Yes! This is how you can describe the first impressions of one of the most important events in the world of design – the I SALONI exhibition and everything that was happening in Milan itself these days!
As with such leading brands as Moroso, Driade, Moooi, as well as among young designers and brands just starting out, deliberate simplicity of forms prevailed. And the brighter, more actively perceived the color and the variety of its manifestations in objects.
Patricia Urquiola relentlessly produces amazing pieces every year that combine hyper-functionality and unforgettable design. Intense red, impressively simple shape, everything is thought out to the smallest detail – comfortable shelves instead of conventional armrests. It is enough to put such a sofa in an empty living room – and the situation is solved.
One gets the feeling that one of the main concerns of designers lately is to make their objects look amazing from different angles and at the same time carry a functional load from all sides. And now the Moooi brand has surpassed all expectations in terms of composition and idea of its exposition, located this year in Zona Tortona, the former industrial part of Milan, in an industrial room with high ceilings.
The fact is that all of us have long been bored of being in a room where furniture is pressed tightly against the wall. It is much more interesting and more comfortable to shape the space, divide and build it – to be an architect of small forms in your own apartment. And just Moooi designers offered to fantasize and arranged their objects against the background of a colossal panel with photographs of unmatched beauty interiors: old libraries and staircases, palaces and villas.
No matter how you get up, from whatever point you look, the harmony of the composition of Moooi pieces of furniture cannot be disturbed in any way. And this reflects the skill of the designers, the virtuoso handling of space, with the forms and objects in it. The perfect world is built. No more, no less. The arbitrary treatment of ethnic motives also provides a huge field for experimentation. Such a round colored rug will add a memorable character to any interior and will be great to combine with a bright monochromatic piece of furniture.
Tacchini was a special discovery for me this year. Their wonderful laconic furniture perfectly reflects all trends: the desire for deliberate simplicity, color and ergonomics.
Tacchini designers continue to work in line with the trend that made itself known back in the fall and winter of 2013: soft, as if whitened colors.
In the very center of Milan, not far from the Brera Gallery, I discovered a huge showroom of the HAY brand, which appeared on the design scene relatively recently. They masterfully combine trends that can already be called well-established: caramel colors and bright colors with extreme simplicity of forms.
Driade, on the other hand, this year chose a completely different area for the development of design thought – furniture as an art object. The Sereno table by Fredrikson Stallard carries the energy of abstract expressionism. The contrast of the supposedly rough, untreated shards and the mirrored surface is mesmerizing.
Equally beautiful are the creations of the Driade Aesthetic Laboratory, a creative research and business center. The laboratory gathers a variety of talents who develop based on their aesthetic taste and inspiration. Thus, alchemy arises, where personal sensations, aesthetic language, culture and engineering knowledge in design are combined.
It is very difficult to call the sculpture Ercole e Afrodite containers, but this is their functional purpose. Crafted in matte white and glossy black with flowing anthropomorphic lines, these objects have a powerful visual impact.
In a word, the spirit is mesmerizing. And this, of course, is not all that happened and was shown in Milan.
After all, this city and its surroundings are a real testing ground for design experiments and the emergence of new ideas.
Irina Kuznetsova – Style-director Westwing.ru