Design Destinations | Archiproducts and Alcova

038 | MILAN DESIGN WEEK REVIEW | DESIGN DESTINATIONS 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

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 Diner

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

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

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

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 Nita

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

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

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

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

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

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