Out and About in Brera Design District // MILANTRACE2015.

Brera is without a doubt one of Milan’s most established design districts, and one of the most beautiful and glamorous parts of town. Here you will find a string of stunning showrooms and design galleries, amazing shops, cobblestone streets filled with endless choices of fantastic cafes, bars and restaurants. It is the place to see and be seen. As always, there was a lot to see in Brera this year, including my personal highlight of the entire Milan Design Week – MINDCRAFT15. How could you forget, right?

Emiliano Salci & Britt Moran celebrated 10th years of Dimore Gallery with the exhibition PALMADOR 2015, featuring six exclusive pieces designed by Dimore, including their new textile collection. I mean, who am I to criticise these boys, but I personally wasn’t a huge fan of their installation this year – I have huge expectations from them, especially when compared to some of their previous work (last year, visiting their gallery left me in tears and literally brought me to my knees). I felt they took their usually bonkers approach a bit too far – or perhaps not far enough. For my money, they just didn’t quite pull it off, even though these images here are making it look pretty sweet.

In the Viabizzuno garden, the spectacular ‘Silos Solis: Feed on Light’ installation featured a series of site specific silos designed by Mario Nanni. The 7 silos of light were each 10m high and 3.5m in diameter (yes, massive!), all connected in a linear sequence. Each silo had an individual theme: earth, air, light bulbs, sun, moon, water and fire. The individual spaces were illuminated with new Viabizzuno LED light fittings within. It was pure visual ecstasy and beautiful poetry of light.

The riot of colour at Fragile Milano – furniture gallery designed by Mendini & Studiopepe, was made even more colourful with a Memphis installation during Milan Design Week. Here, the crazy talented Chiara & Arianna of Studiopepe presented their Ossmori collection of one of a kind pieces that are a study in materials and compositions, and tension between the opposites. The duo used unusual material combinations, like investigating the fragility of chalk and the hardness of the marble.

Caesarstone presented Movements by Philippe Malouin, on show at the beautiful Palazzo Serbelloni. Malouin created a collection of 20 geometric planters in a range of shapes, textures and colours using the solid-surface material in unexpected ways. In the main room of Palazzo Serbelloni were Philippe Malouin “Swings” – an interactive installation that explored the intersection between play and contemporary art, which turned everyone into a child as it was difficult to resist having a go on the swings.

Airbnb partnered with Fabrica to create ‘Housewarming’, an experiential installation held at Palazzo Crespi. Airbnb and Fabrica’s partnership celebrated the connections that guests and hosts experience through sharing a home, and how these unique relationships begin with a simple welcome. 19 international designers interpreted the concept of welcome throughout different parts of the Palazzo. A cunning PR move by Airbnb. Palazzo Crespi was originally built to celebrate the coronation of Napoleon. This is another reason why Milan Design Week is an incredible experience, as the visitors have an opportunity to visit private homes and palazzos which was usually off limits during any other time.

Valcucine launched a brand new Genius Loci kitchen with the drawer central to it’s design. The kitchen drawers are inspired by antique desks, and come in finishes like distressed copper or bronze, or hand-crafted surfaces of inlaid and carved timber or marble. Valcucine also hosted ‘TEMPTING ART’ exhibition in their showroom in Brera, which explored the topic of food and emotions connected to food in object form. The installation included the work of 22 architects, designers and creatives.

Boffi showcased Salinas kitchen designed by Patrizia Urquiola, which launched last year for Boffi’s 80th birthday. In the last 12 months, Salinas has then been under further development and refinement, recently winning both Wallpaper and Elle Décor awards for best kitchen 2015. Next door, Italian marble company Salvatori showcased ‘Fontane Bianche’ bathroom products, including a brand new collection of lovely bathroom accessories.

Alfa Marmi – Italian marble manufacturing company launched ten marble washbasins by various high profile designers, for their project Collezione 10. I was intrigued about the AQVADRA modular marble basin made of 10×10 marble tiles, designed by Italian studio AAIDO MA. Vanities by Diego Grandi & Carlo Martino were also of interested, with a travertine basin by Francesco Faccin being a personal favourite.

Swedish fashion brand COS collaborated with NY-based Snarkitecture to create an installation that transformed Spazio Erbe into a translucent cave, featuring thousands of strips of layered white fabric hanging from the ceiling to the floor.

Moroso presented an installation in their Brera Showroom in which Design met Contemporary Art. The installation celebrated the brand’s collection designed by Jörg Schellmann. Furniture was paired with contemporary art world heavy weights like Donald Judd, Cindy Sherman, Sol Lewitt in a spectacular result. Schellmann’s collection features primary shapes in bright colours, open 3D structure, reduced in form to a bare minimum.

Kartell payed homage to Ettore Sottsass with a collection of products exclusively designed by the great master in his lifetime, some of which are finally being put into production. The Fuorisalone exhibition designed by Ferruccio Laviani was a vibrant and energetic scene at Kartell’s Flagship Store.

Brodie Neill’s Made in Ratio showed in a small but awesome warehouse installation on via Palermo. The newly launched Alpha chair was designed to be manufactured using a five-axis CNC router, that carves away pieces from a solid block of timber, until the shape of the digital model is left behind.

BassamFellows introduced the work of sculptor Morgan Shimeld, one of Australia’s most celebrated new artists. Throughout the week, Shimeld’s seven works were displayed alongside new furniture pieces within the BassamFellows Lifestyle Gallery in Brera, making it the artist’s debut show in Continental Europe.

At Herman Miller showroom on Corso Garibaldi, ‘LINES, BLOCKS & GRIDS’ textiles designed by SCHOLTEN & BAIJINGS for MAHARAM were shown alongside the Herman Miller Collection.

Orto Botanico – Brera’s spectacular botanical garden that sits behind the art academy hosted ‘Garden of Wonders’ with 8 ‘Houses of Wonder’ pavilions, each one created by a different famous designer to revive and interpret long-forgotten perfume brands. The exhibition featured the work of the following ’emerging and smalltime’ designers: Tord Boontje, Campana Brothers, Dimore Studio, Front, Jaime Hayon, Piero Lissoni, Jean-Marie Massaud and Nendo.

Fritz Hansen showroom on Corso Garibaldi was transformed into The Home of Fritz Hansen, an apartment full of gobsmacking beauty and inspiration. The interior was transformed with the help of Danish prop stylist Christine Rudolph, complete with a (non-functioning) brass kitchen. Incredible!

Design gallery Spazio Pontaccio celebrated it’s 10 years in business by releasing their very own furniture elegant collection designed by Cristina Celestino, Lorenza Bozzoli, Gianni Pelini & CTRLZAK. The showroom was transformed with a special installation imagined by Federico Pepe, Milanese artist and gallerist.

In what was one of the universally acknowledged design week’s highlights, Nendo hosted a retrospective titled “Nendo Works 2014-2015” at Museo della Permanente. The exhibition showcased 100 products designed for 32 companies, with 400 new variations produced by Nendo in the space of just one year. Holy guacamole!

Nendo founder Oki Sato explained in an interview at the opening of the exhibition that he is currently working on 400 projects. He has a team of 30 designers and claims he it totally involved in all the projects – taking care of all of the concepts, checking all the prototypes, doing all the presentations etc. He also says that he devotes all his time to design, 24 hours a day, confessing that he loves design and that it is almost an addiction. Yeah, I’ll say…

If this exhibition isn’t one of the best examples of PR a designer could do for his own brand, I don’t know what is. The epic display of work in the final room downstairs was really something – it featured products designed for Glas Italia, with a massive backlit wall in an all white room, with gentle but dramatic music playing on the speakers. The moment felt incredibly cinematic, and almost surreal.

It was at this moment that I almost cried. Almost. I think it’s also due to the fact this was literally the very last thing we saw in Milan this year. And what a finale it was!