Direct from Salone del Mobile 2019

Direct from Salone del Mobile ����

© Nick Hughes / Yellowtrace

of the spectacles are becoming increasingly more challenging to navigate, even for someone who’s attended Milan 10 times in the last 12 years, like yours truly. But the sheer thrill of immersing oneself in the annual ‘Design Olympics’ is what keeps most of us mere mortals coming back for more.

It’s impossible to grasp the immense scale of Salone del Mobile – Milan’s famed annual furniture fair where thousands of global brands launch their latest collections.

There were many moments I cherish from this year’s event. As an Australian, perhaps the most remarkable one of all was Local Design’s 4th outing in Milan, curated by the tireless dynamo Emma Elizabeth, who assembled the largest ever group of Australian and New Zealand designers under one roof – 44 in total. Housed in a beautifully presented space accompanied by a bespoke soundscape by Australian DJ Mason Mulholland, arresting floral installation

by Berlin-based, Australian floral stylist Ruby Barber, while the Milan-based, Australian graphic designer and creative director Bradley Seymour put his spin on the visual identity of the show. Local Milan represents an extraordinary effort by the young designer, stylist and curator who highlights just how much home-grown talent we have in this country while placing Australian Design on the global map, having doubled the participants and raised the bar of the show’s presentation year on year.

The world’s premier design event encompasses both the vast purposebuilt fairgrounds and also hundreds of pop-up shows and installations scattered throughout the city, housed in a variety of spaces like galleries, shops, and abandoned warehouses and factories. Both Milan’s attendance and the scale of the events feel more ambitious each year – long queues, brutal traffic, and geographical spread

“No Man’s Land” by Raf Simons for Kvadrat celebrated the fashion designer’s sixth collection for the textile brand. The show was not just an exhibition, but a destination — vintage furniture covered in the new textile collection was placed within and around original Jean Prouvé prefab cabins, all part of the monster cool presentation, accompanied by a super fresh auditory experience that made me feel like I needed to up my Spotify playlist game.

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Meanwhile, delicious smells emanated from the adjacent pop-up outpost of the London restaurant Rochelle Canteen, while a field of wildflowers installed by the Belgian florist Mark Colle completed the elaborate mise-en-scène.

Vinyl flooring company Tarkett collaborated with Stockholm-based Note Design Studio on a striking installation set within historic Circolo Filologico Milanese. Epic multi-coloured totems wrapped in vinyl sat at the centre of a triple height space topped with a heritage skylight, successfully subverting notions of scale and playfully distorting architectural archetypes. Not only beautifully executed, becoming one of the most Instagrammed installations of the week, what was most remarkable about this installation is that it managed to elevate a humble material, often perceived as a ‘budget’ or ‘substitute’ option, into a finish comfortably able to hold its own alongside granite or marble. Genius!

Textured and coloured glass set the tone inside Studiopepe’s manifesto project Les Arcanistes – The Future is Un/Written, which unfolded inside an abandoned factory once used for manufacturing gold and other metal.

Guided by the principles of alchemy, the Milan-based design agency conceptualised an immersive installation that investigated the man’s connection with the matter and the power of symbols. What was most striking about this presentation is Studiopepe’s signature ability to bring together unusual elements, like rarely-seen colour combinations, finishes and shapes.

My heart was pumping blood a lot faster with all the beauty all around me — super inspiring stuff.

Milan's newest design destination — Palermouno — is located in a 3rd-floor apartment in the upmarket Brera neighbourhood. Founded by interior designer Sophie Wannenes, the 150sqm gallery brings together vintage, modern and contemporary pieces in a space that feels effortless, yet stamped with a distinctive Milanese kind of glamour.

Bold colours, striking patterns and statement furniture pieces harmonise and clash in equal measure, proving once and for all, we ought to take a leaf out of the Italian style book and become unafraid to take risks with colour and pattern. Yes, please!

I mean, I really could keep going on and on, until the break of dawn. I guess you’ll have to stay tuned for a lot more #MILANTRACE2019 goodness shared at one of our legendary talks, presented in partnership with Living Edge. I have a feeling you guys might like it!

Baci, Mama Yellowtrace xx

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Salone ���� Lights Up Global Design Since 1976, Euroluce has been the biennial showcase in international lighting for interiors and exteriors that the design industry really sets its watch to.

For 2019, the Euroluce celebrates its 30th anniversary as part of Salone del Mobile di Milano, welcoming more than 420 leading exhibitors in this sector.

As each Euroluce rolls around, we have looked on as new foci take a more prominent position. Only a handful of years ago did we see lighting designs specifically created for the healthcare sector or educational environments – registering a more human-centric turn in our contemporary values. In the last few years, sustainability has understandably taken a front-row seat; but this year our increasingly digital reality is making itself known. Across Milan, brands of all sizes explored the role of home automation, smart spaces, lighting application software and, in what is surely a coup of modernity, using light to transmit digital data. It’s called “Li-Fi” and mark our words, it’s here to stay!

Step inside as we shine a light on the latest design coming straight from Milan.

RICH BRILLIANT WILLING

Tell Me More, Tell Me More…

In collaboration with Rich Brilliant Willing (RBW), award-winning interdisciplinary design agency, Rapt Studio, presented Tell Me More for their Salone debut. With RBW as the exclusive lighting partner for this immersive and interactive exhibition, Rapt Studio took three of RBW’s core lighting products to create a lounge setting exploring the intersection of spatial experience and emotional connection.

“It is inspired by the feeling of entering a beloved space” said Charles Brill and Alexander Williams (the Brilliant and Willing of RBW). “The two-part exhibition consists of an arrival chamber and lounge, where visitors enter as individuals and leave as a part of something larger.”

But what exactly is that ‘something larger’?

Well, coming from the design minds of Rapt, the answer lies – as always – in the name.

At once conjuring the enRAPTure of sensory experience, as well as the wRAP(T)ping embrace of community, Tell Me More displayed a grand installation of Vitis, Centro Pendants and Crisp Sconces, that ties the

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individual joy of experiencing design with the aspect of congregating together in communal space.

For many, navigation of the installation was key to drawing out RBW’s much-fitting ‘brilliance’ in this design experiment. Upon first entry, guests were greeted by a small, circular proscenium – an almost ‘personal theatre’, if you will. Here, and upon entry to each subsequent stage, guests were presented with a question left to them by a stranger who had just navigated the space ahead of them.

Personal reflections, shared intellectual quandaries and the unknown-knowns of bridging the solitary to shared divide comprised the bulk of the Rapt X RBW meditation on what makes us human. That is to say, what makes us better – togetherness.

Arriving finally at the heart of the installation, through a warren of mirrored spaces and walkways, a mire of thoughts and questions, guests gathered under a living collage of lights suspended from a vaulted ceiling.

Here, hanging from hundreds of tiny light threads, those questions guests posed to one another in the personal theatrettes make an appearance once again, but now encouraging us all to talk about our answers, strike up conversations, and forge deep, personal, connections. Whether these connections will prove to be fleeting or long-lived, only time will tell. But, what we do know for certain is that for the hundreds of thousands of design hunters from all over the world, RBW and Rapt brought us closer together than ever before.

LASVIT The Theory of Light Takes You to the Moon … and Back!

“We are light lovers” says lighting superbrand Lasvit. But tell you something you didn’t already know? Well … sure Lasvit remains one of Europe’s leading lighting brands exploring the role of new forms in illuminating a variety of spaces along the consumer-to-commercial spectrum, but it’s the central focus on experimentation which continues to delineate the ambit of the brand’s kingly reign over the lighting world.

After all, in their own words, “we have been reading up on it, studying it, searching for it in all the various corners of the globe – we care for it and, above all, we conduct experiments in order to master it.” But what is that elusive ‘it’?

After eleven years of vigilant, diligent research and experimentation, ‘it’ is actually a composite of five elements: spectrum, reflection, perception, nature and … naturally, glass. Working within the bounds of this unique lighting theorem, Lasvit collaborated with five leading Czech designers for Euroluce 2019, presenting a collection of four pendant lighting systems that each investigate one of these five elements.

Maria Čulenová’s experiment with reflection, ‘Aura’, explores the meeting of combined materialities that change the qualities of

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diffused light – using the sculptural form of the lighting console itself as the greatest influence on light quality, rather than merely the filament on its lonesome.

Meanwhile, experiment with spectrum, ‘De Lux Ity’, Wanda Valihrachová takes abstraction one step further by reducing the sculptural qualities of glass down to core graphic elements (the manipulation of circles and lines to translate shapes that were once geometric but become seemingly organic and free-form).

Experiment with perception, ‘Traces’ by Katka Handlová and Katarína Kudějová Fulínová, stands forth as a studied approach to the elegance of atmospheric lighting, while experiment with nature, ‘Liana’ by Maxim Velčovský, returns back to the natural world for schooling in organic, sculptural silhouettes.

Combined with the most lapidary and specific equations studying light diffraction, transference and diffusion, Theory of Light takes us from the waxing and waning of the moon for ‘Aura’, to the riot of .dpi throughout the colour spectrum for ‘De Lux Ity’, to the molecular biology of cells for ‘Liana’, and finally to the burgeoning psychosomatic world of emotions and cognitive behaviour for ‘Traces’.

Theory of Light is definitely high design meets high science … but don’t let that deter you.

After all, as Lasvit’s stand in the Rho Fiera reminded all passersby, “Please, DO try this at home.”

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WONDERGLASS 5 Minutes with Oki Sato and Christian Mussati WonderGlass returned to Milan this year with a new collaboration: Shape of Gravity, the installation designed by nendo to showcase the launch of Melt collection. Exploring greater intimacy in the collaborative design process than heretofore, Oki Sato from nendo took inspiration from the very heart of WonderGlass: its people. In his own words, “I was inspired by watching the craftspeople in WonderGlass’ workshops working with molten, melted glass.” Responding to the deeply ingrained artisanal sensibilities of WonderGlass’ celebrated glassworkers, nendo's intention thereafter was to allow the material to direct the design process.

And the result? A suite of cast glass pieces of furniture and chandelier that pushes the possibilities of the glass realm further than any other brand working in this space today.

Melt is a set of cast glass designs (some of which are limited editions) that enabled WonderGlass’ experts to challenge the limits of specific production technics. By laying hot glass sheets of steel forms, and then suspending these between bars to create further definition of the natural drape of the material, “the main idea”, says Oki Sato, “was to accept the flow of gravity and use the weight of glass to design itself. In a way, doing less and achieving more is the most complicated thing to do.”

Living Edge met up with WonderGlass founders Maurizio and Christian Mussati while in Milan, in order to understand a

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little more about this complicated iterative process where originality, authenticity and celebration of material manipulation remains first and foremost.

“Of course,” says Chistian Mussati, “we are delighted to have collaborated once again with nendo on Melt, working together to push the boundaries and capabilities of cast glass.”

Rediscovering new zones of possibility in the twinned meeting of brands and iterative material processes, it would seem, remains core to WonderGlass’ never-failing quest for ‘skills-menship’. “nendo had explored the molten liquid nature of the material with incredible skill for Melt. Together with our master craftsman in Venice, they have created a beautiful collection of furniture that focuses on simplicity and the form created by the flow of gravity.”

But this being a Salone year all about lighting, it would be remiss of us not to mention the crowning jewel in the Melt collection as part of Shape of Gravity. Measuring 2.5 metres in diameter and casting a diffusion of shimmering light many more metres in distance, the newly released Melt chandelier hung in pride of place above nendo for WonderGlass’ new line. “It’s a piece we are extremely proud of,’’ says Christian … and it’s not hard to see why!

Suspended a la soft cumulus cloud, shimmering light transforms the piece throughout the day – even when the LED componentry is not switched on. In cast glass, the refraction possibilities through different prismatic surface areas – in natural daylighting or artificial LED – cannot be overstated.

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LAMBERT & FILS

Buon Appetito!

Presenting Caffe Populaire in collaboration with DWA Design Studio, Lambert & Fils’ six-day-long experiment in the world of concept cafes kept the world’s hungriest design hunters well and truly sated as they strolled through Milan’s thousands of kilometres of design.

“We wanted to create down to earth, generous human encounters”, says Samuel Lambert, Lambert & Fils founder. “A place in which you feel humbled by the grand venue and the raw but refined materials within.”

In our increasingly Instagram-ready lives (not to mention our Instagram-obsessed industry), Caffe Populaire comes as a refreshing corrective to the instinctive kneejerk impulse of brands hoping to garner attention by resorting to a cheap (if not highly photogenic) gimmick. This is an exercise in honesty, as much as it is a reason to celebrate.

“This is not an Instagram wall,” says Lambert, “nor a photobooth. In a sense, Caffe Populaire is the anti-digital. Caffe Populaire is a six-day concept cafe bringing people and design into dynamic encounters through the essentiality of food.”

As the backdrop against which the brand showcased two new contemporary collections – Sainte and Hutchinson –

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Caffe Populaire’s balancing act of authenticity (in design, in food) and community (in the design process, in the end-result) preserves the bond between making and togetherness – squarely in line with the brand’s handassemblage philosophy in the ateliers of downtown Montreal.

One of these new collections – Hutchinson – takes its cue from the ancient world of Rome and the Middle East (that is, civilisations with strong histories of community, gastronomy and the artisan studio culture), riffing on the classic leitmotif of the archway. Continuing an ongoing conversation on modular lighting, Hutchinson is a thoughtful experiment in softening the hard line with an adjoining curve.

And from curves to instead corners, Sainte explores the rectilinear nature of the architectural imagination. Streamlined, impactful, honest and elegant, Sainte is a rectangular mass suspended by nylon that can be arranged in any variation of angle, number, sequence or height.

Retreating from the overstimulation of our digital existence to an arena rich in sensuous experience and human warmth, Lambert & Fils reminds us all why we design: to delight, to comfort, to inspire and, finally, to come together.

We wanted to create down to earth, generous human encounters SAMUEL LAMBERT LAMBERT & FILS FOUNDER

FLOS

Aye Aye, Captain For Michael Anastassiades, the wellspring of inspiration can be found anywhere and anytime.

Upon recently watching a clip of a contact juggler spinning a set of spheres, Anastassiades was transfixed by the fluid movement of these orbs circling around his arms and on the edge of his fingers.

The kinetic energy created by such a phenomenon informed the development of the IC series – a veritable juggling act in its own right, counterbalancing industrial simplicity and profound technical skill.

For the Salone 2019, the IC series makes its first foray into the great outdoors, with a

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set of floor lamps and pendants in the same formal vernacular of its initial IC forebears, but now optimised for the harsh conditions of the exterior environment. Like the original line, the new IC external lighting range exhibited at the Salone is in keeping with the warm, diffused light quality, providing a contemporary form to the blown glass chamber with a range of different finishing options.

Also making a re-appearance at the Salone this year was Anastiassiades' Captain Flint Floor Lamp. A versatile option for domestic and commercial environments, this floor lamp combines supreme balance with textural interest – a spin-able cone diffuser rests on a slimline stem made of painted, brushed brass or anthracite. Evoking the bold nature of its Treasure Island namesake, the Captain Flint lamp carries all the undertones of luxurious wealth – a sure reference to a pirate ship full of golden loot! Counterweighted with Travertine stone at the base, Anastassiades' highly resolved design still has many of us walking the plank to get our hands on a Captain Flint.

EXTREMIS

I Am The Walrus!

Whoever said that laziness is something we should avoid? It certainly wasn’t Dirk Wynants, founder of Extremis. And to back it up, Wynants has even gone so far to not only accept the need to be lazy … but actively chase after it, too!

Comfort, simplicity and ease lies at the heart of the brand’s latest offering showcased at 2019 Salone: The Walrus. “It was actually developed for lazy people”, says Wynants, “in order to make their lives a little easier. In my opinion, laziness – or the inherent desire for convenience – is a positive trait to have as a designer.”

After all, it’s difficult to prove to him otherwise. “Someone who likes to have it easy will look for solutions to make life effortless, which makes ‘lazy people’ excellent problem solvers."

With this outdoor sofa, a long, lazy, sun-filled afternoon can be whiled away without noisome, scratchy protective coverings, without that endless hassle of flitting about with armfuls of cushions and bolsters. To finally beat the eternal cushion battle for outdoor seating, Walrus turns the whole equation on its head: the sofa became the protective cover, and the cushions are now safely hidden within the essential form.

In many ways, Walrus is an exemplar of the Extremis philosophy of intelligent problem-solving meets a focus on human interaction. For the 2019 showcase at Milan, this frictional arena informed the exhibition space of the brand itself. “For our 2019 presentation”, says Wynants, “our aim was to highlight the stories and hidden qualities behind our designs.”

LIMITED EDITION

It’s a Limited Edition … It’s a Must Have!

“We are living in a time of digital and sensory overload”, says creative director and founder of Limited Edition, Katia Dewitte. And clearly in line with the more biophilic and nature-focused values of our current age, Limited Edition’s latest foray into correcting our overly digitally-dependent lives comes at just the right time.

For 2019 Salone, Limited Edition's exhaustive range of rugs and floor coverings, beckons users to quite literally return back to nature. Using only merino wool, Egyptian cotton and superior Chinese silk, spun in Italy, Limited Edition’s material palette provides the core essentials for a more biophilic environment and lifestyle.

Influenced by the biophilic turn in design thinking, Limited Edition's new range of rugs and floor coverings celebrate organic materiality and form. Boasting a wide selection of textural stories, pieces such as the Alfresco Wave evoke the lapping waves of a retreating tide on the shoreline. Whether in pattern and form, or indeed in premium natural materials of wool, silk and linen, the yarn grade of the Alfresco Wave is perfectly attuned to the hard-wearing needs of floor coverings in high traffic spaces.

This is high design for active living where utility meets beauty.

According to Dewitte, “the new collection keeps the organic theme with its shape and colours imitating nature. Strong in the 2019 collection are warm colours, particularly pink, Misty Rose, Cameo Rose and Rosewood Browns too with Honey Beige, Russet and Inca Gold. Derived from the world of nature, these names for the collection’s colours, plus others such as Evergreen, Dark Ivy, Fauve and Pine Grey, enhance the biophilic story.”

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WALTER KNOLL

Alles Gute zum ���.

Geburtstag, Bauhaus!

Surely there is no more significant birthday that one’s 100th. And for 2019, one of the design world’s most famous schools – the Bauhaus – is celebrating its centenary. Trust German design powerhouse, Walter Knoll, to make sure that the Bauhaus is celebrated in truly chic, truly contemporary style.

For this year’s Salone, Walter Knoll teamed up again with Ippolito Fleitz Group, an interdisciplinary design studio based in Stuttgart, to create an installation concept recalling the essential values of the Bauhaus school – one, the brand is keen to point out, “was an awakening.”

Stripping away useless ornament, the brand’s installation was reduced to a series of zoning walls constructed with an abstract concrete mass and, at intervals, covered in dark wallpaper to evoke a sense of calm repose.

Softening the otherwise sterile and museumlike qualities of this concrete form were floor-to-ceiling textile curtains arranged in tonally-specific groupings. Accompanied by colour transparent sliding walls and reflective surfaces throughout, the various room scenarios sought to invigorate the central themes of the Bauhaus school: form and proportion, balance and dynamism.

As the backdrop against which Walter Knoll presented a suite of new carpet and rug collections, the Bauhaus’ enduring influence on Germany’s most-recognised design

brand was palpable. But this installation was much more than an exercise in dutiful and sincere homage.

Championing honesty in craftsmanship and the highest quality in raw materials is nothing new for Walter Knoll, but in the brand’s newly explored carpeting it elevates an otherwise new kid on the block into the arena of the brand’s now-famous furniture icons.

Indulgence in natural fibre and an appreciation of pinpoint-perfect needle and leatherwork was counterpoised by Walter Knoll’s open embrace of the potentials for digital in our daily lives. PCon.Box and PCon.Planner were amply employed for visitors to turn their hand to digital furniture planning, with the various screens and tools blinking animatedly throughout the week.

But the loving tribute to the Bauhaus school was definitely the greatest takeaway for everyone who had a chance to visit Walter Knoll for the 2019 Salone. And yet, the words the brand uses to describe the influential design movement could just as easily – at least in the opinion of this writer – be applied to Walter Knoll, too: “The Bauhaus was not a house; it was an awakening. It was a laboratory and a school for research and creativity. A place for the arts, colour and culture. People. Aesthetics. Craft.

Progress. Relevance. The values enshrined by the Bauhaus are alive as never before.”

The newly released Walter Knoll: The Furniture Brand Of Modernity monograph traces the captivating history of Walter Knoll – from 1865 to today. In standard biographic form, the book follows the story of influential personalities in the company's history: Wilhelm, Hans and Walter Knoll in the earlier days, and now Markus Benz who, for 25 years, has been the driving force behind the company. Penned by Bernd Polster, Walter Knoll: The Furniture Brand Of Modernity spans more than 150 years, embedding the furniture giant's development in the context of cultural and historical movements.

The Bauhaus was not a house; it was an awakening

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HERMAN MILLER

Once More, With Feeling …

All Together Now! The mighty home of Herman Miller now contains more brands than ever before.

While some, like Maharam, HAY and Colebrook Bosson Saunders might be better known globally than others, Herman Miller’s armoury of consumer and contract lines now also contains Design Within Reach, Geiger, Maars Living Walls, naughtone, Nemischoff and, of course, the brand’s proprietary line, Herman Miller.

So, in the spirit of unity and continuing growth, for the 2019 Salone Herman Miller showed off this enormous family to celebrate the breadth of authentic designs geared towards modern living and working, appropriately titled ‘All Together Now’.

Designed to provoke imaginative possibilities for designers and elicit distinctive moods for end-users, more than 450 pieces of classic and contemporary products in ‘All Together Now’ were displayed in five expertly curated and colour-specific tableaux.

According to the brand itself, “visitors to the exhibit were invited on a journey of discovery as they moved through one room to the next.

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From a bright and cheerful ‘op-art’ bedroom teeming with flora, to a rich and expressive fine-dining scene, to an airy and designforward office plan, guests to Herman Miller Corso Garibaldi were encouraged to engage with and rethink what the combined designs within the Herman Miller family can offer.”

Now, while there is much talk (too much, in the opinion of some) about ‘humancentredness’ in design, Herman Miller’s operations in this arena stand ahead as wholly original.

For the Salone week, thousands explored the global debut of Herman Miller’s Pillar Bedroom Group – a unified and discrete bedroom collection by Michael Anastassiades – a milestone achievement for the brand which has hitherto not held the bedroom space squarely within the bounds of its focus.

While this might be a new spatial interest for Herman Miller Group, Pillar nonetheless returns to the brand’s core foci: a singular focus on quality; an in-depth investigation into materiality and material possibility; a look toward tomorrow-proof quality to stand the test of time for generations to come.

VITRA

Let’s Look At Living There are few brands that can lay claim to having as deep and profound an effect on design history as Vitra. Across the consumer and contract spectrum, Vitra’s impact on twentieth-century interiors saw the brand collaborate with some of the most recognisable names in design: Eames, Saarinen, Panton, to name just a small handful.

But how does Vitra continue to maintain and build upon this illustrious legacy? They look within. For the 2019 Salone, designers in Vitra’s international studios asked themselves: what kind of personal marks do we leave in the spaces that we live in? It’s all about point of view, and the brand’s exhibition this year presented four inspired takes on this very question.

Exploring four key environments informed by four different points of view – the lens of the collector, the stance of the bohemian, the attitude of the global entrepreneur and the perspective of the nomad – Vitra took time to examine how its enormous back catalogue and new releases continue to be reimagined time and again by the unique mindsets of their end users.

In what is undoubtedly a coup for the brand, this view of the end user as an ersatz co-designer, presented a rich and intellectual backdrop against which several new products were released. Hella Jongerius’ new Vlinder

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Sofa was showcased to chameleonic effect, all at once displaying aspects of the collector, bohemian, entrepreneur and nomad.

Featuring a modern weaving technology that integrates supreme texture into the sofa’s soft-tailored form, Vlinder combines eight colours with yarns of different thickness across seven different varieties of jacquard weave. Combined with Jongerius’ newly updated Bovist floor pillows, Vitra declares that today’s living spaces should celebrate the sensuously tactile aspect of multi-layered design.

Meanwhile, Antonio Citterio’s Grand Relax also made a debut in Milan, reinforcing Vitra’s leading position as a master of comfort.

Evoking early mid-century Eames designs, the Grand Relax balances a compact form with an inviting embrace, taking full advantage of generously cushioned seat and the sweeping contours of a split leather bucket shield. The brand also re-released Citterio’s 2010 Suita Sofa with expanded upholstery features and material technologies.

And in what is surely one of the sweetest homages to brand legacy we saw in Milan this year, Vitra’s release of the Hopsak, Dumet and Track fabrics pays subtle tribute to one of the brand’s most enduring icons: the Eames Plastic Chair. This new colour palette of the popular cotton and woollen blends now match the full tonal suite of these icons of modern design, suited perfectly to both domestic and commercial environments.

Since 1960, the cantilevered swish of the Panton Chair has been garnering the world’s top design prizes. In 2019, the re-release of this icon in a phosphorescent blue jettisons the celebrated idol into a new century.

69 years on and there’s still no tiring Vitra.

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MUUTO

A Space For Being Too few contemporary brands embrace the enormous potential of designing for our increasingly digital lives and, in so doing, overlook what is quickly becoming a very profound aspect of modernity.

While some brands focus on offering the ‘switched off’ escape – a retreat into that which is wholly biophilic and hostile to the incursions of the digital – tomorrow’s frontrunning studios will definitely be the ones currently recognising that for millions the world over, the digital has now also become a home.

Following the very first year that Google exhibited at the Salone, Muuto’s 2019 exhibition – A Space for Being – presented a multi-room experience informed by cutting-edge neuroaesthetic findings being pioneered at Johns Hopkins University and ongoing collaborations with Google: Envisioned by Google’s Vice President and Head of Design for all hardware products, Ivy Ross, and Susan Magsamen, Senior Advisor

to the Science of Learning Institute at Johns Hopkins University, in collaboration with architect Suchi Reddy and Design Director at Muuto, Christian Grosen. With a selection of furniture and accessories by Muuto, the installation prompted renewed discussions on how design, technology and science can coalesce greater than ever before in the design process.

According to Ross, “with neuroscientific findings now, you can prove the things that designers and artists have always known: that aesthetics - which is not just making things look pretty, but enlivening all the sensory systems through space, colour, texture, music and shape – affects our brain, our physiology and our wellbeing. Not everyone understands the power of that, but now neuroscience is able to show you that.”

Organised around thematic spaces aptly named ‘Essential’, ‘Vital’ and ‘Transformative’, subtle variations across visual, audio, olfactory and kinaesthetic sensory prompts are transposed into discrete interior vignettes through lighting, furnishings, music, artwork and material palettes. Equipped with custom bands made by Google Hardware, as guests entered the space the Google Advanced Technology and Projects Division measured and recorded the physiological responses including heart rate, breathing behaviours, skin conductance, temperature and body motions.

In a real coup for visitors to Milan this year, Muuto’s open-to-the-public installation gave all visitors an unprecedented chance to understand the feedback and insights of their personal reactions to different environments.

“As the end of the day”, says Ross, “we are all saying that design matters more than you think. I want everyone to know it.”

...we wanted to explore design’s impact on our biology and how design has the potential to impact our well-being.

CHRISTIAN GROSEN MUUTO DESIGN DIRECTOR

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The opportunity to work with these incredible materials, and apply them to furniture for the first time, has been really exciting, especially as it will bring Nature Squared’s work to the attention of a wider audience and expand their stewardship of Filipino craftspeople in the Philippines.

BETHAN GRAY DESIGNER

BETHAN GRAY

East Of Eden …

And West Of It, Too. In a landmark collaborative effort between Bethan Gray and Nature Squared comes the 'Exploring Eden' collection of furniture and accessories.

“When I first met Nature Squared,” says Welsh-born designer Bethan Gray, “I knew we were kindred spirits as soon as I heard their story and realised how passionate they are about nurturing craft.” Very in-keeping with the Gray ethos of finely wrought and even more finely honed craftsmanship, 'Exploring Eden' gathers an extraordinary collection of original (and, let’s be honest, very surprising) materials including sea shells from the East collected in Filipino fishing villages, and pheasant feathers from British estates in the West.

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Gray continues, “the opportunity to work with these incredible materials, and apply them to furniture for the first time, has been really exciting, especially as it will bring Nature Squared’s work to the attention of a wider audience and expand their stewardship of Filipino craftspeople.”

Naturally, this was a match made in heaven … or Eden, if you will. With exploration and traditional handicrafts at the core of both brands, 'Exploring Eden' represents the first of what many are touting as an ongoing collaborative effort between the studios – both sharing a passion for discovery, experimentation and pushing the limits of natural materials hand-in-hand with the limits of furniture typologies.

The collection consists of a capiz shell shelving unit, jade and pheasant feather lounge chairs, pearl shell cylindrical stools, with the hero items including a scallop shell table and pen shell coffee table. Using nature’s finest and most beguiling materials, this collaboration brings Gray’s highly innovative and elegant designs to fruition.

BRIONVEGA

��� Years of Castiglioni Some nations just have ‘it’ - you know, that indescribable quality, that selfassuredness, that savoir-faire which finally brings craftspeople to their knees in exhausted, truly original excellence, and a whole local design industry up on its feet for generations to come. And walking the cobbled streets of Milan for one week each April will only remind you that the Italians certainly have ‘it’.

An illustrious design legacy is the stuff that builds a globalised nation, to be sure, but it can also be the stuff through which icons emerge. In the late 1950s, Achille Castiglioni was one such icon, designing pieces that still today – in another millenium, another century, in a myriad of other locales – resonate just as strongly with the designerati as they did all those decades ago.

Now recognised as one of Italy’s most important industrial designers as well as one of the leading minds of the ‘golden era’ of Italian industrial design, Castiglioni made a return to Milan with the radiofonografo, radiocubo and grattecielo, which have been in continuous, uninterrupted production thanks to Brionvega for more than fifty years with the same materials, concepts and design as their inaugural iterations.

Inviting visitors to contemplate ‘it’ – that stuff of icons, of traditions, of nations – Brionvega’s return to these three luminaries of design history was a warmly welcomed addition to Milan’s generally short attention span.

As hundreds of designers and studios from around the world launch brand new prototypes every April, Brionvega reminds us that sometimes – just sometimes – you can’t improve on a classic. After all, fashions fade. Good design is eternal.

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LA CHANCE

Art Deco Makes A Comeback Look, there will always be naysayers, but at Living Edge, we truly believe that Paris is still among the leading cities of design. And Parisian brand La Chance proved this was the case once again this year at Salone del Mobile di Milano, bringing the venerated world of Art Deco right into the 21st Century.

Releasing three major products at the Salone this year, La Chance trounced off its expert attention to upholstery techniques, exquisite comprehension of contemporary forms and understated elegance. Of the latter, Block Lounge by Jonas Lutz combines all the sophistication of Corbusier-esque rigour with the singular lightness of Brutalist expression.

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Geometric to an extreme degree, Block Lounge is already being recognised as one of Salone’s most versatile objects – sure to prove equally at home in the commercial or domestic interior.

Meanwhile, both Planet Chair by JeanBaptiste Souletie and Zag Hooks by Studio Bling embrace more lackadaisical, freeflowing formal arrangements. For Planet Chair, the heavens provided all the inspiration that Souletie needed: smooth elliptical vital lines, an essential form of balance and proportion, and a featherweight silhouette of only six kilograms to represent the solar system’s most elegant gaseous body. And finally, Zag Hooks takes Planet’s free-flowing form one step further to combine a sense of elation with whimsy – very becoming of the La Chance heritage – extemporising on the formal structure of the zig-zag line. In situ, the play of shadows take on the form of a sculptural composition, evoking (at once) the Helvetica-like elegance of the sans serif weight with the graphic elation of the Memphis school.

GUFRAM

Gufram’s Golden Touch Last year, it proved that disco ain’t dead. A few years before, it showed us that design should be fun. And several decades prior, it said we should embrace the silly. But who’s ‘it’?

Why, Gufram, of course.

For 2019 Salone Del Mobile, Gufram – easily the world’s cheekiest studio – returned to Milan to once again ensure that the design world doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Pairing up with world-renowned coffee experts, Lavazza, for an immersive installation celebrating theatricality, happiness and the

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spirit of sharing the world’s most popular beverage with your loved ones, Gufram X Lavazza unveiled the Desea Golden Touch. In the brand’s own words, “Desea Golden Touch features a vibrant golden livery that enriches the sophisticated contemporary aesthetic of Lavazza’s latest product, as well as celebrating the coffee experience.”

And boy did they ‘celebrate’! The Desea Golden Touch will remain front of mind for many of Milan’s visitors this year, and will undoubtedly remain one of posterity’s key turning-points in a new hospitality culture that treasures the ‘point of arrival’ moment.

Responding to emerging guest demands, changing expectations of hosting, relaxing and congregating, the Gufram x Lavazza collaboration clearly signposts both brands’ recognition that the future of hospitality is one combining entertainment with community in equal measure. For those of you who had the chance to visit the installation at the Venture Centrale hangar – keep an eye out … you were at the birth of the new coffee lounge revolution.

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STELLAR WORKS Montage Moment: Stellar Works Launches the Crawford Collection Every year we return to Milan we always look forward to catching up with Neri&Hu, the Creative Directors of Stellar Works. Without fail, each year the brand serves up something that makes the entire industry stop dead in its tracks. And this year was no different.

For the Salone 2019, Stellar Works launched its latest collaboration with Tom Fereday and Lane Crawford, entitled the Crawford Collection, comprising a sofa, tables and dining chair.

Like everything that has ever left the studio’s doors, the Crawford Collection continues Stellar Works’ ongoing meditation on honesty in materials, the simplicity of vital forms, and the rich traditions of Asian art and design. But this is one truly global collection, representing not only a fusion of Asia Pacific and Australasian influences, but making use of materials, finishes and craftsmanship techniques from across the world.

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Set in the ‘Montage’ installation, the Crawford Collection was lavishly spread across the iconic Galleria Manzoni, and was accompanied by two other debut products: the Discipline Sofa and Bund Tables by Neri&Hu. Formed from a horizontal wooden plane that acts as a base for four variations of soft cushions above, Discipline plays with the modular signature that has become so emblematic of Neri&Hu oeuvre. Meanwhile, the Bund Tables take their cues from the brand’s earlier-launched Bund Dining Chair, Stool and Lounge Chair, combining the two distinct materials of heavy marble and light-as-a-feather brass.

According to Stellar Works’ Creative Directors, “the Montage installation is executed as a collage of multiple small theatres, arranged in a sequential journey along the Galleria.

Each theatre features its own orientation and colour palette, with stepped levels acting as stages, displaying the new collections.” Looks like it’s ‘curtains up’ on another standing ovation for Stellar Works.

BD BARCELONA From Barcelona to Milan… to Australia!

BD Barcelona is without doubt one of the few truly international design brands exploring Barcelona culture both past and present. And with this comprehensive sweep of Barcelona’s soul, the brand returns to Milan each year with a flotilla of designs made in collaboration with some of the world’s most lofty A+D names. 2019 was no different, and for BD Barcelona’s Milan showcase, here’s Living Edge’s top picks from the BD studio: Grasso by Stephen Burks This chair’s new addition to the collection

by Stephen Burks puts Grasso on a diet … literally. The collection’s famed fatness has been trimmed to allow as many people as possible to sit around a dining table, collaborative workdesk, or really any communal surface, but all with the same extreme comfort and visual appeal of its big (and we mean ‘BIG’) brothers. The new Grasso chair is now available in a variety of different colours and upholstery fabrics.

Little Couture by Farg & Blanche In the words of Frederik Farg and Emma Marga Blanche of their eponymous studio, “Little Couture is like a pret-a-porter version of our Couture Armchair. It is based on the same swivel base, but with a lower back.” With a timber section connecting the armrest to the armchair’s surround, a layer of two wooden composites showcases Little Couture’s distinctive tailoring techniques:

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stitchwork, folding, rolling, all redolent of Spain’s celebrated suiting tailors. Taking this inspiration, Little Couture employs the use of sewing machines in the timber forms, creating an aesthetic value that stretches from fashion all the way through to industrial design.

Dino, Explorer Tables and Happy Yeti

by Jaime Hayon Everyone’s favourite Spaniard makes a return to Salone with BD Barcelona: Jaime Hayon’s Dino, Explorer Tables and Happy Yeti.

This armchair, set of side tables and vase come as the latest offerings in a long string of collaborations between Hayon and BD Barcelona.

Hypostila Black Edition, the 40th Anniversary Back in 1979, BD’s founders probably had no idea about the lasting influence of the objects they were set to bring into the design world. For more than forty years, many of the original prototypes remain in production, losing none of their initial lustre and appeal.

The Hypostila sleeves are certainly among these, designed by Lluis Clotet and Oscar Tusquets in 1979 (with the collaboration of engineer, Jesus Jiminez, a specialist in structural calculation). Originally created with the concept of supporting a variety of weights whilst also achieving a version of modularity that could translate to different sizes and configurations, Hypostila was re-released this year by BD in a black anodised aluminium, but with all the virtues and form that the design world has come to know and love.

BD ART The Round-Up: Living Edge’s Five Favourites from BD Art Yes, BD Barcelona is world-renowned for being one of Spain’s leading design brands, but in the true Spanish spirit of congregating together and embracing all walks of life, the brand does much more than simply collaborate with the leading names in A+D. Each year, BD releases a diffusion line – BD Art – that treads the fine divide between design-proper and fine art.

For the 2019 Salone, here is a quick round-up of our top favourites from the BD Art range: Calvet Hanger Date: An original design by Anton Gaudi, dating back to 1903.

Composition: Possibly the smallest piece of furniture created by Gaudi, Calvet’s maximum dimension rings in 25cm, with a central rectangular wooden body and curved edges. Three elongated openings are joined at the middle with two brass-plated steel ribbons and are fixed together with rounded perietal supports.

Portlligat Sunbed Date: An original design by Salvador Dali, dating back to 1962.

Composition: Made from iroko wood and faithful to the original olive wood design.

The hardwearing qualities of iroko make the sunbeds impervious to the harsh outdoor climate, which can be added to with the use of cushions for increased comfort. This reproduction is based on Dali’s personal lot now housed in the Teatre Museu in Figueres and is certified by the Gala-Salvador Dali Foundation.

Cristallo Cabinet Date: 2019, this is the last design by the master Alessandro Mendini.

Composition: This freestanding tall cabinet is

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made from MDF and lacquered in a variety of colours. With interiors veneered in sycamore and facade stained in a darker colour featuring a printed graphic on the wood. The ‘cup’ design references a toast to the designer’s prototype, recognising a longstanding history of collaborations between Mendini and BD, beginning originally in 1972. This year, however, marks a sombre occassion for the brand as it says farewell to one of its longest-standing collaborators, Alessandro Mendini, who sadly passed away in February of this year. At the heart of BD's exhibition in Milan was Mendini's final design, the Cristallo Cabinet. Although destined for launch in 2020, both Mendini's and BD's studios worked around the clock in under a month to ensure that the memory of this design great could be truly honoured by the global design industry.

REmix Vol.3: Piscis Vases Date: 2019, this marks the first collaboration between BD and Jorge Penades.

Composition: Made entirely of converted leftover extruded aluminium profiles, this colourful collection of vases champion today’s green thinking surrounding industrial waste materials. It’s all about reuse, recuperate and reinterpret. The extruded aluminium profiles are painted in a variety of colours and attached together on an anodised aluminium base with a pyrex interior vessel.

REmix Vol.4: DNA Date: 2019, this new addition to the BD Art collection marks the latest in the collaborations between Mermelada Studio and BD. Composition: This series of blue and white tableware pieces – vases, candle holders and trivets – are made from the leftover waste of a master glassmaker. Through gathering disused objects including old art objects, abandoned prototypes and offcuts in the company warehouses, Mermelada and BD have reintroduced otherwise waste destined for landfill back into the supply chain of raw material.

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A sophisticated mix of metallic and melodramatic tones FARAH EBRAHIMI E15 ART DIRECTOR

E15

The BASIS of Design At the Salone 2019, e15 returns with a new collaborative project with David Chipperfield: the development of the Basis trestle system into modular desking.

Focusing anew on the emerging needs of creative and functional workplace settings, Basis’ spare form and utility-first philosophy equips workers with more flexibility, more control and, ultimately, more access to creative opportunity in the increasingly competitive workplace arena.

This year in Milan is also a brand milestone for e15 favourite – the Houdini Chair by Stefan Diez – now available in a curated palette of

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colours to celebrate the design’s ten-year anniversary. Like Basis, Houdini pays its ergonomic dues, but rather than modularity, Houdini boasts an organic seating shell inspired by the streamlined sensibility of the aviation golden age. The result is a truly original silhouette evoking bi-planes and gliders of yore, replete with a couture edge and a bold tonal scheme of gold, platinum, astro violet, lapis blue, sulphur yellow, chocolate brown, ivy green, neon red, oxide red and atomic green.

From e15 art director, Farah Ebrahimi, “with the re-release of Houdini in these new colourways for the tenth anniversary we communicated with Diez’s imaginative spirit and unique nature of our collaborative friendship through colour. A sophisticated mix of metallic and melodramatic tones evocative of a make-up artist’s palette is combined with a spark of exuberant colours.”

Also introduced into the e15 fold this year is Mr Collins, a new sidekick for the Houdini chair. With its dynamic form and ergonomic comfort, the Mr Collins stool is an endearing addition to e15’s otherwise exhaustive contract lines, perfectly poised for a variety of today’s agile working behaviours. Whether serving as a casual seating feature in breakout zones, or for more formal task-specific needs, the silhouette of Mr Collins recognises its design dues once again in Houdini’s design vernacular of vitalism, balanced form and pared-back simplicity.

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BASSAMFELLOWS Masonry Modernised: BassamFellows Explores the Rawness of Materials What is it about stone that sends the mind reeling? Is it the elusive glimpse into antiquity, or the equally elusive promise of everlasting endurance? Perhaps it has something to do with the feeling that somehow, deep down in our collective consciousness, stone is soulful. It’s our first material – that thing upon which our first cities were built, upon which our first places of worship stretched up into the heavens, and through which we immortalised ourselves in statuary, gravemarkers, inscriptions.

It’s not hard to see why, in the words of Scott Fellows, “for some time we have been fascinated by the history of stonemasonry in Italy, specifically in the region around Val Camonica, one of the largest valleys in the Central Alps.” Home to Moncini – the company that for generations has produced master stonemasons – BassamFellows’ latest collaboration returns to this very spot to hold communion with the great tradition of Italian stone dreaming.

Aptly titled Elemental, this new collection presents a range of benches and tables that each contemplate hundreds of years of masonry, and yet seem to suggest a glimpse

into the future of the craft for the hundreds of years yet to come.

According to Craig Bassam, “the valley where Moncini is based is also the area with the largest collection of petroglyphs in the world.

The simplicity of line of these prehistoric markings on stone intrigued us – they decorate the material’s surface with such a light, but also permanent, touch.”

For us at Living Edge, it is always a pleasure to reconnect with BassamFellows in Milan each year. Without fail, the dynamic duo serves up something unexpected, something intensely studied, and yet something also executed with such a degree of finesse and originality that their objects are certain to be added to the annals of design greats before the Salone week has even come to a close. And mark our words, Elemental is no exception.

BassamFellows’ foray into the antique climes of the Italian peninsula extends the brand’s Janus-faced sensibility further than ever before. Three years ago in Milan, they looked to the traditions of the Bauhaus; some years before, the vitalism of the Mid-Century caught their attention; and now the duo cast their eyes back to a time that pre-dates written record, pre-dates industrialisation, pre-dates (in some ways) the whole concept of ‘Italy’ itself.

As always, the moniker of ‘craftsmen modern’ couldn’t be more appropriate. For the Salone 2019 presentation of Elemental the purity of form and linework – a la the Val Camonica petroglyphs – took pride of place in an

exhibition in which not a hint of superfluity was evident. Taking a tranquil oasis of rough concrete gallery walls with raw-effect oak screens and panels painted in deep Prussian blue, the Elemental pieces of stone, wood, metal and leather highlighted each material in a unique way. “Every effort”, says Bassam, “was made to preserve the inherent beauty in the materials we used. In some cases, the shapes look more ancient than timeless, as if they may have been excavated from Val Camonica.” And yet, contemporaneity remains the order of the day.

In more ways than one, this quality of the design traditions of the past and yet looking to the future is very in keeping with the BassamFellows genesis all the way back in 2003. Seeking to create a new kind of American luxury, BassamFellows’ 2003 promise to explore the principles of irreproachable craftsmanship, architectural rigour and sensual minimalism continue to this day with Elemental.

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MADE IN RATIO The Latest From Made In Ratio London’s East End got a real makeover when Australian designer Brodie Neill moved in.

Bringing an impressive client roster including Swarovski and Kundalini – and collaborations with the likes of Alexander McQueen, Mercedes- Benz and Microsoft – Neill certainly knows how to hit the ground running.

His characteristic momentum helped to stoke the flames of a buzz-storm ahead of his appearance in Milan this year, which followed exhibitions at the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci di Milano, and two talks on sustainable design at the European Union Parliament and the United Nations.

To say that his furniture collection Made In Ratio is making headlines – and global headlines, to be sure – would be to understate the matter. With Neill at the helm, the studio is proving to be one of the most innovative at the vanguard of intelligent design responses with both the Cowrie and Alpha chairs chosen for Taschen’s highlyregarded 1000 Chairs book.

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Accolades have accompanied all media coverage surrounding Neill’s Ocean Terrazzo material success, and return once again for his furniture collection Made In Ratio’s Salone unveiling of the extended Alpha Chair line.

With the new additions of a high bar stool and lower counter stool, the biomorphic form of the solid wood Alpha Chair is translated into now an extensive array of seating. As with the original iteration, the resulting profile is seamless and organic, “with all the sculptural attributes synonymous with the original Alpha Chair”, says Neill.

Joining the expanded Alpha line at Salone was Made In Ratio’s debut of Theorem – the studio’s first foray into the new design typology of a room divider. A generous tambour screen accompanied by woven linen combines with laminated Douglas Fir slats at close intervals.

Meanwhile, another new addition comes with the Re-Focus Coffee Table, in response to the overwhelming popularity of the brand’s preexisting Focus table, now translated into a pared-back version combining ebonised ash and marble, and featuring a circular aperture at the centre.

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Each time that Euroluce rolls around, the ancient city of Milan is lit like never before

#LIVINGEDGE From The Rho Fiera Fairground, Milan: April 2019 Every year, the Salone del Mobile di Milano comes around like clockwork – and the global design industry resets its watch. This year, the fair welcomed more visitors, more brands and more kilometres of design than ever before. But as the Salone grows with each yearly iteration, many the world over use the opportunity to take stock of what is at the top of the agenda for our leading design thinkers.

Among the major thematic foci for this year was definitely a broader understanding of sustainability. Brands such as Bethan Gray and BassamFellows collaborated with craftspeople communities in the Philippines, Italy and Britain, shoring up their respective design resolutions to support the human sustainability of traditional craftsmanship and the communities which it fosters.

Elsewhere, we see a return to honesty in materiality: with Gray embracing the potentials for feathers and seashells; nendo and WonderGlass explore free-form glass; and Vitra reimagines shearling. Vitra, again, delighted Milan with its expert understanding of the kinaesthetic appeal for texture. Its newly released Vlinder sofa and Bovis range

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reimagines jacquard weaving to inspiring effect. Meanwhile, Stellar Works played with the textures of contrasting elements of metal and stone.

Stellar Works’ Dawn Bed registered an overwhelming interest in form – with comparable meditations also springing forth from the likes of Walker Knoll’s tribute to the Bauhaus, and e15’s winning, mushroominspired manipulation of green marble in the Enoki Migoto table.

But lighting – apt for a Euroluce year – was everywhere. Flos branched out further into the world of outdoor lighting through collaborations with with nendo and Anastassiades, and Lambert & Fils returned to glass’ enormous power in every form imaginable.

Each time that Euroluce rolls around, the ancient city of Milan is lit like never before.

Bathed in golden, aureated light here, stark and dramatic LED lighting there, and everywhere in-between the soft illumination reminded us all that, in every corner of the world, in every little and emerging or enormous and tenured studio, the design world is making sure that tomorrow will be brighter, more sincere and a more thoughtful place.

Until next time, Jo and Aidan Mawhinney

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