Milan Design Week 2022: Editor’s Picks
Milan Design Week returned in full force this June, the city and Rho coming alive with the very best the design world has to offer. Here are some of our managing editor’s highlights from the week that was
Hermès at Milan Design Week 2022. Image by Maxime Verret
Image by Mattia Parodi
1. Alcova
A resounding highlight of the week, Alcova — an ‘itinerant platform for freethinking design’ — once again took over the abandoned spaces of the Military Hospital in Baggio.
Image by Maritza Lara Caceres
2. Cipango: Japan Reimagined
Set in a private apartment redesigned by Italian architect Francesco Rota, Cipango featured furniture and objects by Origin Made, Ariake, Ladies & Gentlemen Studio and more.
Image by Matteo Imbriani
3. B&B Italia
The Italian brand celebrated 50 years of Mario Bellini’s Le Bambole line and launched new pieces by Piero Lissoni, Foster+Partners Industrial Design Studio and Barber Osgerby.
4. Baxter
The pieces in Baxter’s new outdoor collection are conceived to work with one other and with a home’s interior to create a cohesive yet surprising experience. A favourite from the collection is the Himba series by Roberto Lazzeroni.
Image by Valentina Sommariva
5. Cassina
Cassina unveiled collaborations with the likes of Antonio Citterio, Formafantasma, Michael Anastassiades and Patricia Urquiola, among many more, as well as Modular Imagination by Abloh, an installation of modular Cassina-Abloh blocks by the late Virgil Abloh.
6. Desalto
Al fresco living was front of mind for many. Desalto’s Koki Wire line of outdoor-indoor seating, designed by Pocci + Dondoli, can appear playful, minimalist or sculptural depending on the finishing.
Álvaro Catalán de Ocón, Plastic Rivers
7. Flexform
Flexform opened its new showroom on Via della Moscova with an expanded collection for indoor-outdoor living. The pieces showed nature-inspired colours and materials for a year-round open-air lifestyle.
Image by Francesco Caredda
8. Flos
Flos transformed a sprawling warehouse into an immersive space to showcase new collections and pieces, including a limited edition of the iconic Arco lamp.
Image by Petr Krejci
9. Forest Tales by American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) and Studio Swine
Curated and designed by Studio Swine, Forest Tales displayed 22 designs from AHEC’s recent projects with designers from around the world.
Image by DSL Studio
10. Formafantasma x Maison Matisse
In its charming space in 5VIE, French design brand Maison Matisse — a design house for objects inspired by Henri Matisse — presented Formafantasma’s intriguing Fold lighting collection inspired by Matisse’s cut-outs.
Image by Maxime Verret
11. Hermès
Displayed in a series of (much-photographed) translucent towers, Hermès Home’s collections of objects, soft furnishings and furniture revealed textile experimentation and a sense of lightness.
Image by Sandie Lykke Nolsøe
12. Karimoku
The Japanese lifestyle brand exhibited at Salone del Mobile for the first time with an apartment-like installation designed by brand co-founders Norm Architects and Keiji Ashizawa Design.
13. Kohler Co. x Daniel Arsham
Set within the historic Palazzo del Senato, artist-designer Daniel Arsham’s colossal Divided Layers installation won this year’s Fuorisalone Award.
Image by Matteo Girola
14. Kvadrat
In its Corso Monforte showrooms, Kvadrat launched a collection of textiles in collaboration with Belgian artist Alain Biltereyst. The brand also presented the Kvadrat/Raf Simons and Quotes collections.
15. Lasvit
The Czech brand’s exhibition took over a warehouse at Tenoha, where new launches included A:Live by Stefan Mihailović, a kinetic lighting installation conceived for private homes.
16. Lee Broom
British designer Lee Broom presented his new collection Divine Inspiration in a meditative and memorable exhibition that combined references to Brutalist architecture and traditional religious design.
Image by Luke Hayes
17. Louis Poulsen
Louis Poulsen’s collaboration with Taveggia patisserie saw the cafe transformed into a delightful burst of pink to launch the brand’s PH Pale Rose collection, as well as pink versions of the PH Artichoke and PH Septima.
18. Minotti
Minotti’s expansive pavilion at Salone showed all areas of the home, including outdoor settings where two new additions to GamFratesi’s Lido Cord Outdoor family were launched, among a host of other new pieces.
19. Nature Squared x ANOTHERVIEW
As always, the creative warren of Rossana Orlandi Gallery was a must-visit and picking a highlight is a tricky task, but Nature Squared and art collective ANOTHERVIEW’s VIEW 20 stood out for its use of natural materials like abaca, bamboo and eggshell, which Nature Squared chief material innovator Elaine Yan Ling Ng turned into an elegant architectural installation that screened the Milan-based art collective’s 24-hour video of a tree in Ranakpur, India.
Image by Mattia Iotti
20. Nilafur Depot
A perennial highlight, Nilafur Depot’s three floors were filled with the work of multiple contemporary designers and studios as well as Nina Yashar’s mid-century collections, and a standout craft exhibition curated by Valentina Ciuffi on the top floor.
Image by Ottavio Tomasini
21. Pedrali
Pedrali’s exhibition brought the Milanese summer into the exhibition hall, with the steel-tubed Nolita sofa and lounger only adding to the convivial feeling.
22. Poliform
With elegantly minimalist mise en scènes, Poliform presented a residential exhibition that considered all areas of the home from bedroom to kitchen.
23. Popcorn.tokyo
At SaloneSatellite, Popcorn Tokyo caught our eye with its striking vases and graphic posters that evoke a contemporary Memphis feel.
24. Project HK-UK: Design, Artistry and Craftsmanship
A cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural collaboration, Project HK-UK invited six Hong Kong designers to each come up with a furniture design brief. The briefs were then developed by six UK designers, including Samuel Chan and Lucy Kurrein, and 12 groups of emerging Hong Kong designers. The pieces — which ranged from seating to cabinetry — were then all shown, along with explanatory and process information.
25. Ranjan Bordoloi, Amiya Lab
Amiya Lab is an emerging multidisciplinary studio with a current focus on space, form and materials. At SaloneSatellite, designer Ranjan Bordoloi launched Pitoloi 2.0, a stool and barstool made from hammered brass, cast brass and 3D-printed plastic created in conjunction with artisans from Assam.
26. Resident
New Zealand brand Resident brought modern accents to the cloister garden of San Simpliciano, launching new designs from Philippe Malouin, Simon James, Jamie McLellan, Cheshire Architects and Resident Studio.
27. SolidNature
Natural stone brand SolidNature presented Monumental Wonders, an exhibition of monolithic works by Sabine Marcelis and OMA. Highlights were OMA’s Inhabitable bed, a marble and onyx block that contains hidden functions within a sleek design, and Marcelis’s pale pink onyx free-standing bathroom.
Image by T-Space
28. Toogood x Carhartt WIP
In this collaboration, Faye Toogood injects Carhartt WIP shapes with her characteristic sculptural volume. At the Spazio Maiocchi exhibition, three massive puppets wore oversized versions of the pieces, and also on show were prototypes of Toogood’s new Cobble series of stools and small tables.
Image by DePasquale+Maffini
29. Volker Haug Studio
The Melbourne-based lighting studio showed sculptural, handcrafted brass and fibreglass pieces in an exhibition titled und Messing (‘and brass’), held within a 5VIE gallery space reimagined by design studio Hecker Guthrie for the Milan show.
Image by Takumi Ota
30. Yuto Ikarigawa
Japanese designer Yuto Ikarigawa made his debut at SaloneSatellite with a collection that included the gently undulating, ultra-inviting TOMA Sofa.
Text / Simone Schultz