Milan Design Week 2018

My return to work after a year off on maternity leave is getting closer and what better way to get the creative juices flowing than a trip to Salone Del Mobile Milano.

It turned out much better than expected! In addition to the epic proportion of the trade show halls, the whole of Milan went design crazy with eye-catching installations on street corners, showrooms galore and engaging art exhibitions.

The Vitra showroom in Brera had a very humorous take on some of their classic pieces of furniture by bringing them to life and performing human activities, all viewed from a platform above – you can see chairs dating, on a beauty parade, the dreamers and the athletes to name a few.

Ventura Central, a collection of art projects within the empty vaults under Milan’s central railway station had all of your senses evoked, with playful giant movable puppets made from old chairs, eerie sound emitting glass shards and a tasty American dinner concept by David Rockwell in collaboration with 2X4’s design studio. This fully working pop up dinner was brightly coloured taking you on a road trip from east to west USA as you moved through the space both with the materials used, iconography and furniture styles. The space was connected by a very large central counter displaying emotive ‘dinner’ vocabulary above.

Salone Del Mobile Milano had an impressive array of furniture; classic styles are becoming more sculptural and details of mixing materials ever more intricate. The exhibition stands themselves were arguably even more impressive than the content on some occasions.

A relaxing visit to one of my favourite and iconic lifestyle store Corsa Como finished off the weekend perfectly. Even with 39,600 steps covered in two days there was so much more to see, next time I’ll have to spend the week there!