Design Week 2022: highlights from the Fuorisalone

14 June 2022

The joy first of all, to go back to living the design week as we remembered it. And the beauty, because the companies, the designers and the city itself presented themselves in the best possible way to reaffirm the centrality of the event in the global scenario, the primacy of the organizational skills put in place. In 2022, companies have focused heavily on double presence: at the fair for a more professional and technical approach, in the city to convey the atmosphere and visual suggestions that inspired them for the new collections. The result? An immersive FuoriSalone, in which the vaguely surreal aesthetics of the metaverse materialize in settings and installations that have left their mark. Engaging, dreamy and concrete at the same time, here are some of them.

Moooi: A Life Extraordinary

The Dutch company, founded by Marcel Wanders & Casper Vissers, is increasingly devoted to lifestyle in a broad sense. In this edition of the design week he has manifested his holistic approach to design by including in his collections also elements such as Piro, diffuser of essences for environments and a new bed linen collection. In a mix of robotics, digital and reality, Moooi (on the cover) has reconstructed 4 environments, each identifying a mood, in which to immerse yourself and experience a moment of life through the creative lens of the designers involved. Including Cristina Celestino and the Front duo.

Tom Dixon: Twenty

Tom Dixon celebrated the twentieth birthday of the brand that bears his name in a location full of meaning: Palazzo Serbelloni, the Milanese headquarters of the Sotheby ‘s auction house which, not surprisingly, is preparing to host its first auction dedicated to design . In the installation of the famous British designer, the most iconic collections of the brand were introduced alongside novelties and extensions. These include the new version of the Melt chandelier, with dichroic filter and a version of the Mirror Ball chandelier made entirely of recycled polycarbonate.

Flos: See The Stars Again

Calvi Brambilla studio designed the setting starting from the Dante’s theme of “And so we went out to see the stars again”. The idea is to celebrate the company’s 60th anniversary not so much by telling its past, as by looking to the future. The once industrial space of the Orobia Factory hosted the exhibition, conceived as a journey through the company in all its expressions: from designers, to technology, to the new approach devoted to environmental sustainability.

USM: True Pink

The Swiss modular furniture company has fully interpreted the original spirit of the Fuorisalone: ​​bringing design to unusual locations. In this case it is the bicycle shop in the Brera Rossignoli district, transformed for the occasion, and in collaboration with Monocle as a resting place. The dominant color? Pink, to show a simpler and more contemporary side of the historic furniture brand.

Memphis Milano: Memphis Again at the Triennale

Christoph Radl curated, at the Milan Triennale, a large anthological exhibition dedicated to the most iconic projects of the Memphis experience designed between 1981 and 1986. About 200 pieces on display including furniture, lights and accessories in an installation conceived as a path through shapes, colors and suggestions that still today identify a very specific aesthetic and the “Memphis style”. Arranged in chronological order in the Curva gallery, over 100 meters long, accompanied by the music of the American DJ Seth Troxler, as if to evoke the atmosphere of a night club.

Talenti: Green Evolution

The design week that has just ended was a place of heated debate on the issue of sustainability, which each company has interpreted in a different way. Talenti has chosen to set up the terraces of a showroom in via Durini with an intervention by Ludovica + Roberto palomba on the Green Evolution theme, inspired by the plastic pollution conditions of the oceans. Not surprisingly, the company presented its first outdoor fabric made entirely in Italy, 100% by recycling post-consumer plastic bottles.

Tacchini: Cinema Tacchini

Tacchini involved the designers Formafantasma and art critic Cristiana Perrella for its Cinema Tacchini staging. The target? Telling the many configuration possibilities offered by Mario Bellini’s Le Mura sofa, which the company has re-edited. The sofa is therefore the protagonist of a series of free configurations, such as relaxation islands of various sizes that suggest as many dynamics of use.

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