Here we are! It is one of the most memorable times of the year in the "made in Milan" programming. The Milano Design Week held in Milan from the 15th until the 21st April 2024 involves the whole city via FuoriSalone® throughout over 1,300 events to support the Salone del Mobile set in Rho Fiera district. Exhibitions, installations, meetings, exclusive openings parade to allow visitors networking and getting in touch with top designers and new talents in urban contexts redesigned for the occasion in the most popular neighbourhoods like Brera, Magenta-Catello, Porta Venezia-Stazione Centrale, Isola - Porta Nuova, Porta Romana - Navigli and Quadrilatero della Moda. Within this context, FuoriSalone® celebrates its 35th anniversary giving life to 350 events for the duration of the Week.
This year edition, named "Materia Natura" (Material Nature) pays tribute to the concept of Sustainability in its broadest and most significant sense. Notably, meeting with different indigenous cultures, respecting natural ecosystems, using and reusing environmentally friendly materials, developing circular economy and fostering eco innovation.
MONACŒCOART® selected some emblematic initiatives you can experience in these days.
SunRICE - La Ricetta della Felicità (The recipe for happiness)
🧩 CRA - Carlo Ratti Associati and Italo Rota for Eni
This installation by Carlo Ratti Associati and Italo Rota is metaphor itself of Sustainable Development. The experiential structure set in the iconic Brera Botanical Gardens, founded in 1774 by the will of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria is set besides the Palazzo di Brera, including the Pinacoteca and the Academy of Fine Arts. It showcases the life cycle of a vital food: the rice. This precious graminaceous is not only a versatile ingredient in human nutrition, up to develop innovative products designed by Chef Niko Romito, but also a fully biocompatible building material, resulting from its 'waste'.
⏳OPENING HOURS: from the 15th until the 21st April, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., and from April the 22nd to April to 25th, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. - 📍LOCATION: Brera Botanical Gardens, in via Brera 28/ via Fiori Oscuri 4.
100R
🧩 Lars Beller Fjetland, Art Director for Hydro
The art installation by the will of Hydro, a leading Norwegian company operating in the energy and aluminium sector, focuses on the use of a revolutionary material, CIRCAL 100R, made of 100% recycled aluminium coming from post-waste industrial processes.
The environmentally friendly matter was then remodelled by seven international designers: Inga Sempé, Max Lamb, Shane Schneck, John Tree, Andreas Engesvik, Rachel Griffin and Philippe Malouin. The inspiring outcome can be seen at Spazio Maiocchi within the Milan Design Week.
⏳OPENING HOURS: from the 15th until the 21st April, from 10:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., - 📍LOCATION: Spazio Maiocchi, Via Achille Maiocchi, 7.
Micrographia - Redesign for Biodiversity
🧩 Park Associati
How can we design urban products to serve various living being species simultaneously? A pioneering project tries to answer this pivotal question as pillar of bio architecture and eco-design. Three experimental creative works have been developed by Johanna Seelemann design studio, in collaboration with Ricehouse, Arche3d, Primat and with the scientific support of Vivaio Bicocca. Inspired by the pioneering book of the same name by Robert Hooks, launching a novel microscope vision of insects, the multi-installation aims at reshaping already-existing façades, as well as vintage irrigation systems and bollards to build up an "inclusive design" through an eco-centric vision.
⏳OPENING HOURS: Opening > on the 16th April from 7:00 p.m. until 10 p.m. - Exhibit > from the 17th until April the 21st April, from 12:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., - 📍LOCATION: Park Hub, Via Garofalo 31, Milano.
Is One Life Enough?
🧩 Isola Design Festival
The showroom, integral part of the Isola Design Festival, shows a set of raw biomaterials, and ready-to-use collector's items that have been created thanks to sustainable and circular research methods. The main mission is to put human creativity on the spotlight towards eco innovation able to encourage environmental awareness. In this framework, Colab, the first library of materials in the United Arab Emirates will be unveiled to visitors.
A series of exhibitions, installations, workshops, live demonstrations and design talks with international designers, design studios, creatives and producers, will animate the Festival made of three main hubs: Lampo Milano, WAO PL7 and Stecca 3.0, and five exhibitions curated by the Isola's creative curators team.
Materia in Movimento (Moving Matter)
🧩 Grand Seiko
Set in the iconic Casa Brera, Grand Seiko space invites visitors to experience an interactive setting of 'forest bathing' while testing the Shinrin-yoku meditation technique resulting from the millennial Japanese tradition based on the reproduction of a real wood. The exhibit will show then a contemporary and digital environment that aims to evoke the "urban forest", a privileged stage where to feel the human intervention in the natural environment. A showroom conceived to human beings about a more sustainable coexistence with Nature.
⏳OPENING HOURS: From the 15th until the 20th April from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. On the 21t April from 10:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. - 📍LOCATION: Casa Brera, Via Formentini, 10.
Materially NOW
🧩 Superdesign Show
This multifunctional space, hosted within the Superdesign Show acts as an exhibition, a forum, a lab and a networking hub at the same time. Diving into details of materials and exploring new dimensions in a circular-economy perspective is the target which will be developed through various workshops and meetings. Research of new devices is the common thread of the whole conceptual route: Aim Net Zero, Nature in Lab and Impact by Industry. The 'red carpet' include some of the most advanced companies both at Italian and at a global scale.
To complete the exhibition, a set of unique materials will be showcased like the Greencast by Madreperla; 100% recycled acrylic sheets; the elegant recycled plastic panels by Plastiz and the papers that integrate waste cocoa beans made by Favini.
⏳OPENING HOURS: From the 16th until the 20th April from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. On the 21t April from 11:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. - 📍LOCATION: Superstudio Più - Superdesign Show, Via Tortona , 27.
Like Trees in the Woods
🧩 Nichelcrom Lab
This immersive exhibit area offers visitors a breathtaking scenic space, resulting from the dialogue among Nature, Materials and Technology. The visitor is invited to cross a forest of oaks, metaphor of the Italian Peninsula, endlessly reflected and replicated.
The installation, 100% made of recyclable stainless steel, creates an extraordinary visual experience, multiplying the space and generating inspiring optical illusions, showing the the beauty and fragility of our ecosystems.
Bringing the wood into a room means reflecting on the disorientation of the natural element in an artificial context, this is the core message the conceivers would like to convey to visitors making them part of the creative work through their projection into the environment, adorned with real oak trees donated by Innocenti & Mangoni nursery company.
⏳OPENING HOURS: From the 15th until the 20th April from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. On the 21t April from 11:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. - 📍LOCATION: Superdesign Show, Via Tortona , 27. ***
MonacoEcoArt keeps its journalism open to all although its information is the result of pure professionalism and knowledge. Supporting our Media allows us to keep our independence while offering quality contents based on traceable sources. Thank you for your collaboration.
By Maurice Abbati
Journalist; Editor; Communication, Media and Public Relations Specialist
Lecturer and Author in English language of Technical Articles and the Manual: "Communicating the Environment to Save the Planet, a Journey into Eco-Communication" by Springer International Publishing.
