With 90 well-assorted exhibitors spread across the four disused buildings and the large park of the former military hospital in Baggio, Alcova confirms itself as a must-see at this Design Week. Credit certainly goes to the careful curatorship of Joseph Grima and Valentina Ciuffi, but also to the balanced and composite combination of the offerings, which mix established companies and new brands, Italian and international designers, research projects and schools, high craftsmanship and experimental projects. In addition, there is a new building, the former psychiatric hospital, which alone is worth the trip. The common element that binds such diverse realities is, as Grima explains, the courageous attitude, as well as, of course, the multidisciplinary approach. This year, there will also be more focus on food, concentrated in the Temple space and the Food Court, which will remain open until 10 p.m. While the Cutoff bar will be enlivened by a program of performances and meetings throughout the week.
Elena Sommariva

The Garden, Otherside Objects

There is really a lot to see this year at Cassina, which concentrates its many souls under the Perspectives 2022 umbrella. There are great classics revisited in terms of size, material and typological choices (Gaetano Pesce, Charlotte Perriand, Afra and Tobia Scarpa), new proposals by designers already in the company’s stable (Urquiola, Dordoni) but not only (Antonio Citterio, Linde Freya Tangelder), the Details line of accessories and complements (with new vases by Formafantasma), the Custom Interiors Division with two new contract chairs (one by Matteo Thun), and above all Virgil Abloh’s Modular Imagination project, this year’s great anticipation. Last stop on the showroom visit, in the circular room upstairs, on an orange set, the two matte-black modular elements are surprisingly soft and able to create a varied furniture family of giant legos. Play and invention in a limited series proposal that represents a turn to the future of a historic brand that knows how to dare.
Loredana Mascheroni

Esosoft, Antonio Citterio, Milan Showroom

Ginori 1735, Post Scriptum Collection, Formafantasma

“I’m crazy about pastry shops and florists,” admits Cristina Celestino. So after transforming the historic Cucchi pastry shop into a café-concert in 2019, at this year’s Design Week she focuses on the old florist Radaelli, on Via Manzoni since 1886. The store is a small architectural gem, designed in 1945 by Guglielmo Ulrich. The designer’s light and pointed touch aims to enhance the enclosure – “a hybrid of interior and exterior,” she adds – where elements of landscape architecture, such as steps and a fountain, and bourgeoisie, such as the wooden table for writing notes and the stone counter with integrated cash register, are mixed. Here, fit the glass and mirror vases of his Attico Design brand, fabrics designed for Limonta, seating for Billiani, carpets for CC Tapis, and, on the rough walls, butterflies for Ames handcrafted in Colombia. Celestino explains that he discovered it by chance, reading a monograph on Ulrich. Lightning strike, however, is guaranteed.
Elena Sommariva

De Lucchi, Ratti, Pestellini Laparelli and Ricciardi are just a few of the 30 experts - between creatives and scientists - involved in this investigation of how we will live. The project, launched in lockdown time by Huawei’s Center for Aesthetic Research and curated by Robert Thiemann (Frame Magazine), lands at Meet, Milan’s new space dedicated to digital culture founded by Maria Grazia Mattei. Four episodes for as many video installations. Each one is dedicated to a basic concept of future living, including-guess what! - the ubiquitous resilience. The result is important, but perhaps could have been more enjoyable if watched on a cell phone. QR codes, where are you, when we need you? After all, this is the future too. At the end of the journey, a large and beautiful immersive installation by Space Popular.
Alessandro Scarano

For the designer Kim van den Belt, nature is an inexhaustible source of inspiration. She graduated last year in product design from the Minerva Art Academy in Groningen. Her latest project, Kaia, is a “living” lamp that produces light and removes carbon dioxide from the air. Its shape is composed of two hemispheres of spokes where the algae live. The lamp is made of PETG, a thermoplastic polyester easily sterilised with UV-C ultraviolet light, reducing the chance that bacteria kills the culture. The algae inside of the lamp grow when it is turned on, thanks to photosynthesis. They release oxygen and become a sustainable absorbent of carbon dioxide. Every two months, the algae are harvested and substituted. The LEDs have a wavelength that mimics sunlight as much as possible so as to have a positive effect on the cells, on a molecular level. Van den Belt hopes that Kaia will prove to have an anti-consumerist effect, too, given by its symbiotic relationship with the user, who will attribute more value to the lamp and keep it for a longer time.
Loredana Mascheroni