Adventures in Design:
Salone del Mobile 2016
From monolithic crystal vases to floating metallic light sculptures, cocooning sofas to multi-tasking desks and dining tables; the world’s leading designers congregated at Milan’s annual Salone del Mobile to seduce us with beautiful and functional creations. Editor-at-Large, Harriet Quick, and photographer, Laurent Segretier, join the buying team on a design odyssey.
Design is a verb, not just a material piece, and at Salone del Mobile the world’s brightest creatives work to find solutions to contemporary living with furniture, lighting and objets that enhance our lives and delight our eyes. It's no surprise then, that the appetite for extraordinary design generated over 7 billion euros in the first nine months of 2015 for Italian exports alone, says Carlo Sangalli, President of the Chamber of Commerce of Milan. Indeed, creativity is an emblem of this elegant, multi-layered city.
Right now, the focus lies on fluid work and living spaces; flowers and domestic horticulture; sensory immersion through unique textures, LED light sculptures, burnished metals and quixotic colours.
CANDY-COLOURED DREAMS
We might be adopting sugar-free regimes but we still need sweetness in our lives. Sherbet and gelato hues emerged as the colours of choice in upholstery, with streamlined day beds and sofas at Carl Hansen & Søn, velvet and weave cushions at Hay, and lollipop crystal lights by Czech crystal giant, Lasvit. At Nilufar’s beautiful showcase of room-sets, featuring a mix of vintage and contemporary pieces, Cherry Bomb glass sphere lights by Lindsey Adelman - some dripping with chain fringing - tantalised.
CRYSTAL ROCKS
Swarovski returned to Salone for 2016, to launch a bold new collection of tabletop pieces that Atelier Swarovski Home created in collaboration with an A-list of designers, including the late Zaha Hadid, who developed the metal and crystal Crista centrepiece which explores the natural process of crystallisation. The art of crystal cutting is given a triumphant expression in Aldo Bakker’s soft-edged crystal and marble vases and from young duo, Raw Edges, innovative laser-jet printed crystal bowls dazzle with chromatic reflections.
VANITY FAIR
The boudoir and the dressing room are receiving some serious attention with elegant wooden valets designed by David Rockwell in collaboration with Stellar Works; leather and walnut dressing screens by Berluti x Ceccotti and a sculptural stack of wooden shoeboxes by Beatrix Ong in collaboration with Joined + Jointed, for Wallpaper's Handmade series. Fritz Hansen’s vintage-inspired mirrors also looked the part for grooming on the go.
DIGITAL NOMADS
Foldaway and flat-pack furniture got a rethink to suit our budget and space-savvy live/work spaces. Republic of Fritz Hansen reprised a 1958 folding leg coffee table that the founder originally designed as a gift for colleagues; while at Rossana Orlandi’s showcase we found flat-pack plastic vases with Murano glass colourations that would brighten up the darkest room. At Moooi, Marcel Wanders launched a series of digitally printed rugs creating grand carved stone trompe l’oeil effects for any floor. Lee Broom took ‘on the go’ literally with his customised van parking up at various hotspots in the city; the interior featured palazzo stucco walls to show off his Optical line of graphic sphere lights.
THE GREEN ROOM
Our lust for greens goes beyond kale juice. At BD Barcelona, the Campana brothers created a striking credenza in plywood interspersed with curvilinear inserts of green Perspex; Tord Boontje designed green rattan planters and indoor/outdoor furniture for Moroso, and when Marni staged a one-off sale of plastic weave loungers and terrace chairs handmade by a Colombian women’s co-op, every piece sold out with proceeds from the sale going to the Vimala Association. After exploring all that is on offer, where best to end then POTAFIORI, where food, nature and music collide amongst the florist-turned-restaurateur Rosalba Piccinni’s garden-dining room.
