15 projects we are excited about for Milan Design Week 2024

The result of over 30 years of collaboration and a decade of work, this new collection of sofas, tables and sideboards uses polished aluminium as its unifying element, enriched with glass, travertine and leather. With Andromeda, the studio founded in 1991 by Debra Lehman Smith and Jim McLeish to develop architecture and design projects wanted to create pieces that could be adapted to different contexts: workplaces and representative venues, but also domestic spaces. The Andromeda Theatre in Sicily was the setting chosen by Studio Klass, the company’s art director, to photograph the collection: “The purity of this place immediately seemed to us capable of restoring that fine line between delicacy and rigour, the conceptual heart of the collection and of UniFor.” The installation in the showroom on Viale Pasubio will recreate that set with platforms inspired by the rotating movement of the theatre’s seats and imposing curved LED walls. Outside, a circular platform will present the entire collection to the public, turning it skywards.

The new lamp designed by the Swiss studio for Artemide combines a patented optical study with the beauty of handcrafted glass. Its forms are essential (a transparent body crowned by an adjustable metal disc, fixed thanks to a magnetic sphere), and its functioning is technologically refined: a lens neatly positioned at the base directs the beam of light up towards the disc, which in turn reflects it back onto the glass. As the designers explain, “Boltons encourages interaction and exploration of the fundamental principles of lighting.”

“I am not an architect. I am a dragon.” With a designer’s head, an architect’s body, an artisan’s hands, a manager’s chest, a priest’s belly, an artist’s feet, a graphic designer’s legs and a poet’s tail. Mendini’s eclectic personality is the focus of the exhibition curated by Fulvio Irace and designed by Pierre Charpin, with over 400 works. In the Triennale’s Impluvium, Philippe Starck completes the story of Mendini’s world with an immersive installation, while a documentary by Francesca Molteni is showing in the cinema room. 

Despite their chosen name (We Make Carpets), the works of the three Dutch artists are not carpets, but rather complex site-specific art installations, meticulously created on-site after extensive research and testing in their studio. Their simple and well-tested technique has remained unchanged since 2009. Once they have chosen the material – usually everyday objects such as scouring sponges, plastic forks, straws, pasta or clothes pegs – and inspected the site, Marcia Nolte, Stijn van der Vleuten (designers) and Bob Waardenburg (visual artist) position each piece with great care and attention. With many hours of work and a lot of patience, they start from the centre and work their way outwards, without following pre-determined patterns (“Improvising a bit like a jazz trio,” they say). In the Issey Miyake boutique, they will be creating four “carpets not carpets” using only wooden skewers and pins. “Inspired by Issey Miyake products,” they explain, “with this project we want to cross the boundaries between art, design and craftsmanship by showing something identifiable with one of these disciplines or all three of them together.” 

The seventh edition of Alcova, curated by Valentina Ciuffi and Joseph Grima, moves to Milan’s suburbs, 15 minutes from the city, to two neighbouring historic locations – Villa Borsani and Villa Bagatti Valsecchi – which will be revitalised by young designers, institutions and companies. The event’s themes are renewed but always focused on experimentation and research, between art and design. Among the many proposals, there is Junya Ishigami’s eagerly anticipated installation for the Maniera gallery, designed for a small grotto hidden in the park of Villa Bagatti Valsecchi.

After the Helena tabletop bookcase and the Farfallina chair, the Portuguese master has designed another refined piece of wooden furniture for Bottega Ghianda. Desencontro (“clash” in Portuguese) is a minimal and light table. In essence, it is a thin sheet of maple supported by four slender legs arranged asymmetrically. Like a geometric jigsaw puzzle, it allows the creation of different compositions: square or rectangular, in different sizes.

For ten years or so, Moroso has been flanking its own brand’s offering with a collection created in collaboration with the creative team of Diesel, with the Puff-D chair being the latest addition. An informal piece characterised by its soft and welcoming forms, it has deliberately creased upholstery with a pattern of folds that enhances the spontaneous and unconventional look of the seat. This conceptual approach is emphasised by the fixing mechanism of the cover, which wraps around the structure and is secured by an elasticated base. 

One of the places that will experience a second life during the Salone is a garage in the Darsena area, completed in the late 1940s in the building designed by Marco Zanuso. Its 3,000 m2 on two levels, characterised by large square windows, will be turned into the site of Design Variations focused on sustainability. The location’s large volumes will be articulated with partition walls of dry-laid hemp cement bricks, which are easy to assemble and dismantle and will be put back on the market for reuse after the event. With zero impact on the environment.

With an installation of red terracotta tiles, a tensile structure and windows with black steel frames, Neri&Hu, creative directors of Japanese brand Stellar Works, pay homage to the building that houses it, designed by Marco Zanuso in 1946 with wall paintings by artist Gianni Dova. Design and architecture come together in the five new collections designed by Neri&Hu themselves and Stefan Scholten. Among them, the hyperfunctional Inter includes a coat stand and a console that play on the interaction between vertical and horizontal elements. 

In the heart of the city centre, Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin are promising an experiential and transformative journey towards ethical production while outlining the basis for a new surface. The title of their installation, Earthik Lab (below, a rendering), is an explicit reference to the earth that is used to make the cladding materials of Cosentino, a partner in the project. Their shared intention is to raise awareness of the importance of an ethical production process. 

At its first Design Week, MCM (Modern Creation München), a German luxury fashion brand, is presenting “wearable” furnishings designed by Atelier Biagetti. They are described as multifunctional, transformative objects, designed for the lifestyle of digital nomads. This rather rebellious collection is inspired by the principles of the Bauhaus. The exhibition, curated by Maria Cristina Didero, plays on the boundary between reality and the metaverse. “The rooms in Palazzo Cusani are an extension to another world,” explain Alberto Biagetti and Laura Baldassari, “where avatars could wear the objects.” 

The building, known as the Trifoglio, designed between 1953 and 1961 by the celebrated editor of Domus Gio Ponti, will host the lecture by the 2024 guest editor of our magazine, in the name of a continuity of vision and commitment. In his lecture, Foster will talk about the future and how the world of design can help provide solutions for coping with the most urgent challenges of housing, in keeping with his editorial project this year, his approach to design and the research conducted by his foundation. The appointment is for 16 April at 5 pm. 

In addition to the launch of new products – five thermowood ashes from the Luci di Fiemme collection – the Trentino brand Fiemme Tremila presents the Little Woodland Library, by creative director Anna Quinz, who has been involved for years in analysing the mountain ecosystem and reinterpreting Alpine imagery. Available to the public will be readings, essays, novels and picture books and some imaginary books with covers designed by Studio Babai, using the company’s own recycled wood. The titles of these fantasy volumes will be the beginnings of new stories that the company will recount online. 

Pastel tones and fluorescent shades. Metallic flashes and reflections of light. Monumental forms and hypnotic lines. The collection by the multidisciplinary studio and workshop of art, collectable design and furnishings Draga & Aurel, aka Draga Obradovic and Aurel K. Basedow, for Nilufar is devoted to experimenting with finishes and materials. Among the novelties, the Glaze coffee table set and the Glint wardrobe, the result of their research into transparencies and unexpected materials, such as lucite, a translucent plastic resembling glass, combined with metal. 

Azimut presents the new Seadeck 6 yacht at Design Week, with the hull designed by Alberto Mancini and interiors curated by Matteo Thun and Antonio Rodriguez, pioneers in the use of sustainable, recyclable and recycled materials. It will be moored in the centre of the Bagni Misteriosi of the Teatro Franco Parenti, with a set-up by AMDL – Michele De Lucchi, in a layout combining art and nature, colours, sounds and scents, lit by a gigantic moon reflected in the water of the historic Milanese swimming pool.