From April 15 to 21, the design world and its aficionados will flock to Milan for the city’s annual Design Week. This is our pick of the installations and exhibitions not to miss.
Every April, Milan is transformed into a smorgasbord of exhibits, presentations, events, pop-ups, and talks around what’s new and what’s next in the design industry. This annual week of all things design is anchored by the 62nd edition of Salone del Mobile.Milano, the world’s largest furniture fair, which opens to the trade on April 16 and the public on April 20 at Rho Fiera Milan and features 1,900 Italian and international exhibitors. Many of the most exciting installations, however, take place outside of the fairgrounds in the city’s palazzos, design districts, and special venues – and we’ve taken the stress out of planning your week, with a round up of 10 unmissable presentations.
Alcova
Those in the know dedicate a day in Milan to Alcova, the off-site emerging design fair that chooses a different abandoned venue to activate each year. After launching Alcova’s first-ever Miami edition last December, founders Valentina Ciuffi and Joseph Grima have upped the ante for their seventh at Milan Design Week and will present works by over 70 exhibitors at two historic venues just outside the city – the 1945-built Villa Borsani and the 19th-century Villa Bagatti Valsecchi. Expect collectible and experimental designs made with new and sustainable materials, exploring sociopolitical themes, or inventing new aesthetic forms. The discoveries here are endless.
Villa Borsani: Via Umberto I, 148, Varedo
Villa Bagatti Valsecchi: Via Vittorio Emanuele II, 48, Varedo
Orior
Debuting in Milan this year, the New York- and Ireland-based design studio Orior will launch a new collection of indoor-outdoor planters that artfully explore the juxtaposition between raw and polished stone. Titled Fearn – the third letter in the Ogham alphabet use in the early Irish language – the collection will be on view at the Bocci Milan showroom, a 20th-century apartment that gives a peek into the magic hiding behind Milan’s closed doors.
Via Giuseppe Rovani, 20, Milan
Caffè Populaire
Is there anything more Italian than aperitivo? The pre-dinner drink and snack tradition can help get you through the late afternoon and into the evening. Spend one at the third edition of Caffè Populaire, an immersive design concept by DWA Design Studio and lighting company Lambert & Fils, hosted at the former’s Milanese space, a former chocolate factory with a lush garden. Between bites of art by Los Angeles-based food studio Ananas Ananas and sips of libations from glassware by artist Sophie Lou Jacobsen, there will be two new collections to admire: a collaboration between Canadian lighting brand Lambert & Fils and New York-based designer Zoë Mowat overhead, and vessels by Italian studio DWA made using waste from Italian design brand Pedrali.
Via Giulio e Corrado Venini, 85, Milan
Baranzate Ateliers
Though the commute on the metro may take a bit longer than events in Milan’s Zone 1, plan to spend some time at this design exhibit inside a 7,300-square-meter disused 1950s industrial space near the Linate airport. It’s here that Italian design institution Baranzate Ateliers will present new work by 13 designers from Lionel Jadot’s Brussels-based Zaventem Ateliers – a studio that hosts workshops for 24 independent makers – and 19 other invited guests.
From out-of-this-world galvanised aluminum tables by Atelier Thomas Serruys to a playful repurposed asphalt armchair by Jadot himself, the pieces on view represent a wide range of experiments in craft and materiality. Throughout the day, and on select evenings, visitors can enjoy performances while indulging in snacks and cocktails from partners on-site.
Via Gaudenzio Fantoli, 16/3, Milan
Loewe
Every Milan Design Week, Spanish design house Loewe tops its own prior presentation. This year is anticipated to be its largest yet. Inside the 18th-century Palazzo Citterio in the heart of the Brera Design District, Loewe will unveil a new collection of lamps by 24 global artists, including Andile Dyalvane, Ceryth Wyn Evans, and Genta Ishizuka, each exploring an unexpected material’s relationship with light. From bamboo and leather to lacquer, the diversity of artistic mediums promises a display of boundary-pushing designs. Keep an eye out for 2019 Loewe Foundation Craft Prize winner Ishizuka’s new gold-leafed pendant.
Via Brera, 12, Milan
The Clearing by Hannes Peer Architecture and Van Den Weghe
Architecture fans will enjoy this presentation of totemic travertine sculptures, inspired by Peter Eisenman’s 1978 House IV in Falls Village, Connecticut, as well as Milanese icons. To create the elongated models – whose forms explore chiaroscuro, the Italian painting technique made famous by Caravaggio that uses deep contrasts to create dimension – local practice Hannes Peer Architecture collaborated with Belgian stone company Van Den Weghe for the latter’s Milan Design Week debut.
Via Privata Rezia, 1, Milan
Horses in my Dreams by Delcourt Collection
Paris-based designer Christophe Delcourt brings an equestrian aesthetic to his new collection of 15 precisely detailed, supple furnishings making their debut at Milanese art gallery Fondazione Mudima during Design Week. Encompassing a dining table, pendant, sofas, and armchairs, Delcourt’s statement pieces combine expert woodworking with luxurious upholstery to create organic forms bounded by reins, stitching, or brackets.
Via Alessandro Tadino, 26, Milan
Celestial Attraction by Jérôme Pereira
Presented by Galerie Philia in the polished industrial photography studio Spazio CB32, French designer Jérôme Pereira will exhibit his first solo show – a collection of nine works in timber, including light fixtures, a table, and sculpture – alongside two silk textiles by fellow French artist Sylvia Eustache Rools. Conceptualised as mobiles and inspired by the artist’s own background in geophysics, Pereira’s organic lighting works are exercises in poetic balance, with some including branches and pieces of wood he scavenged from the forest near his studio in the southern French town of Lodève.
Via Cesare Balbo, 32, Milan
Me & You by Volker Haug Studio and Flack Studio
The collaboration between interior design practice Flack Studio and lighting designer Volker Haug came about when a vintage wall sconce’s glass fitting broke during a project installation, and Flack Studio called Haug to create a replacement. During Milan Design Week, the Melbourne-based creatives will reveal the continuation of that spontaneous creative partnership: a new collection of 13 light fixtures designed to the size constraints of the original glass back plate. Made of perforated brass, ceramic, glass and fibreglass, each light fitting explores the unexpectedly sculptural quality of geometry.
Via San Maurilio, 18, Milan
Design Walk in Budapest
No Milan Design Week trip is complete without a visit to legendary design gallerist Rossana Orlandi’s secret garden-like space inside an old factory in San Vittore. However, this year, Orlandi has curated a special off-site show of contemporary designers in Budapest that should also top the itinerary. The exhibition at the Triennale Milano, in collaboration with the Hungarian Fashion & Design Agency, will present new furniture, sculpture, and design objects that explore the relationship between the capital’s history and current creativity. Knowing Orlandi’s keen eye for future design stars, these makers might be next to rise.
Viale Emilio Alemagna, 6, Milan
Read more: Design Fairs | Design | Art | Interior Designers I Interiors | Milan Design Week | Sustainability