Milano Design Week, 5 things not to be missed today / 5

Not only on the feet of visitors to the Salone, to accompany them on the paths that are likely to mark the year's record number of steps: the shoes, by now a true design fetish, are also on display at this off-site event. Vibram, with lighting set up by Mandalaki, is dedicating the spaces of its Connection Lab to the celebration of 25 years of FiveFingers, the footwear "with fingers": more than a hundred examples have been chosen by creator Robert Flirt, retrieved from his personal archives and those of the company, including the very first prototype and several goodies, including a version with a heel. Inside Dropcity LINK, meanwhile, Nike tells its idea of the future with DiSPAssembly Park. At the center of the installation are the new ISPAs, which are sustainable, modular, and demountable, a shoe-manifesto coming in 2023 and which Domus had the chance to tell the world premiere LINK in dialogue with the brand's chief design officer, John Hoke. To stay on the subject of the future, at Base don't miss The Growing Sneakers, a visionary project by student Nicholas Rapagnani, which blends science and sneakerhead passion, with a shoe that uses materials not obtained through industrial processes, but simply grown, because they are obtained from mushrooms.
A.S.

Stefano Giovannoni’s Ilbagnoalessi One restarts from Laufen’s Saphir ceramic. The new material that allowed, in fact, a reinterpretation of the collection through very thin profiles, previously unthinkable. Twenty years after the historic collaboration between the two brands, the evolution of the pieces is presented through an installation by Studio Lys. Distributed on an inclined plane inspired by Claude Parent’s architecture oblique, the ceramic elements are reflected on a large wall mirror. Preceding the display is a screen projecting five images that Studio Snøhetta created for the occasion. “Ilbagnoalessi inspired us through its sculptural quality and materiality,” says Anne-Rachel Schiffmann, director and senior architect in the studio’s New York office, “so we wanted to imprint these images with a playful vision of the relationship between nature and artifice, where water is the protagonist.” On the ground floor, you will be greeted by Lunar Lender, a 2018 project by Viennese studio EOOS in collaboration with Laufen: a space capsule with a universal urinal that draws energy from urine through ceramic elements.
G.R.

There are projects that arise from a need for recapitulation and synthesis. They put a period to a period to enshrine both its end and a new beginning. Such is the case with the fruitful collaboration between two design giants: OMA and UniFor, a historic company of the Molteni Group. Together, they have created Principles, a vast collection of modular furniture for work spaces that is both contemporary and old school and, therefore, current. At first glance, it seems almost like a diligent academic exercise on modularity in public spaces: circles, semicircles, serpentines, straight lines, double surfaces, cylinders, sharp tops, built-in lights, dividers, all covered in reassuring post-Memphis tones with pastel colors alternating with bright hues, and imbued with made-in-Italy technology and precision. A return to the origins taken up also by the name. We are talking about a collection consisting of more than 100 items divided into sizes “S, M, L, XL” reconfigurable almost infinitely. It is a collection officially designed to be used “at any time, by anyone,” but it will soon become the favorite game of designers and architects. 
M.G.

At Issey Miyake’s, 12 Bagutta Street, hanging from a white panel are a number of cloth segments that, when put together, form a number from 1 to 9. Every day the number changes, because visitors themselves make it up, after rolling a 10-sided die. Essential, analog and participatory, the work that greets the public at the entrance to the store was created by Tatsuo Miyajima to introduce the two blousons he made for the A-POC ABLE series. Miyajima is one of Japan's most important contemporary artists: it fell to him-to say the least-the honor of representing his country at the Venice Art Biennale in 1999. Since the late 1980s, he has been using LED numbers from 1 to 9 to represent life and death, time and space. He has employed them on grids, towers, integrated circuits or digital counters, and now he has woven them on the two jackets for Miyake. The garments, also presented with a video interview with the artist, are made of Triporous™, a material made from rice grain waste and developed by Sony Group Corporation: a sustainable black thread that also has the advantage of not fading when mixed with fibers. There is time to “play” with the installation until June 21.
E.S.

Everyday objects chosen by 13 international designers in total freedom, but marked by ethical, conscious and sustainable consumption, which will then be put on sale at a maximum cost of 20 euros in NonNo's vending machines. The new Certosa District is home to an initiative in the wake of Opos, that founding experience of Milan's fuorisalone born in 1991 to give visibility to talented young designers, and NonNo, an experimental H24 store with vending machines that dispense high-quality clothing, food and wine, and design items at a maximum price of 99 euros. Designers Selection intends to promulgate the values of good design that had animated Opos 30 years ago, updating them by format and process. The designers involved are Sebastian Bergne, Lorenzo Damiani, Monica Förster, Emmanuel Gallina, GumDesign, Giulio Iacchetti, JoeVelluto, Jasper Morrison, Donata Paruccini, Matteo Ragni, Gianmaria Sforza, StudioXdesigngroup, and Paolo Ulian. Their proposals range from games to share with one’s children to kitchen tools that are an expression of utmost functionality, from items for responsible use of resources and city living to simple objects proposed as a metaphor and reflection on the present. Each choice is accompanied by the “valid reason” written by the designer, which thus becomes an integral part of the value of the product they offer to the public. This is the first in a series of planned initiatives.
L.M.