The Milan design week is starting on tomorrow: for a whole week the city will be invaded by designers, operators and design enthusiasts. The events are so many and most of guides anre so extensive to be unuseful!

My advice? As you won’t be able to see everything, decide your priorities and start from them, then continue just following your intuition! You will find grest surprises, I’m sure!

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Follow my Instagram Stories to discover what I’m visiting in next days > @wemakeapair!

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MILAN DESIGN WEEK IN ONE DAY: VENTURA CENTRALE / VENTURA FUTURE + BRERA

First of all: do you know that Ventura is no longer in Lambrate, right? In 2018 Ventura Projects confirms the location of via Ferrante Aporti 9, but otherwise moves to the Loreto area, ready to colonize a new area of ​​the city.

If you only have one day in Milan, then start from here, as the quality is always very high and the theme of this year, explicitly aimed at the future, anticipates the presence of projects light years ahead to many of those you could cross in the other districts: here you can find some of the projects that have already attracted my attention.

If you have a few hours left, head towards the Brera Design District, the most historic area of ​​the fuorisalone: you can literally enter and exit every window, door, courtyard. Start from the Brera Design Apartment in via Palermo 1 and go towards via Fiori Chiari.

 

12 designers were invited to create a new piece for the launch of Souvenir Milano, the first collection of objects that takes the city as a symbol. An exercise on the memory of a radical but yet pop place, encapsulating Milan in useful and limited-edition products purchasable in the apartment itself and online atmilanosouvenir.com. The products range from a brooch evoking the Last Supper to porcelain sequin-magnets as a synthesis of Fashion and a chest for saffron in honour of risotto, but we don’t want to revel more. A place to discover during the days of Fuorisalone, Souvenir Milano offers the view of new icons of the city signed byStories_of_Italy, Maddalena Selvini, Cynthia Vilchez Castiglioni, Agustina Bottoni, Astrid Luglio, Sara Ricciardi, Giulio Ceppi, Giovanna Carboni, Sour for Bottega Nove, Leftover for StudioF, Giulio Iacchetti and Gio Tirotto.

 

The designer Robert Stadler, who curated and staged the exhibition, has created an expansive panorama of some 200 objects, drawing on the extensive Vitra archives to juxtapose current products with classics, prototypes, special editions and future visions. The show places a central focus on the social function of furniture in society.

Guided Tour with the curator Robert Stadler (English) starting 9:30 a.m.
17 April / 18 April / 19 April – open to the public and free entry.

At the venue we are performing the installation which follow the theme of “Sprouts” as MT Masking Tape sprouts in Milan with the arrival of new spring season. MT Masking Tape is not just an ordinary masking tape.

A collection of ceramic vases inspired to Morandi’s masterpieces.

Brand new wallpapers designed by Silvia Stella Osella for Wall&Deco, inspired to Matisse drawings.

A selection of Swedish companies and designers who look at the future while trying to improve the lifestyles of the individual and of the community by a functional and aesthetic approach to space and furnishings. The interpreter for contemporary Sweden will be Joyn Studio (founded by Lisa Grape, Helena Eliason and Ida Wanler), a small interior architecture studio with one great ambition: to put people in the right mood.

Located in the heart of Milan at the historical Palazzo Clerici, the exhibition offers over 1500m2 of design for everyday living and working environments. The ornate atmosphere of Palazzo Clerici sets the framework for a series of installations that celebrate the past while evolving for the future. The juxtaposition of old and new amplifies the experience and elevates design, while offering visitors the opportunity to explore numerous spaces, socialise, shop or attend topical discussions.

Fornace Brioni presents “Giardino delle Delizie” a collection designed by Cristina Celestino, influenced by the grottos of Renaissance gardens, special places of delight created to amaze visitors. The decoration of these spaces took concrete form through shapes and surfaces that imitated natural rock formations, in an encounter between nature and artifice: limestone deposits, seashells, reproductions of organic materials. The theme of seashells is one of the most important in the ornamental development of Renaissance grottos.

IF YOU STAY FOR 2 DAYS OR LONGER

Se ti fermi in città almeno una notte il mio consiglio è di partire da un evento che ti interessa particolarmente e proseguire quindi esplorando i dintorni: un buon modo per orientarsi è poi il vecchio caro passaparola! Attacca bottone con gli altri visitatori e scopri cosa hanno apprezzato di più!

Qui sotto troverai una selezione in ordine casuale degli eventi che secondo me vale la pena visitare: alcune sono granitiche certezze per me (come envisions), ma il bello del fuorisalone sarà proprio scoprire i progetti e le location di designer e brand emergenti, che non hanno già il mio indirizzo indirizzo nella loro mailing list!

Wood in progress is a continuation of last year’s collaboration between Envisions — a young design collective that showcases everything but the end product — and the Spanish wood manufacturer Finsa. Six of the Envisionaires’ wood researches have been industrially altered in the factory of Finsa and are now put on display as a spatial and insightful experience revolving around transparency in industrial development.

In Tortona area, the very first temporary store by Write Sketch &, a real paradise for all the stationery & design addicted!

Containerwerk purchases used shipping containers and upgrades the body into high-quality, affordable living space. Thoroughly convinced and fascinated by the idea of building with disused shipping containers, we began by focusing our efforts on the ‘building blocks’ of this architecture. This led us to develop a technique that turns a single container into a universal and sustainable living module. Our multi-patented method now ensures a monolithic, high performance insulation.

The Surreal Table project curated by Davide Fabio Colaci explores the connections between design, art and wine, emphasizing the rituals of the table through the proposals of Analogia Project (Andrea Mancuso e Emilia Serra), Eligo (Alberto Nespoli e Domenico Rocca), Zaven (Marco Zavagno ed Enrica Cavarzan), Flatwig Studio (Erica Agogliati e Francesca Avian), Studio Lido (Ilaria Innocenti e Giorgio Laboratore).

Italianism / Casa Lago, via San Tomaso 6

Italianism / Casa Lago, via San Tomaso 6Italianism / Casa Lago, via San Tomaso 6Italianism comes to fuorisalone! Thanks to the partnership with Casa Lago, they are going to presenti the exhibition How do you say pattern in italian?, with works by 42 italian artists: this is a must-see to me, as illustration is one of my great passions and I will meet there many old and new friends of hoppípolla – cultura indipendente per corrispondenza ;)

The independent design gallery Subalterno1 reveals a new collective exhibition curated by Stefano Maffei and Marcello Pirovano. A selection of (almost) one hundred of Italian designers received a mysterious envelope: inside they found the instructions to design and send their own vision of future. Founded in 2011 in the middle of Lambrate district, the gallery operates as a research lab of Italian independent design and it will collects this kaleidoscope of both utopias and dystopias.

The third edition of the pop-up concept store in the Isola Design District.

Experimental design collective Dutch Invertuals are collaborating with FranklinTill on Mutant Matter – an exhibition of radical design concept and investigations into possibilities of our new material future. Explores our current and future relationship with materials and making.

During the 201 Salone del Mobile in Milan, Paola Lenti will present the new collections of furnishings, fabrics and materials for interiors and exteriors in the industrial premises of Fabbrica Orobia 15.

SPECIAL MENTION

Do you know ehich is the thing I love the most during fuorisalone?

The opportunity to meet friends and colleagues, to cultivate relationships and establish new ones: my favourite place is going to be CASAfacile Design Lab, where many events will take place, including the meeting with the new cfstyle bloggers who will join the group!

CASAfacile Design Lab / piazza Alvar Aalto