For one week a year, during the Salone del Mobile, Milan becomes a fairground, springboard and experimental lab all rolled into one. But with a little luck, there is indeed a small piece of paradise to be found somewhere in this rowdy setting. Taking a systematic approach to the fair won't help you here, but a passion for discovery just might.
News & Stories | Salone del Mobile 2011 – supported by Villeroy & Boch Tiles
New! New! New?
by Nina Reetzke
How much sense does it make to show prototypes of new products at a fair? Most producers face this question, yet seldom are their thoughts aired in public. However, when you make a point of asking, some of the answers that come to light are surprisingly honest.Heading for Milan - An increasing number of fashion labels are discovering the world of residential interiors and inflating their image into that of outfitters for all walks of life. To what extent furniture manufacturers dare to enter other product segments in the future remains to be seen.
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Reluctant ethnologist
Philippe Bestenheider's designs are often reminiscent of the aesthetics associated with primitive peoples. If anything, though, that is unintentional. The Swiss designer simply loves playing with geometry.The studio of Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola came up with the interior for luxurious hotel Mandarin Oriental in Barcelona. Scarcely recognizable as a hotel from the outside, inside it is all the more inviting, providing a temporary home for design enthusiasts from all over the world.
Admittedly, the borders of the Zona Tortona are a little frayed at the edges and in the new design district Ventura Lambrate designers are pushing into an area where artists once thronged, but there is a great deal to be discovered here. And, when all is said, when it comes to furniture design, things do tend to go around in productive circles.
In the works by Swedish design group "Front" the divides are blurred. After all, what you see is not always what you feel. During the Cologne furniture fair the magazine Architektur&Wohnen and Audi awarded the "A&W Designer of the Year" prize. Nancy Jehmlich talked to the designers about animals as designers, good design, and working as a threesome.
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The second and third skin
by Markus Frenzl
Even just a few decades ago the roles were clearly distributed: on the one side, the superficial and ephemeral world of fashion, and on the other the world of furniture design, which strives for timelessness and for durability. At this year's Salone in Milan, a surprising amount of cross-over between fashion and furniture was in evidence, as for instance. - How strong is the reciprocity between these two apparently so different disciplines today?News & Stories
The Pitfalls of Objects – Episode 1: Nature is Super
by Thomas Wagner
A chair is a chair and a table is a table and so on and so forth... That is correct and yet incorrect. For the symbolic qualities of the things that surround us daily are by no means as functional as a chic hat on a bonehead. Yet even symbolism has its pitfalls.News & Stories
Guest of honour Jaime Hayon and Gallery 113
With the 21st International Biennale Interieur08 Jaime Hayon presents a sprightly show with the best of his work. Right around the corner in Kortrijk Xpo, Quinze&Milan opens its gallery to the public. They show an overview of new products, materials and furniture collections, designed by Studio Arne Quinze and guest designers.News & Stories
Backstage Moroso
by Daniel von Bernstorff
In Kortrijk (Belgium) on an area of over 1,500 square meters the exhibition "Backstage" tells the story of twenty of Patrizia’s favorites featuring drawings, sketches, 3D models, prototypes and previously unseen one-off objects.News & Stories
Show locally, design globally - Doshi Levien
by Vera Siegmund
When Patrizia Moroso, Creative Director at Moroso, read an article about the pair in a magazine, she wanted to meet "these lovely people" straight away. And, what a coincidence, that very same day a beautiful envelope arrived from India. Ten days later, they met in London - Patrizia Moroso and the designer duo Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien.Shortly before imm cologne opens its doors, the magazine A&W has elected its "Designer of the Year". A quite extraordinary designer has been chosen this year in the person of Patricia Urquiola who has changed the face of middle-class interiors to a greater extent than almost anyone else in the field.
Architecture
Teamplaying Architecture – New Adidas Building in Herzogenaurach by kadawittfeldarchitecture
News & Stories | Salone del Mobile 2011 – supported by Villeroy & Boch Tiles
We always remain authentic
Two years ago, Foscarini and Diesel presented their first luminaire collection. Initially, the joint venture struggled owing to the fallout from the global economic crisis, but now it is receiving feedback from a recovering market. Sandra Hofmeister spoke to Carlo Urbinati about luminaires between product design and fashion design.News & Stories | Salone del Mobile 2011 – supported by Villeroy & Boch Tiles
Milan in four bags or: Design, theatrical, practical, feudal and universal
by Thomas Wagner
Perhaps everything on show in Milan at the exhibition center in Rho, in the booths of Superstudio Più, in showrooms and back-yard workshops ultimately fits into four bags. Let’s see if it does. What would we write on the movable containers if we were to put in them the things we noticed among all the abundance?News & Stories
Selected Exhibitors at imm cologne 2011
At the beginning of every year the trade fair imm cologne presents new international home trends. We present the list of selected manufacturers to found out which exhibitors they are, and where you can find them."Interieur 2010" in Kortrijk has as its title "The New World". And the trade fair organizers believe that the new world is characterized by optimism not pessimism, by reflection not superficiality, by color not sobriety. And thus it is that the Interieur biennial once again takes its stand as a promising place within the design universe.
Salone del Mobile 2010 has been and gone. Which of the new designs will endure, and which will swiftly be forgotten? The Stylepark ABC of the most persuasive new products predicts what may that future may be.






































