Alongside its partnership with Ludovica and Roberto Palomba for a complete bathroom collection — Kartell by Laufen — at this year’s Furniture Fair Kartell is presenting many new ideas in an exhibition design by Ferruccio Laviani, who has recreated the shop windows of Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, with each window given over to one designer’s new products for 2013.

One window features Philippe Starck, who has designed Aunts and Uncles, a family of outdoor/indoor chairs, sofas and tables. “My family of Kartell uncles and aunts is the minimalist, technological version of the armchairs and sofas where my uncles and aunts used to sit smoking their pipes or knitting by the fireplace”, explains the designer. The Uncle Jack sofa and the Uncle Jim armchair in transparent polycarbonate represent the cutting edge in single-mould injection technology. Starck has also designed a new single-mould nylon seat, Arak Chair, which looks indeed like an arachnid.