05. CITY WATCH
Milan Design Week
Milan Design Week Words/Photography Emma Clerici
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eturn to origins‌the Salone del Mobile di Milano once again this year predictably was stormy, overcast, periodically sunny and on occasion moved by spontaneous gusts of wind. More or less the same unpredictable weather was reflected in the world of design below. On one side objects created by personalities, such as Rossana’s glasses, randomly appeared while others thought that the mere power of a brand name, in this case Moroso exhibiting but a single object, puts it in a position to initiate an entire design movement. Others, like Clino Castelli, Also Cibic, and an eight-year-old girl, found themselves under one roof in the Fabbrica del Vapore telling the story of innovation through pearl earrings and tables with extrusions in the form of a flower. However, the feeling of being in limbo persists while the age old question is asked yet again, what will be the trends of the future to which our living spaces and objects will we have to conform to? I would say that there was at least two reasonably clear trends in evidence this time around. The first is formal and can be summarized under the word "Reduction"; the second is more of a conceptual attitude towards industrial design rather than designed objects in and of themselves that I would call "Digital Crafts".