

Finance Finance Director | Amanda Giles a.giles@mondiale.co.uk Credit Control | Lynette Levi l.levi@mondiale.co.uk

Corporate Chairman Mondiale Publishing | Damian Walsh

064 New Products A round-up of some of the hottest products launched across Milan Design Week and at the exhibition Salone del Mobile.

Managing Director [d]arc media | Paul James p.james@mondiale.co.uk Marketing & Events | Moses Naeem m.naeem@mondiale.co.uk [d]arc media ltd | Strawberry Studios, Watson Square, Stockport SK1 3AZ, UK | Printed by Buxton Press, Palace Road, Buxton, UK | ISSN 2052-9406

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Focal Point Sanctums

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Lasvit

Sanctums showcases brand-new ideas, including a physically moving glass art installation and lighting collections made by emerging talents as well as world-renowned designers such as Yabu Pushelberg and David Rockwell. Sanctums was carefully curated by Lasvit’s Art Director Maxim Velčovský, who was named the Creative Director of the Year by Interior Design's Best of Year Awards 2020, and who is also presenting an unconventional and free-spirited immersive theatre production.

At the exhibiton, the brand unveiled a new product - a glass modular kinetic installation, suitable for private residences. The A:Live installation was launched last year through a multi-touchpoint experience as a virtual design concept.

An immersive theatre experience was also provided as a part of the installations. Each day, actors presented their individual performances to visitors and also interacted with them, adding a unique dimension to the space.

“Our mission is to uplift everyone by creating breath-taking and immersive spacial experiences that touch the soul of all people who find themselves in the space. We want our installations, artworks, collections and places to make spaces for our clients that not only evoke some beautiful feelings, but that can caress the soul,” says Leon Jakimič, owner and President of Lasvit. “Our Sanctums exhibition is meant to rouse emotions, and not just by offering the experience of free-spirited, immersive theatre. We want to show our inner sanctums, our homes, and private spaces. In Sanctums, we want to show how light makes space and how space makes feeling." www.lasvit.com

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012 | INTERVIEW | LEE BROOM

“THIS IS NOT A RELIGIOUS COLLECTION, BUT A REFLECTION ON THE IMPACT RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE, INTERIORS, AND ARTEFACTS HAVE HAD ON THE PSYCHE AS WELL AS THE HISTORY OF ART AND ARCHITECTURE.”

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Room 3: Altar

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o mark the brand’s 15th anniversary, Lee Broom presented Divine Inspiration, his first lighting release in four years, which displayed six new lighting collections.

The exhibition showcased a series of ethereal and dramatic rooms, each featuring a piece from the collection, that led visitors through a theatrical experience inspired by religious houses of worship. The delicately curated journey explored the typical relationship between light and holy places, and evoked feelings of “stillness, reverence, and contemplation” for visitors as they passed through the multi-levelled gallery.

Taking inspiration from architecture, Broom particularly focused on the Brutalist aesthetic. This led him to explore places of worship across various time periods, looking at the design language associated with religious architecture, interiors, and artefacts. The Divine Inspiration takes aesthetic nods from the “pared-back silhouettes of Modernism and Brutalism architecture that surrounded Broom as he grew up”.

Interviewed by darc during Milan Design Week, Broom says of the exhibition: “I’m always looking at things from the past with my collections. I always like to look back before trying to look forward.

Everything that you do has a reference point from somewhere. And I think part of the thing that makes my products modern yet classic at the same time, is that I do reference things,” he explains. “It gives you

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Room 1: Pantheum

the notion that you’ve seen it before, but not quite in the same way. We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel; I’m just trying to make people look at things in a different way, and I think that’s very typical of this collection.

With future collections, I’m sure that I will definitely tap into some sort of other art form, whether it be historical or not. I tend to be drawn particularly to periods such as Bauhaus and Art Deco, the Mid-Century movement and then late 1970s Italian furniture as well. Those are the kinds of things that are always in life, or have been over the past 10 years,” he says.

“I also think it’s kind of nostalgic in a way; I was born in the 70s, and I think looking back at how your parents grew up, or what you have around you when you were growing up influences you. I was always massively

into design and furniture and lighting when I was young. I used to do lots of trips to London with my mum, we would go to these incredible modernist furniture stores. I didn’t know the designers at that point, but I was always a huge fan of post-modernism and post-modernist architecture, for instance. So, you can kind of see that in my work.

“I grew up in Birmingham, so there was a lot of brutalist architecture in that city. I personally loved it, but a lot of people didn’t and unfortunately some amazing pieces have been demolished, which is just absurd. I love the cleverness of those buildings, the geometry, and the clever use of architecture within the interiors as well - how seating areas or desk areas or communal areas are incorporated into the visible parts of the architecture.”

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Collections introduced as part of the Divine Inspiration exhibition include Vesper, Pantheum, Altar, Hail, and Chant.

Following an overpowering yet alluring soundtrack of ethereal, choir music, the first room of the exhibition you enter holds Pantheum.

Inspired by the “distinctive coffered concrete ceiling of Rome’s ancient temple, The Pantheon, as well as the clean lines and geometry of Brutalist architecture,” the Pantheum pieces set the tone for the proceeding rooms and installations. Each light is hand-cast in jesmonite and sand-blasted to create a rough sandstone hewn surface and can be hung on its own or composed in symmetrical clusters on the wall or a ceiling.

Next, we enter a vast space with a stunning Hail composition in the centre of the room. This piece references the “shards of light and

shadow from lancet windows in vast church arches”. Installed over a mirror pool, the six-metre-tall piece creates a light effect that appears infinite, recalling “the notion of ‘The Rapture’”. The elongated fluted form, fabricated in aluminium with asymmetrically positioned reeded glass light sources, is available in three sizes, and in a gold or silver finish.

Situated in the mezzanine above Hail are the Altar fixtures. These are an “ode to Broom’s exploration into angular forms of Mid-Century churches and altars”, which typically include pews and fonts made from warm-toned woods. Carved from solid oak, the fluted forms of Altar are completed with an illuminated tube nestled into the grooves of the carved wood. The nearly one-metre-long fixture can be wallmounted or suspended as a pendant.

Room 4: Vesper

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Room 2: Hail

Moving through into the next room, colour, and texture floods in through the warm-toned stained glass window effects and the rich mustard, thick-pile carpet adding a 70s vibe. Vesper fills the space as a geometric sea of Brutalist and modernist cathedral lighting. “Formed with extruded aluminium, Vesper explores the delicate balance and interconnection of its rectangular cubes that are seamlessly connected by illuminated spheres. The light sculpture, which is suspended by cables, is shown in both duo and quattro versions in anodised brushed silver and brushed gold. Its installation within the exhibition emphasises the drama of vaulted spaces and the transcendent quality of light.”

Moving downstairs into the vaults of the church, we are introduced to Chant. Inspired by the pressed glass bricks often used in the 1970s as an alternative to stained glass, Chant is formed of blown cubes with

“pronounced circular detail in clear or frosted glass”. Square formations of Chant can be constructed in single or two tiers to form a glowing brick-like chandelier.

The final space presents Requiem, an otherworldly series of limitededition pieces sculpted by Broom himself in his London factory. Taking inspiration from the marble drapery on classical statues and sepulchral sculptures, each piece is delicately formed by hand-draping fabrics dipped in plaster and placed through and around illuminated rings, tubes, or spheres, appearing weightless. Using a technique Broom picked up during his undergraduate days at Central Saint Martins, the pieces are sculpted into shape until solid. In celebration of the 15th anniversary, Broom will hand-craft a limited run of 15 of each of the four Requiem designs.

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Room 5: Chant

Broom says of the new range: “I wanted to create a lighting collection that invoked that same sense of awe and mysticism as [religious] buildings and their interiors. This is not a religious collection, but a reflection on the impact religious architecture, interiors and artefacts have had on the psyche as well as the history of art and architecture.”

Speaking on his studio’s anniversary, when asked whether this is where he saw himself and his brand at 15, Broom proudly laughs “yes!”. “I don’t want to sound facetious, but yes. When I first came to Milan, I was so inspired by big installations like Swarovski, and I wanted to be able to do things like that as the brand grew. I definitely saw it as a goal. But at the same time, it’s a total surprise as well; you see yourself hoping to be able to accomplish something like this. I always feel massively grateful and privileged when I can.”

Reflecting on the last couple of years where the world went through

a universal shut-down, Broom was lucky enough to find the time a productive one in terms of creativity. “It gave me some space and silence to sit down and design, and I found it quite therapeutic, and a moment of life where you don’t have to have your foot consistently on the pedal, it was a mandatory stop for everybody. It is what you make of it, I think. I decided to channel my energy into being creative and use that as an outlet, it was good,” he says.

To wrap up, darc asked Broom what advice he would give to startingout designers that want to venture into lighting design: “Most importantly, always do an internship. Also, study the technical aspects as well as the aesthetic aspects. And just throw yourself into it, and to not focus on what anybody else is doing; you must have a point of difference. Try and channel out the noise and just do your own thing.

“I didn’t know anything about lighting when I started because I

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Room 6: Requiem

studied fashion. So, it was all foreign and new to me; I had no point of reference. Also, if I had known how challenging the business aspect was, maybe I would have done a business course and an excel spreadsheet course!

“But most importantly, I would recommend new designers to get themselves a good mentor. Get yourself somebody in business or in another aspect to help you value your products, because it’s really difficult for designers to do. I have been a mentor many times and so has my business partner.”

Already working on launches for 2024, we can expect new things to come at the end of this year with 2023’s collections already finalised. www.leebroom.com

Celebrating 15 years of Lee Broom, at this year’s Milan Design Week, a stunning exhibition titled Divine Inspiration launched Broom’s newest collections.

Taking inspiration from architecture as well as the architectural make-up of places of worship, the collection features an array of beautiful pieces that blend textures and geometric shapes into a cohesive, awe-inspiring range.

The exhibition took visitors on a spiritual journey enhanced with light and sound, to show the brand’s newest pieces in stunning environments. darc was given an exclusive tour of the exhibition by Broom himself to discover more behind the collection and his personal inspirations for each piece.

Images: Luke Hayes

020 | FOCAL POINT 010 | |FOCAL COMPOSITION POINT IN CRYSTAL

Focal Point Composition in Crystal Preciosa Lighting Preciosa Lighting, brought rhythm and style to Tortona during Milan Design Week 2022 through light, crystal, and music. Designed by Preciosa Creative Directors Michael Vasku and Andreas Klug, the installation titled Composition in Crystal, represented a harmonious balance of art and design, enlightened by light and sound. At the event, visitors were invited to play with the installation and create their own crystal symphony.

This large-scale exhibition consisted of outer rings – reminiscent of sound waves – and an inner heart. The rings were arranged to encourage visitors to move inwards and explore the installation. The inner heart was divided into three playable sections, where upon contact the sounds were translated into light, which travel through the outer components.

Composition in Crystal was inspired by one of Preciosa’s Signature Designs, Crystal Spin, which also made its debut during design week.

Crystal Spin is a playful, organic design, shifting in space through shape and sparkle – thanks to its crystal cylinder components and frame that can be shaped and finished as one wishes.

Vasku says of the installation: “We’re thrilled to be back in Milan. Our showcase [was situated] in Tortona – a creative hub that is known for its great energy, talent, and innovation.” www.preciosalighting.com

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Focal Point Taveggia café

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Louis Poulsen

Milan's famous Taveggia café was transformed into a Pale Rose installation, showcasing both the new PH Pale Rose collection from Louis Poulsen, and showpieces of the iconic PH Artichoke and PH Septima made in the elegant pale rose colour.

“We are very excited to reveal our new PH Pale Rose collection and to introduce a new take on our brand," says David Obel Rosenkvist, CCCO at Louis Poulsen. "Milan Design Week has always been very important to us, and this year we wanted to do something completely different with our installation at Taveggia."

The creative concept was established in collaboration with Locatelli Partners, a renowned Italian architecture and design studio. The aim of the installation was “to transform reality with nuances of pink, in a contemporary way, while respecting the nature and qualities of the Louis Poulsen brand” says Massimiliano Locatelli, `architect and CoFounder of Locatelli Partners.

Visitors were welcomed into a traditional Italian café, which was transformed into a Pale Rose-coloured universe.

“Taveggia is a great location because it combines the tradition of the Italian café, the Milanese atmosphere, and speaks to the tradition of Louis Poulsen,” adds Locatelli. By striking the perfect balance between the traditional with the modern touches of the installation, Louis Poulsen x Taveggia emphasised the historical and contemporary relevance of both brands.

Inspired by Poul Henningsen’s fascination with colour and light, the iconic PH 2/1 and PH 3½-3 lamps have been transformed with pale rose opal glass shades, which are sandblasted white underneath. The elegant, brushed brass elements will patinate beautifully over time, and add a touch of sophistication to every home. Henningsen had a soft spot for the pale rose tint, which he used for a special variant of the PH Septima as well as on the inner sides of the beautiful brass shades of the original PH Artichoke.

The installation marked the start of a new era for Taveggia, which Alessio Conti is passionate about: “I am very happy to make Taveggia’s rebirth happen. I will try to drive Taveggia back to its splendour. To bring back Taveggia’s soul and heart.” www.louispoulsen.com

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024 | MIL AN DESIGN WEEK REVIEW | SHOWROOMS & EVENTS

Milan Design Week Showroom Events

International Gathering Women in Lighting On 9 June, three years (and a hundred initiatives!) after the first gathering in Milan, Women in Lighting held a special networking event at the Vess Bistrot.

Hosted by WiL Italian Ambassador Girogia Brusemini, Ogni casa è illuminata, and lighting designer Chiara Carucci, the evening event gave visitors the opportunity to enjoy drinks, catch up, and mingle with their international lighting counterparts.

The event welcomed a whole host of lighting representatives from across Italy and beyond; visitors included [d]arc media’s Helen Ankers and Sarah Cullen, Katia Kolovea, Content Curator and Social Media Manager of WiL, independent designers Giacomo Rosso, Giusy Gallina, Sara Elise Sartore, Swathi Madhi, Gisella Gellini, and Camila Blanco, while representatives from the likes of Metis Lighting, Studio Switch, Ghidini Lighting, and formalighting were also in attendance. www.womeninlighting.com

Showroom Party Tekna During this year's Milan Design Week, Tekna hosted another intimate evening party, sharing some of its space with British light source brand Tala.

Together with its Italian partner Pollice Illuminazione, Tekna presented new products along with some of its top sellers.

Its newest collection, in collaboration with GioBagnara, was the centerpiece during this design week. Lighting pieces including the Blake table lamp and Walcott wall light demonstrated the new high-end Italian leather finish.

Various colour ways allow the flexibility to mix and match different colour tones and stitching to suit a space and aesthetic.

Each of these Tekna pieces are carefully treated and assembled by hand. tekna.be

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026 | MIL AN DESIGN WEEK REVIEW | SHOWROOMS & EVENTS

Battiti Foscarini Laboratory of pure experimentation on light, the Battiti project is an experience of total freedom where artist, workshop, materials and LED technology come together. Foscarini, an independent company in the world of decorative lighting, intentionally free of constraints on design and production, breaks away from conventional approaches and continues its explorations on light with Battiti: a project of pure research based on collaboration with Andrea Anastasio and Davide Servadei of Ceramica Gatti 1928 to open up new interpretations of light, which in this case take on the character of a material in dialogue with ceramics. Activity driven solely by the desire to explore new expressive languages, meanings and modes of utilising light. “In this sense, it is almost a gift we have given to ourselves," explains Carlo Urbinati, Foscarini President. "A moment of active reflection, to get away from the territory we inhabit as a company, a place in which light, though interpreted and enhanced by the creativity and sensibilities of designers, is always and in any case also a matter of function". www.foscarini.com

Floating Ideas Gabriel Scott Canadian luxury brand Gabriel Scott celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2022 and to mark this special milestone, founder Scott Richler commissioned six inspirational designers and architects [Michelle Gerson, Sybille de Margerie, Kelly Hoppen, Guan Lee, Alessandro Munge, David Rockwell] to reimagine its best-selling and most iconic product, the Welles Chandelier. The reimagined pieces were shown at a formal presentation called ‘Floating Ideas’ as part of 5VIE Design Week.

Founder Scott Richler comments: “I am delighted to be working with such high calibre designers to celebrate Gabriel Scott's 10th anniversary. The designs they have proposed are original and a real testament to the spirit of the Welles chandelier, which is now five years old. The project title ‘Floating Ideas’ came to mind because, when you float an idea, you want to see what it inspires in others - and how far it can be taken." The modern piece showcases expert craftsmanship: a series of hollowed polygons branch out into a modular system of interconnected configurations creating a stunning optical illusion.

Each new piece is in-keeping with Gabriel Scott’s core design principles: versatile aesthetic, customisable and timeless. To ensure differentiation between each studio’s design, Gabriel Scott provided a specific brief, which offered advice on design direction as well as technical execution to ensure that each piece is a workable and buildable product.

Read a full interview with Scott Richler and the six designers in darc's issue #45. www.gabriel-scott.com

Nemo Monforte: The Opening Nemo Together with two new designs by Le Corbusier and Charlotte Perriand, Nemo's contemporary collection is enriched with solutions that express new paradigms of innovative lighting approaches in unexplored spaces and methods. Published in a new book entitled The Accent X, the latest innovations were unveiled in the new concept of Monforte Showroom, a project by Locatelli & Partners.

"I believe that Massimiliano Locatelli with the Nemo Monforte project has successfully provided the opportunity for a reflection that overturns the typical lighting space design concept seen so far," states Federico Palazzari, CEO of Nemo Lighting.

"As soon as the concept was presented, we had no hesitation in proceeding: this project is an experiment characterised by classic and contemporary hints, totally in line with Nemo's culture".

The idea, driven by the desire of providing the company with the right framework to showcase lighting proposals, turned into a unique architectural experience. Locatelli conceived the space by combining five materials "for five houses with five stories": cement, iron, wood, glass, and rubber were selected to dichotomise areas capable of enhancing lights. Inside the new Nemo world, lighting finds its own expression according to the context in which it is placed and reflected, creating a full range of new exhibition paths. The new front sign lettering gives a different entrance disposition and modified perspective of the shop windows invites you into the space. The interior is designed to be modular through the use of pivoting doors that can be adapted to the needs of the collections: a place where simplicity and elegance of materials express themselves. A unifying floor echoes the golden section created by Le Corbusier at La Tourette. www.nemolighting.com 027

New Showroom Lodes Situated in the heart of Brera, the new space is part of a prestigious building on Via della Moscova 33. Visitors to the showroom will find Lodes’ latest lighting collections, including Volum by Norwegian architects, Snøhetta, Flar by Patrick Norguet, Ivy by Vittorio Massimo, along with other new items from the Diesel Living with Lodes collection.

Spanning over 200sqm with three large display windows, the space is the brand’s first showroom worldwide.

Not only does the new space serve as a showroom for architects and interior designers, it also provides customers with a relaxing, feel-at-home environment to experience Lodes’ quality designs and meet its team of experts in-person.

The showroom is divided into two levels: the ground floor is characterised by a traditional Venetian terrazzo floor where a large collection of Lodes lighting products are displayed; on the mezzanine floor you will find a comfortable business area for contract clients.

After the opening, the new Milan showroom will see Lodes host a series of events and workshops for industry professionals and end-consumers. www.lodes.com

Focal Point ON/

028010 | FOCAL | FOCAL POINT POINT | ON/

Aqua Creations and Lexus

Albi Serfaty, Founder and Creative Director of lighting design studio Aqua Creations, teamed up with award-winning designer Germane Barnes to reimagine Barnes’ ON/ installation for luxury automaker Lexus. The installation was a part of the Lexus: Sparks of Tomorrow booth at Superstudio from June 6 - 12. Aqua Creations worked to create an immersive experience for the ON/ installation with its Code 130° Collection that underlined the values of luxury and high-quality craftsmanship that both Aqua and Lexus share.

The brightly coloured and playful silk collection of Code 130° pendant lamps was designed to create a sense of optimism, blending seamlessly with the distinct futuristic aspect of Barnes' wireframe design. Understanding that a car is an expression of one's identity, Aqua selected the buildable Code 130° pieces that allow you to combine endless shapes and colours to individualise a space. Aqua Creations wanted to find a way to bring colour, joy, and hope into our daily lives; colour plays an integral role in the collection as it represents optimism, while allowing us to express our individuality.

With its signature silk shades, Aqua Creations brought an inviting warmth to the ON/immersive experience. As a result of the booth’s glossy floor, the wireframe car is visible from all angles. This concept was mimicked through the glossy plates of Code 130° models, blending seamlessly with this concept of the installation.

The colours selected for the 50-light installation provided a strong contrast to illuminate the sleek white wireframe of the RZ and contributed to the role reflection plays in the experience.

Aqua Creations partnered with Lexus beyond the ON/ installation, introducing its expanded ToTeM Family collection for the first time in the Lexus Lounge. Using design to emulate the lounge’s function to rest and recharge, the modular ToTeM Family collection functioned as artwork that illuminated the space. The contrast of the Code 130° and ToTeM collections show two opposites, and the variety that Aqua Creations offers through colour, material and design. www.aquagallery.com

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030 | INTERVIEW | OLGA H ANONO FOR LL ADRO

“MY INSPIRATION FOR THE FIREFLY WAS TO CREATE A UNIQUE ARTPIECE THAT ACHIEVES A TIMELESS SENSE WITH ITS OWN COLOUR PALETTE AND DESIGN. IT HAS A VERY UNUSUAL MATERIAL COMBINATION AND BECAUSE OF ITS ORIGINAL AESTHETIC IT BECAME A CONVERSATIONSTARTER PIECE.”

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018 | INTERVIEW | 032 | INTERVIEW | OLGA H ANONO FOR LL ADROCREATIONS

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ne of Lladró’s latest collections, Firefly, presents four new designs from its collaboration with Mexican-based interior designer Olga Hanono.

Firefly takes inspiration from the unique light produced by fireflies on warm nights. From floor lamps to wall lamps, pendants, and wireless table lamps, with autonomous lighting and a USB rechargeable system, the composition of colourful porcelain fragments and a lampshade of translucent porcelain or fabric evokes the bioluminescence of the firefly. darc speaks with Hanono to find out more about her inspirations for the new light fixtures and her collaboration with the decorative porcelain brand. “For me, lighting is something magical. Through the

use of lamps, we can transform spaces throughout the day. It is the lighting that makes a space intimate and welcoming, or enigmatic and special.

“I have been designing for over 21 years, and I love to create one-ofa-kind projects where most of the design objects are crafted for a specific space and client. That’s why, when it comes to furniture and lighting, I have created many pieces for private projects,” she says.

“This is my first time collaborating with an international porcelain brand for a lighting collection, where I felt a very interesting and similar creative process between us.

“Lladró is a legend; the brand is a luxury bespoke porcelain manufacturer of the highest quality standards, and that, for me, was a beautiful experience because we brought together our separate wealth of knowledge and contributed it towards a very innovative design. The

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034 | INTERVIEW | OLGA H ANONO FOR LL ADRO

collaboration was more than fruitful. It was key to evolve together and transform alongside one another,” she continues.

“My inspiration for the Firefly collection was to create a unique artpiece that achieves a timeless sense with its own colour palette and design. It has a very unusual combination and because of its original aesthetic it became a conversation-starter.

“The collection is handmade using porcelain; the richness of every piece creates a bold statement for the eye. The craftsmanship that relied upon the design is amazing.”

Speaking of the colour choices, Honono explains that she chose to

create a mix of different metallic pieces alongside her signature colour, teal. In addition to the colour play, she also added a layer of complexity with the various textures.

Working on the products during the international pandemic brought with it some challenges, but overall meant the team became very good at communicating and connecting between Mexico and Spain.

The overall design process took just over a year from concept sketches to the final production of the first pieces.

“One of the biggest challenges we faced was that we were unable to visit the production plant in person. We had to ship colour samples

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from Spain as part of the design process, but thanks to our professional teams we became closer and even more communicative than before,” Hanono explains.

“I love being a part of the new chapter of luxury brands, with my signature artistic approach and my passion for design. I believe that the world is a different place now where people want a real collaboration between different personalities that inspires with real talent and creativity.” www.lladro.com olgahanono.com

Taking inspiration from the firefly insect, Olga Honono designed four new pieces for the Firefly collection by Lladró.

Using her signature teal colour mixed with metalics and varying textures, the new pieces stand out as art pieces in a room and act as conversation-starters.

Crafted using Lladró’s fine porcelain, the lamps glow beautifully like a firefly on a warm summer’s evening.

036 | FOCAL POINT | A LIFE EXTRAORDIN ARY

Focal Point A Life Extraordinary Moooi Moooi presented a multi-sensory exhibition taking place online and live in Milan. The lifestyle brand does things differently this year. It focused on both a digital and a traditional physical experience, combining design, lifestyle, and technology. Moooi’s A Life Extraordinary was envisioned by LG OLED in Salone dei Tessuti at Via S. Gregorio, 29, 20124, Milan. With its Portal, Moooi created an immersive environment, fashioned as four interior moods, where the worlds of design and technology intersected. The brand delved into robotics with IDEO—a legendary global design firm— adding another sensorial layer. IDEO introduced Piro, a dancing scent diffuser that made Moooi’s interior

moods come alive through scent and interaction. Moooi invited Stockholm-based artist Ada Sokół to further deepen its digital and technological approach. Sokół is known for her ultra-sensory experiences and for A Life Extraordinary she used her expertise to transform Moooi’s Extinct Animals into engaging 3D art.

In addition, Moooi presented new products, designs, and extensions by Italian designer Cristina Celestino, Swedish design-duo Front, and digital designer and artist Andrés Reisinger and Júlia Esqué. Also on display was a brand-new bedding collection, wall covering, and carpet collections. www.moooi.com

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The 2022 installation, created in collaboration with Studio Salaris and with the participation of more than 80 brand partners, was unveiled during the long-awaited Milan Design Week.

The exhibit questioned "How will we inhabit the spaces of the future?" and "Will limits between private and working spaces still exist?" Archiproducts Milano looked to the future to explore new answers to the same big questions.

The furnishings, solutions and ideas in the new exhibition transformed the 15 rooms at Archiproducts in via Tortona 31 into possible visions of living in the future.

A unique experience of materials, colours and hybrid elements, the installation portrayed design as an ecosystem, a synthesis of energies, forms, and worlds that are different yet in constant dialogue with each other.

References to landscapes and natural elements alternate with urban imagery, dematerialised technology, and solutions that explored new ways of living and sharing spaces.

In Future Habit(at), nature met the city through the plays of colour and finishes by La Calce del Brenta, and through the textures with urban imagery of rugs and textiles that personalised the Cocoon spaces. Once again, each room expressed a character and an atmosphere.

Corridors and staircases evoked vegetation anticipating the leap into the green heart of via Tortona 31. An outdoor space where plants, lighting, and furnishings created a situation of relaxation and respite.

Future Habit(at) spoke of materials, surfaces, and tactile experiences and, at the same time, immersed its visitors

in dreamlike settings.

Future living redesigned spaces and uses, creating situations of concentration and isolation as ideal occasions for sharing.

The SilentLab islands created an intimate oasis within shared environments. BuzziSpace offered colourful solutions for acoustic protection and playful furnishings and lighting for shared spaces.

The Design Experience at Archiproducts Milano was also technology. BTICINO integrated home automation systems redefined the relationship between systems and people in a domestic space, while Japanese brand mui Lab fused technology and nature with wood IoT interfaces. Samsung proposed solutions that look at sustainability through the care for air quality and antiwaste functions.

At Future Habit(at), Archiproducts Milano continued its investigation into new lifestyles and added art to its imagery. Interactive luminous paintings and wallpapers designed by young artists, geometrically inspired shapes and games personalised and embellished walls with suspended volumes.

Lighting pieces throughout from brands Ambientec, Astro Lighting, bomma, Cameron Design House, d’Armes, Lladró, Midgard Licht, and Vistosi added style and ambience to each of the rooms and demonstrated useable high-quality design. www.archiproducts.com

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The fourth edition of Alcova, established by Valentina Ciuffi, Founder of Studio Vedèt, and Joseph Grima, Founder of Space Caviar, reopened to the public the spectacular venue of the Centro Ospedaliero Militare di Milano and its urban park, expanding its exhibition spaces to a total area of 20 hectares, and offering visitors the chance to discover a whole new section of the complex.

The event presented the projects of 90 exhibitors, distributed among four buildings and outdoor spaces, with two renovated areas dedicated to friendly meeting areas plus food and drink, and a programme of events, talks, installations, and site-specific projects that made this edition the largest and most ambitious ever, while maintaining the

nature of Alcova as a large network dedicated to the latest trends in design.

Over the course of its opening week, Alcova welcomed 60,000 visitors.

The different projects on display alternated works from established international figures, as well as schools, academies, and institutions, with a selection of emerging talents - who were also the focus of the new section Curated by Alcova - exploring new and exciting developments in the fields of technology, materials, sustainable production, social practice, and many other branches of design. www.alcova.xyz

Totem Tokio Asobi is a design studio established by Gorazd Malačič in 1999. The studio made its international debut in 2005 at the London Design Festival with its prototype of the Isle Lounge sofa. Totem is the latest and newest in a series of products designed by Asobi for Tokio.

The bespoke-made product is comprised of triangle modules milled out of a single piece of aluminium, tuneable white LED boards, which come with potential custom-anodising and multi-region setup, as well as remote control capabilities.

All Tokio products are made with the precision of skilled craftsmen able to exploit technologically advanced manufacturing and assembly techniques.

Its products are inspired by Japanese craftsmanship - refined, minimal, and timeless design lines, using modern materials, latest technology and smart features. www.tokiotokio.com

Dukhan (Many Grievances) The Empty Dinner The collection of work titled Dukhan holds a special place in its designer Alisha Phichitsingh's heart, as it is dedicated to her late father.

"The loss of a loved one causes an emptiness and fluctuations of emotions like no other; there are no words that can describe it nor words to soothe the feeling of loss," she says.

The pieces in this collection are the designer's way of describing and expressing the feelings that come upon you within the grieving journey.

These pieces may not be seen by everyone but they will always be present, like the grief that many people hold within. The exhibition embodies the stages of grief, with each piece taking you through a different aspect of that journey. Two of which presented called Absence and Presence. www.theemptydinner.com

Confessions Tableau & Post Service The exhibition Confessions addressed mental health; in particular, men’s mental health. The multidisciplinary studio Tableau curated 14 male-identifying artists, in collaboration with the therapeutic clinic Post Service, to explore the relationship between art, design, and mental health. Both parties aimed to highlight the subject of male mental health and toxic masculinity, and explore the ideas that are increasingly relevant within contemporary society.

The artists were asked to create a piece that somehow expressed functionality, and at the same time their own interpretation of their overall mental health or something they’ve struggled with throughout their life. This was accompanied by a sound piece created by musician Cédric Elizabeth in collaboration with each of the different artists.

The exhibition aims to promote a dialogue within society around destigmatising the mental health realities of all populations of people, particularly those who are socialised to be less forthcoming around vulnerability and the self. www.tableau-cph.com www.postservice.studio

Equilibrium Studio Gonzalo Bascunan

Meta Parallel studio davidpompa Shaped by two material parings: volcanic rock combined with coated aluminum or fiorito stone with brass, the collection suspends its elements in different axes.

Formed into cylindrical shapes, the stones are bridged by an elongated vertical or horizontal metal sheet. A displacement of the metal piece brings the stones into several levels, the watermark of the collection's aesthetic. A mirrored balance combines the roughness of the stones, high-end light technology, and industrial processes. The result is a warm sleek atmosphere in a sculptural piece. www.davidpompa.com Image: Andrea Spikker

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An essential and absolutely minimalist line made clear by the use of two geometric tridimensional shapes - the line and the sphere - which, with various combinations, gives life to different light objects, each of them sharing the same substance. A translucent glass sphere represents the perfection of form.

The desire to conceive furnishings with deliberately minimalist tridimensional shapes led the studio to use - in the composition - a single colour, white.

The monotony is broken by the use, for some pieces, of solid elements made by sand, inspired by the landscapes of the Atacama desert and characterised by the warm colours of the earth. Sand is a material already used by the studio for artistic productions and will continue to be a key material in the future.

The pendant lamps and floor lamps evolve between the ceiling and the floors of the space revolving around the latest generation of LED bulbs that emit a soft, diffused and flattering white light. www.gonzalobascunan.com

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Reflective Gardens Sema Topaloğlu Reflective Gardens is an installation that explores reflection as thought and reflection as light, but more so creates a new setting for nature in urban contemporary life today. The designer Sema Topaloğlu's installation proposed a garden of glass and lighting for reflection. She designed and created a series of lighting fixtures in glass and brass that both emit and reflect light. The lights as plants created a manmade bioluminescence. These plant lights were arranged in a grassy field inspired by the natural topography of Bodrum, Turkey.

The gestural forms of Topaloğlu's lights in handmade glass are as unique as the flowers of nature suggesting a hybrid of nature and craft.

As in Topaloğlu's previous works, the forms are organic yet studied, decorative but decidedly raw. An ornamental function has been replaced by an abstract form in lighting with its own rigid materiality and new notion of organicism in light. www.sematopaloglu.com

Serial Craft SEM / Zaven During Milan Design Week 2022, SEM unveiled three new international collaborations with Zaven, Maya Leroy, and Mario Tsai.

In Sync presents a series of new furniture and light designs, each characterised by the use of a specific material. Displayed to create a dialogue, which simultaneously invokes different forms of metaphoric relationship both between the objects and with the surrounding space, In Sync gives Zaven’s critical design approach a tangible form.

The exhibited Murano glass lamps call upon Zaven’s fascination with transforming geometric forms and volumes into organic bodies. Named after the water bus stop in Murano, the floor lamp Murano Colonna is a heavy cylindrical volume of molten glass.

A leather strip embraces the glass column and supports the light source. By refracting on the surrounding space, the light draws a visual landscape of abstract shapes and colours.

Taking inspiration from Venetian lace-making, In Lace is a hanging glass doily, whose original flattened shape has been bent down due to gravity and the glass’s own weight. www.sem-milano.com

Figure of Light RKDS RKDS's Figure of Light lamp presents the beautiful relationship between light and place, as seen in naturally occuring caves and canyons, or in the elaborate architecture in the field of design.

By creating a shape only by the idea of superimposing geometrical forms, the aim of the design becomes apparent, and the impressive figure of light arises there. www.ryuichikozeki.com

Holotype Refractory Holotype was an exhibition presented by Refractory above Alcova’s E/Space - a former psychiatric hospital whose attic was enveloped in concrete during WWII, a mysterious space that invisibly held air above the visible and infinitely nuanced work of psychiatric care.

American studio Refactory's exhibit Holotype is a contemplative ensemble of its work, shared alongside a printed collaboration with American photographer and documentarian, Sarah Wilson and her work amidst paleontological specimens. www.refractory.studio

World Piece - an installation featuring Nita’s lighting designs - is a simultaneous macro and meta meditation on the human experience.

The Milan-based studio evolves its previous explorations of Unity as the "state of being united or joined as a whole; a condition of harmony; or vibrant representations of the human race that subvert classifications and celebrate rather than expunge our differences" through an experiential video exploring the travels of the Unity avatar. This journey illuminates the inexorable links between the Earth’s resources: its raw materials and the everyday relics that characterise modern lives, as represented by the designs on display.

Ranging from Nita’s Tube, Circular, Ceramic, and Spot Element lights, these distinct expressions both represent the studio’s interdisciplinary, processdriven philosophy and tangibly reconcile artificial divisions, opening a doorway between universal consciousness and creation, individuality and entirety. www.nitacollection.com

Big Air Muthesius Academy Kiel, Industrial Design Dept.

The Big Air exhibition is a curated selection of works by students of the Industrial Design Department of the Muthesius Academy of Art Kiel, Germany.

The show consisted of a series of inflatable products that range from lighting to robotics using compressed air as the main component for product construction and design.

A group of 18 students across BA and MA levels at Muthesius Industrial Design Department used a CNC foil welding machine, developed by Benjamin Unterluggauer for the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, to introduce individual digital production methods to the product development process. The exhibition was curated by Martin Poster and Benjamin Unterluggauer with the help of the participating students. www.muthesius-kunsthochschule.de

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n.66 The Back Studio (Curated by Alcova) The Back Studio, a dynamic collaboration between Eugenio Rossi and Yaazd Contractor, was established in late 2019. Drawing from their experiences in Turin, Italy, and Mumbai respectively, as well as their shared journeys at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the duo’s portfolio is purposefully eclectic.

Industrial construction pieces interact with hand-blown neon creations, resulting in a repertoire of assemblages that are simultaneously sculptural and functional. Heavily influenced by the ubiquity of architecture, they believe in harnessing the highly tactile yet stubborn materiality of architectural forms in their projects. Apart from revealing the inconspicuous and often completely invisible elements of architectural processes in a novel context, The Back Studio’s creations are a commentary on duality; where the near-obsolete skill of cold cathode glass working and the rapidly evolving environment of digitised mass-fabrication are adroitly juxtaposed. www.the-back-studio.com

Ordinance of the Subconscious Treatment Duyi Han (Curated by Alcova) Ordinance of the Subconscious Treatment (2021) is a collection of neuroaesthetic environments investigating the themes of mental health and contemporary Chinese culture. Modeled on a typical Chinese apartment, each room was conceived as a visual projection of a mental state and a neuroaesthetic prescription.

Intended to be both provoking and hypnotic, intimidating and soothing, the rooms and furniture interwove religious and folkloric references with scientific and narrative cues informed by contemporary mental health practices. Silk embroidery features chemical symbols such as dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin.

Presented at Alcova was a selection of objects with an exclusive new version of visual content, including short films in collaboration with directors Ziyi Jin and Alexander Zeke Musca. www.duyihan.com

ANDlight Vol. 22 ANDlight ANDlight unveiled three brand new luminaires by Caine Heintzman and Lukas Peet as part of its 2022 collection that was seen for the first time during Milan Design Week. It joined Alcova and a dynamic roster of creators spearheading the most innovative work of contemporary design culture that accentuates living environments, products, systems, materials and technological innovation.

Under the creative vision of Space Caviar and Studio Vedet, ANDlight’s decorative lighting fixtures illuminate a lounge bar. Inspired by themes of luxury and sustainability, the Offcut Bar beame a central meeting room where guests came together for press conferences, meetings and gala dinners. www.andlight.ca

[Array] lighting [Array] [Array] is a personal collection of decorative and functional lighting. The collection that was curated, designed, and developed by David Derksen.

The properties of materials, construction, mathematical principles, and the possibilities of modern LED lighting techniques form the starting points of all designs. Industrial techniques, as well as craftsmanship, are always a source of inspiration for the designer. Each fixture has been designed and developed with dedication and produced in its studio in Rotterdam or at local partners.

[Array] started from Derksen's passion for lighting design and the long-held wish to bring a personal and uncompromising lighting collection to the market. www.array-lighting.com

Objects of Common Interest / Etage Projects Domesicity-At-Large

Poetic Jungle Elisa Uberti After working many years in the Fashion industry, and driven by an immoderate passion for refined and timeless objects, Elisa Uberti decided to turn to craftsmanship. Sensitive to the beauty of ceramics and handicrafts, she felt the need for a creative freedom and a return to simplicity.

An artist and designer, she creates from her workshop based in Roubaix, France.

Uberti mainly uses stoneware, her favorite material, which she models to create sculptures and lamps with curved and comforting shapes testifying to an ancestral manual gesture.

Her work, between art and design, unites tradition and modernity, and is a constant research of volumes and emotional shapes.

Poetic Jungle is a subtle balance between the rigor of technical constraints and the necessary freedom and spontaneity of the gesture. www.elisauberti.com

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Domesicity-At-Large presented a series of objects with sensation driven investigations comprised of elemental pieces (chair, table, stool, light, mirror) within acts-of-living, familiar set ups of domestic life within a futuristic scenography environment of textural and formal ambiguity. Act I: chair in front of mirror, Act II: light next to chair, Act III: seats around table framed by ceiling pendant.

The tube light columns are a vertical sculptural light formation of seemingly pliable acrylic extrusions diffused light into space. www.objectsofcommoninterest.com

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Unproduced Maximilian Marchesani Studio Unproduced is designer Maximilian Marchesani's obsession with totally distorted environments and systems controlled by artifice, where humans take total control of the variables. "I contemplate metropolitan natural ecosystems, when nature collides with artefacts, habits, and alien species, and adapts to them, rewriting the codes of its own biodiversity, genetics and aesthetics," he says. The absence of variables, the standardisation due to the industrial process, and the saturation of the environments, forces life forms to find new balances. These influence the designer to imagine worlds of material and functional exchanges between natural and artificial, where matter is no longer forced by anthropocentric desire.

"Unproduced dreams about a point of equilibrium, which tries to hold together the natural world, irremediably contaminated, and the artificial world, which we cannot now think of giving up". www.instagram.com/maximilianmarchesani

Teno: Sound in a New Light Lumio Against a dramatic Icelandic landscape, Lumio presented its latest product, Teno, an invisible speaker and light, in the form of a broken sculpture.

Lumio creates objects that blend forward-thinking technology with high-end craftsmanship. Through touch, sound, sight, and scent, its creations engage the senses and leave you feeling more human.

Teno was inspired by kintsugi, the Japanese art of piecing together broken parts rather than throwing them away. Lumio embraces the idea of imperfection to create a piece of functional technology that delights the senses. As Teno patinas over time, the studio believes it will come to possess the soulful charm of a beloved, handcrafted object. www.hellolumio.com

Caffè Populaire Lambert & Fils + DWA For Milan Design Week 2022, Lambert & Fils and DWA presented the second edition of Caffè Populaire, in collaboration with Superflower. For the occasion, the group created an eight-day aperitivo garden at Alcova.

Reimagining the relationship between nature and design, DWA transformed a vacant temple into an immersive environment where raw matter and refined materiality came together to create an installation bigger than the sum of its parts. Following years of isolation, Caffè Populaire is a celebration of the essentiality of food, wine, and the spark of human connection. Guests were invited to gather amongst the wildflowers spilling into the gardens, while an undulating water sculpture connected the new lighting collections of Lambert & Fils and floral wallpaper of Superflower.

Launching at Caffè Populaire was Silo: Lambert et Fils’ new modular lighting collection.

Inhabiting many worlds at once, Silo creates a striking metaphor for duality. Mysterious yet inviting, the true magic lies in how its rhythmic curves shape light and space around it. www.lambertetfils.com

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Appartamento Spagnolo ICEX ICEX, in collaboration with the Spanish Economic and Commercial Office in Milan, organised the Appartamento Spagnolo (Spanish Apartment) from 6 to 11 June, coinciding with Milan Design Week. The magazine Elle Decor Italia and the Italian architecture studio DWA designed the installation, which displayed a careful and harmonious selection of design pieces from 12 Spanish brands.

Located in the new headquarters of the Cervantes Institute, in the historic centre of Milan, the exhibition consisted of four rooms and a terrace spread over two floors, where the textures, the quality of the materials, the shapes of the designs, and the sounds and smells allowed visitors to travel from Milan to Spain.

It was a scenographic space that demonstrated domestic moments, daily rituals, uses of space, and habits. It was the starting point for a project that explored new aspects of contemporary life with Spanish design as the protagonist. Walking through

the Appartamento Spagnolo, visitors experienced the sensations of a modern lifestyle: from settings related to food and socialising, to soft shapes that recreated a private niche to take refuge.

In the Talk Room, an event on Spanish Design took place on Thursday 9 June with the participation of the famous Milan-based Spanish designer, Patricia Urquiola, the Managing Director of ICEX, María Peña, in a seminar moderated by Livia Peraldo, Director of Elle Decor Italia. On 10 June, a second talk was held with Alberto Artesani and Frederik de Wachter of the DWA design studio, who answered questions from journalist Paola Carimati of Elle Decor Italia, about the design of this installation. Xavi Calvo, General Manager of Valencia WDC2022, also took part in this event. www.icex.es Images: stefano Pavesi

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Focal Point Into the Bloom Giopato & Coombes

From 6 to 12 June 2022, Giopato & Coombes presented the new Maehwa collection at a sitespecific installation Into the Bloom.

Maehwa is the Korean word for plum blossom. The project draws inspiration from a moment Cristiana and Christopher, the brand's designers and founders, experienced when they were in a park in Seoul.

They say of the inspiration: "Each of us has experienced a sensation that words cannot grasp. It’s when we hold our breath lost in a whirlwind of events, and, all of a sudden, we perceive an inner calm, born from a pure connection with nature. In a park in Seoul, we found ourselves in an emotional turmoil for what was happening around us, and suddenly, we remained suspended for a moment. People of all ages, together with us, were turning their heads up to gaze at the plum blossoms, with their open corolla or with small spherical buds still closed, waiting for them to vibrate in the breeze. In the natural inspiration, the leafy branches laden with blossoms were filling the space creating their own composition, and this guided us in designing the compositional structure of the Maehwa collection." www.giopatocoombes.com Image: Marina Denisova

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“THE EFFECT OF THE COATED COMPONENT IS TO CHANNEL THE LIGHT OF OUR POWERFUL LED DRIVER INTO CONSTITUENT PARTS OF THE SPECTRUM, GIVING THE ALREADY CRAZED INTERNAL REFLECTION AN ADDITIONAL CHROMATIC BOOST AND AN UNEXPECTED SPACE AGE AESTHETIC TO THIS OTHERWORLDLY LAMP.”

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elebrating 20 years of design, Tom Dixon launched the exhibition Twenty at Palazzo Serbelloni, a neoclassical palace where Sotheby’s has its Milan galleries and offices. Visitors were invited to explore a curated selection of designs, with 20 unseen pieces on display. darc’s editor Sarah Cullen caught up with Dixon during an exclusive press preview of the collection in Milan to discuss the brand’s 20th anniversary and the direction he is pushing it in moving forward.

“We had a plan. Though I don’t think I was projecting it 20 years forwards from when we started, the initial idea of having the eponymous label has worked out as we hoped, but we thought [the journey] would have been a bit easier. From the perspective of mimicking let’s say the fashion industry, in terms of how you set up a business using your own name, having your own distribution, and your own communication, I didn’t realise that it would end up like this.

“Lots of stuff has changed in the interim, right? But what I didn’t realise

is how much more difficult it is to cover [as a product designer] all the different categories of the home, from a distribution and logistics perspective, and the way people buy,” Dixon explains.

Further likening the varied manufacturing approaches to that of the fashion industry, Dixon explains that if you have one manufacturing technique such as sewing, for example, this can be replicated at home in the UK or in a factory in Vietnam. However, when it comes to producing homeware, every packaging box is a different size and shape, which entails different import restrictions, etc. “It’s been more difficult than I thought to do a whole interior concept, but I think the vision, if you want to call it that, and how you take control over your own destiny as a product designer is reasonably accurate,” he adds.

“We are still the only company of our size that does that.”

When asked whether there was a particular design Dixon had wished to have launched by this milestone, he comments: “You have these fantasies about what people will buy and, although you gain experience and get better at predicting that, the reality is the market

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dictates it. And, getting things at the right price and at the right quality is tricky, particularly if you don’t have your own factory.

“We’ve become better in lighting, which is from a pull in the market. I thought we’d probably be more reflective of how people furnish their spaces, in terms of proportionality. Our lighting business is 60% of what we do, which is not equivalent to the proportion [of lighting] you have in your home or in a restaurant. The marketplace decides roughly what people will buy from you. Different parts of the world, like Hong Kong, would be much more accessories focused, for instance, and for logistical reasons, again, getting your furniture out there means much longer lead times, along with things like anti-import duties or restrictions of what type of testing you need for California; it’s a different picture for different parts of the world.

“So, it’s harder for you to have mastery over the destiny of a selection than it is to have over what the initial concept was, which is to have at least a way of creating your own universe. This is something most

product designers don’t have; they’ve got an aesthetic, but their output goes to lots of other brands to be marketed and sold.”

With regards to Brexit and how it’s impacted them as a UK-based brand, Dixon describes it as a “perfect storm”.

“Brexit, if you’re an import / export business, is an abject disaster.

You’d have hoped there’d be some advantage, any advantage, that had been carefully constructed behind the scenes during the three years [the government] had to sort it out, i.e., better conditions for British manufacturing, new export markets, seamless borders. But there’s none of it. It’s just become more paperwork, more inefficiency, and more unknowns – it’s a shocking picture,” he says.

Turning the conversation to Twenty, Dixon explains that the various pieces chosen were selected because they helped with getting the brand to where it is today. “I mean, to be frank, given the state of Milan - we’re going to have a little Salone in September, actually we’re going to have it in April now, no we’re now going to have it in June… - We

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didn’t even know if we were going to do this show this year.

“We wanted to look at some of the things that got us to where we are now and see whether they could be refreshed and rejuvenated. There are some things more experimental, and some that were so good we didn’t show them because we didn’t want to share them before they were available for sale. I might be exaggerating, but there were a couple of things that came back [from production] that were so bad we couldn’t possibly show them. So, you must be pragmatic about it.

“I also quite like showing some things that are total failures. For me, the rubber S chair is a total failure, but it’s still an amusing narrative and it’s an experiment. I also didn’t want to just look backwards - pulling out some pieces I thought were interesting that we never produced, like the paper lanterns for instance, feel relevant now.

“There were lots of ideas that went through a funnel, and what comes out the other end, comes out the other end. Then, you have some things that get stuck in customs, and others that arrived yesterday,

which I’d never seen, like the aluminium lamps for instance. They looked great in 3D render, but they could have been rubbish, or they could have never turned up. There’s been some good surprises and there’s been some appalling disasters, but that’s just Milan. That’s how it rolls.”

The Melt chandelier, one of Tom Dixon’s most popular items, was selected as part of the Twenty exhibition. Dixon wanted to draw attention to it but with minimal intervention. Thus, a simple dichroic filter was added, creating an interesting and different effect to the iconic light. “We’ve all seen dichroic effects - maybe on cheap novelty sunglasses in Camden Market, or on the surface of early Roman glass in the British Museum - but I know that it’s a finish that has always fascinated me. The emergence of Modern Dichroic thin film filters, which split white light into its component colours, is the work of the engine of extreme innovation, NASA. When we looked at updating Melt, our most successful light, rather than offering a new shape, a new size,

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or a new colour, we decided to instead filter the light with a dichroic filter. The effect of the coated component is to channel the light of our powerful LED driver into constituent parts of the spectrum, giving the already crazed internal reflection an additional chromatic boost and an unexpected space-age aesthetic to this otherworldly lamp.”

Looking to be more sustainable in future product designs, the studio has been experimenting with various materials such as cork, mycelium, and biorock. “It’s becoming increasingly urgent. I can’t just sit around and ignore it, and so we’re doing our best to find substitute materials,” says Dixon. “The miracle with 100% recycled is you can’t really tell the difference. We thought there would be a significant drop in clarity or a significant increase in bubbles and imperfections, but it almost feels glassier because it’s not completely pristine and virgin. The only problem being is plastic is roughly 60 - 70% more expensive, so we have to see whether the market is prepared to pay for sustainability. Everybody wants to do it, but the proof is in the pudding. And I think what’s been interesting, in terms of observing how it can work, is the LED revolution where there’s a mix in legislation, which mainly came from California. This affected how the American sales worked. You can’t ignore California and then, combined with huge, amazing research, engineering and manufacturing, and progress, have designers piling on board trying to make acceptable sustainable solutions for the customer. I think it takes all three; it takes

government, innovation, and science, plus some design.

“So, the difficulty with sustainability is that you see there’s an interest.

People love to touch it, they want to be part of it, but will they consume it? Particularly if everything is brown. Brown has its moments, but these things are subject to fashions. I think it’s important for us to show what we’re working on, and if there’s genuine enthusiasm, we can accelerate on those things rather than making a series of mess-ups.

Also, it’s never black and white. Plastic versus glass in terms of energy consumption it isn’t an obvious equation.

“We have been challenging ourselves and our factories to reduce our impact on the environment, so the monumental vertical chandelier [Mirror Ball] will be the first to display one of our oldest designs in a 100% recycled polycarbonate. The change in optical quality is imperceptible and is a demonstration of the opportunities now available in a rapidly changing landscape to try harder to find more credible alternatives to virgin material.”

Along with many other studios, the last couple of years has been a difficult one for the brand. However, Dixon admits they’ve “not thrived, but more than survived”.

He continues: “We’ve been hugely impacted from a manufacturing perspective. And it isn’t so much just manufacturing, Brexit, increasing in container costs, and the rest of it, which is a universal issue, it’s also the fact that there haven’t been any trade fairs. That makes it really

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hard to launch new products. Ours is a physical business where people still need to see pieces in person. It’s useless to do it on zoom.”

Looking to the future and the new generations of designers coming into the industry, darc asked for Dixon’s advice on getting yourself out there: “I think they’re in such a better position than I ever was to get attention without having to invest loads in physical showrooms. I can remember having to pay for stamps to send an invitation to a party like this, whereas now you can just gather a flash crowd in an instant - you can address the world from your bedroom. You’ve never been in a better position to make yourself visible and to sell, whether that’s on Etsy or Instagram. You’re able to create a business and FedEx your product to people all over the world from your bedroom. That’s amazing! But the most important thing then is how do you stick out from the crowd? The market is so much more saturated, and so it becomes harder and harder to make that impact even though it’s easier at the same time. So, there’s a kind of catch-22. The important thing is really finding your uniqueness and having a different point of view. There is absolutely no point in trying to be like me, or like anybody else.

If you’re at the beginning of your career, you’ve got to be yourself,” he concludes. www.tomdixon.net

During Milan Design Week 2022, Tom Dixon presented Twenty, an exhibition held at Sotheby’s gallery location in the heart of the Italian Capital.

On display was a curated selection of furniture and lighting pieces that were chosen for their important role in getting the British brand to where it’s at today.

Highlights of the lighting pieces on show included the new dichroic filtered Melt chandelier, and the new 100% recycled polycarbonate Mirror Ball chandelier.

Focal Point See The Stars Again

060 | FOCAL POINT | SEE THE STARS AGAIN

Flos On the occasion of its 60th anniversary, at the vast industrial space of Fabbrica Orobia in Via Orobia 15 in Milan, Flos staged See The Stars Again, a concept developed by CEO Roberta Silva and Global Marketing Director Barbara Corti alongside Design Curators Calvi Brambilla, authors of the outstanding exhibition design.

Flos transformed the sprawling industrial spaces of Fabbrica Orobia into a multi-experiential hub to offer visitors an immersive journey, both physical and digital, into the brand’s design universe and vision for the future.

Flos presented innovative lighting collections across all divisions - decorative, architectural, outdoor and bespoke - designed by some of the most acclaimed international architects and designers: Michael Anastassiades, Edward Barber & Jay Osgerby, Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, Antonio Citterio, Konstantin Grcic, Piero Lissoni, Paolo Rizzatto, Patricia Urquiola, Vincent Van Duysen, Marcel Wanders studio, and announced the first lighting collection for Flos (an ethereal and timeless series of table lamps) by Milan-based Italian designer Guglielmo Poletti.

Finally, Flos revealed a limited edition of one of the most recognised objects in its history of design, the Arco lamp, designed by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni. This iconic piece also celebrated its 60th birthday this year: Arco K is the name of the anniversary edition that will be available online in only 2022 numbered pieces.

"To celebrate this important birthday, we thought it would be nice to tell about the next 60 years of the company, starting from what Flos is today", says Roberta Silva, CEO of Flos. "For this reason, we chose a special venue like Fabbrica Orobia, an industrial space of 6,000sqm, where we presented Flos in all its expressions, from a storytelling of the brand and its designers, to the combination of technological innovation, design and the new eco-friendly approach to lighting design. We brought together the world of decorative with the outdoor, up to custom and architectural, speaking a transversal language. We wanted to convey to our audience the story of a future Flos that is brave, curious and passionate." www.flos.com

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062 | FOCAL POINT | VENUS IN LYCRA

Focal Point Venus in Lycra Servomuto Venus in Lycra was an installation designed by Serena Confalonieri for Servomuto. It featured the new lighting collection Venus, which is inspired by the female body sinuosity, and realised in metal and lycra.

The mise-en-scene took place inside Alcova in via Saint Bon 1, in the E / Space building - room E14.

Confalonieri's idea was to present Venus as a lamp dressed in lycra: just like on the human body, the fabric is a dress to be worn and changed at will by choosing colours and nuances, dressing and undressing the lamps in a game of seduction.

Adapting smoothly to Servomuto's DNA, the project combined the lighting design with an important decorative value and an icastic irony that belong to both the designer and the brand.

Venus is composed of an elegant and

linear central body in polished metal that hosts all the lighting elements and is connected to all the metal rod partitions folded with colourful lycra fabrics that can be freely customised.

From the soft shades of body sand colour and cloud gray, and the pastel shades of fish blue and daydream lilac, to stronger shades, such as ethnic orange and Nairobi burgundy: the collection is an invitation to free one's own creativity and style.

The Venus in Lycra set-up, designed by Confalonieri, refered to the erotic drama Venus in Fur by Roman Polanski. The pieces were presented in a multicolour and ironic tone. Playing with the elasticity of the material, the setting recreated a stage, where the lamps are dressed and mirrored, vain and winking. www.servomuto.com

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Milan Design Week Product Launches Skyline Luxxu

064 | MIL AN DESIGN WEEK PRODUCT REVIEW

Firstly introduced as a decorative wall lamp, the Skyline lighting series has now extended and gets a new horizontal perspective in the form of a suspension piece. This new lighting design draws inspiration from the ever-busy metropolises around the world. It seeks to epitomise the towering nature of skyscrapers and their vigorous silhouettes, favouring a more cultural-oriented focus.

The Skyline suspension portrays these architectural statements through the support of brass bars and adjustable cords that are then seamlessly connected to an alabaster marble frame that radiates smooth lighting, and provides a striking contrast between materials. www.luxxu.net

Litia Kreoo

Spring Lodes

Moon Yabu Pushelberg x Tribù

Litia is a transparent orb on polished stone forming a sculpture lamp; a piece that fascinates and surprises day and night, lit or unlit. The onyx base in a variety of types and sizes supports the Murano glass sphere, in a point of light generated by an invisible source that adds extra wonder to a strongly evocative piece. This creation can also change aesthetic, depending on the base colour and type of glass: transparent, fumed, or pulegoso, with infinite air bubbles suggestive of a precious jewel. www.kreoo.com

The Diesel Living with Lodes line has been expanded to include Spring, a brand-new arm lamp. Spring is a classic reinterpreted by Diesel with a contemporary twist and a bold personality.

The lamp is characterised by the tubular element of the metal arm that bends back on itself, creating a circle reminiscent of a spring. The lamp is extremely versatile and can be rotated on itself from the socket either when wall-mounted, horizontally, or ceilingmounted by directing the arm along the vertical axis. www.lodes.com

The Moon portable lanterns are designed to unite people and nature. After hosting a group of friends at their home in Amagansett, George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg were inspired to design their inaugural lighting collection for Tribù. Taken by the moonlight’s reflection on the ocean, Yabu and Pushelberg set out to craft Moon, a collection of cordless lanterns that can guide them and guests closer to nature. www.yabupushelberg.com www.tribu.com

Lampe De Bureau Nemo

J-us Luceplan

Davide Groppi introduces a new lighting element for its model ChainDelier.

An intense yet soft light for creating infinite compositions above tables or along walls.

ChainDelier is an open and modular design thanks to the links of a special conductive chain and to the lighting modules of diffuse light and accent light. www.davidegroppi.com

Starting from the necessity of illuminating the faces reflected in the mirror of a cabinet designed for the famous French glassworks Boussois, in 1965 Charlotte Perriand designed the wall-mounted version of the Lampe de Bureau, later transformed into a table lamp. The grey steel stem is anchored to a lifted, almost suspended, darker base and the translucid pressed glass diffuser is available in two finishes, white inside and green, red, blue mare or blue grey outside. www.nemolighting.com

An original vision of the traditional chandelier with arms in which technological innovation, research on materials, and new solutions for the conduction of electricity are completely hidden from view. The central structure with a cylindrical form, 30mm in diameter, contains an original electrified track on which to attach the very slim arms of the lamp. The chandelier comes in various configurations, thanks to the possibility of positioning multiple levels of arms on the central structure. www.luceplan.com

IXA Artemide x Foster + Partners

Ghost Resident

G.O. 252 Oluce

IXA, a high-powered LED lamp designed

by Foster + Partners in collaboration with Artemide, has launched at this year’s Milan Design Week. This is the practice’s fourth partnership with Artemide, who are known for their human-centred approach to lighting design.

Inspired by Alexander Calder’s sculptures, the design interprets the idea of ‘elegant balance’ through precision engineering. www.artemide.com www.fosterandpartners.com

The Ghost pendant is a minimal lamp made from two pure borosilicate glass tubes.

In a collision of technology and materiality, a warm LED light source projects invisibly through the glass, to spectacularly illuminate the bottom edges. The result is a delicate visual presence, with a strong source of light for the space below. www.resident.co.nz

The G.O. lamp is the revival edition of a model designed for Oluce by Giuseppe Ostuni in the 1960s. A lamp that, in the essence of its design, is extremely current, characterised by a vertical shaft from which a horizontal arm branches off and on which the lampshade is mounted. The arm, thanks to the system of joints, is therefore a sliding element that can be repositioned and oriented depending on specific needs. www.oluce.com

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ChainDelier Davide Groppi

066 | MIL AN DESIGN WEEK PRODUCT REVIEW

Ouranos Christopher Boots

Mito taglio Occhio

Swirl Bethan Grey x Baroncelli

Mystery clouds the ancient story of Ouranos: The God of Heaven, grandfather of Prometheus, consort and son to Earth Goddess Gaia.

Honouring the vertical rotation of the planet Uranus with a transversal rift of light, an individual lustrous quartz sphere appears suspended in a slab of brass. Concealed by time, Ouranos reminds us to push past our limitations, eying the skies above our clouded collective consciousness. www.christopherboots.com

Occhio expands its iconic Mito luminaire series with the new Mito taglio table luminaires. With their maximum mobility and unique functions, the Mito taglio table luminaires stand for maximum flexibility in use.

Thanks to the parallelogram-guided height adjustment concealed in the luminaire arm, the light from Mito taglio can either be diffused over a wide area or focused. www.occhio.de

The new Swirl lighting collection is an adaptation of Baroncelli’s existing Flexus series. It combines traditional Murano mouthblown glass techniques with contemporary brass highlights, which sit perfectly alongside the works of Bethan Grey.

The Orion Swirl and Polaris Swirl pieces feature individually mouth-blown Murano glass spheres in blue, white, and clear glass stripes, echoing the flowing lines of Grey's painterly Inky Dhow design. www.bethangray.com www.baroncelli.com

Maple Yabu Pushelberg x Henge

Gummy Seletti x Uto Balmoral

Margritte Barovier&Toso

Yabu Pushelberg draws nature indoors with Maple, the studio’s first lighting design created in its long-standing partnership with Henge.

Maple’s slender brass stems are tipped with hand-blown glass pendants, evoking the shape of cascading maple seeds in autumn. The studio imbued Maple with romantic appeal to make for a beautiful statement light above dining tables, where its soft illumination will create an inviting space for gathering whether in residences or restaurants. Yabu Pushelberg also envisions Maple as a natural fit to elevate retail experiences with whimsical elegance. www.yabupushelberg.com www.henge07.com

With an openly pop approach, the designer of Gummy, Uto Balmoral, imagines the fairytale figures of the dwarfs, transforming them into funny lamps that, with their bright colours, burst into everyday life to bring lightness and liveliness.

Available in three models: sleeping, snooping, and working. www.seletti.it www.utobalmoral.com

During Fuorisalone, Barovier&Toso presented the new Magritte collection of chandeliers and wall sconces, inside the Concept Flat on Via Durini, in the heart of the design district.

The Murano-based company solidifies its strategy of enhancement of its heritage in the art of glass through modern, innovative interpretation. The steps in this direction, collection after collection, become bolder in pursuit of new balances and dynamics between light, space, and form, dimensions that act together, in each case, as a tribute to blown glass. www.barovier.com

Bath Abbey, UK by Michael Grubb Studio

Winner of the 2021 Best of the Best [d]arc award

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