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| Salone del Mobile 2006: Driade

April 28, 2006 _fairs

Aluminium is the absolute protagonist of Driade Store novelties. Matteo Thun presented the Isu series of chair, armchair and stool in anodized aluminium treated to produce both a particular luminosity and a pleasant touch. Philippe Starck signs the Cafe' series of chairs and tables, classic styled pieces in sandblasted anodized aluminium. Francisco Gomez Paz presented his original magazine holder Omero, Christophe Pillet designed the Paris Bar stool, a minimalist shape obtained thanks to elaborate production technology in mirror finished aluminium.
Ron Arad signs for Driade Aleph an intriguing stool, Screw is adjustable in height by a screwing movement, the result is a strange shape not very appealing to me and I guess quite complicated to produce. Tokujin Toshioka designed a low armchair with mirror polished steel structure and leather strips. Patricia Urquiola does it again with her Pavo and Pavo Real chairs, the talented spanish designer continues her exploration of craftmanship production and past languages with outstanding results.

All pics after the jump!

Cafe' series by Philippe Starck

Gomez Paz's Omero magazine holder

Crisptophe Pillet in the picture showing his Paris Bar stool

Ron Arad on his Screw stool

Urquiola's Pavo Real

Tokujin Toshioka in the picture seating on his Ori chair

Posted by gp at 2:56 PM | TrackBack

| Salone del Mobile 2006: Danese

April 26, 2006 _fairs

The historical italian brand Danese was present at Milan with many novelties, beautifully expressed in the outstanding images of photographer Miro Zagnoli. DANESE N.E.W.S. (North-East-West-South) is the concept behind the new generation of products, merging cultures and environments in a dynamic and adaptable collection. Yves Behar signs the multifunctional Kada, ready to transform itself into a stool, a seater, a low table, a tray or even a hub; and also the chair and newspaper holder Farallon.
Japanese star designer Naoto Fukasawa created the Amila chair. James Irvine paid tribute to Italy with his Belvedere mirror.
Carlota de Bevilacqua presented TET TAN, the evolution of last years's lihts TET, a nice combination of textures and languages gives a wide range of possibilities. Last year's Bincan series by Fukasawa was expanded and Ovidio table by Francisco Gomez Paz was presented in the final production version.

Yves Behar's Kada

Gomez Paz's Ovidio and Behar's Kada

Posted by gp at 11:33 AM | TrackBack

| Salone del Mobile 2006: Vitra

April 24, 2006 _fairs

Vitra, for the first time at Milan's Fair, presented a nice range of new products. Hella Jongerius has been working lately to breach the strict boundaries between mass-produced industrial products and unique handcrafted objects and she successfully achieves her intention with The Worker, a solid armchair with a tough character and a large selection of upholstery materials and The Handles, a series of pillows with a prominent handle, colourful embroidery and sewn-on label. I loved her series of vases and bowls One Grip made of anodised aluminium in gorgeous colours.
Bouroullecs reinterpret the classic armchair in their Slow Chair, which uses an extremely strong, precisely shaped knit stretched over the frame of the chair like a fitted stocking. Their new Late Sofa guarantees comfort thanks to its soft upholstered structural panels and the pliable, extra high side and back panels. Roc is an original system for organising spaces conformed by variously shaped cardboard panels covered in multi coloured fabric.
Vitra's beautiful colour palette was rich of blues, natural browns shades and red.
All the images after the jump!

Posted by gp at 1:16 PM | TrackBack

| Salone del Mobile 2006: Edra

April 17, 2006 _fairs

Edra's stand was dominated by one colour: white. Not only the architecture was white but also the company's collection: the Flap sofa, Campana's armchair Corallo and Vermelha, last year's Mummy and Jenette chairs where all presented in white; the ideal backdrop to present the vibrant colours of the new products.
Campana brothers presented the Brasilia table, as usual for the couple's production the table is more an sculptural piece than a real product and I find hard to understand why should we call this design when is art, the result is emotional effective but the functionality of the table is seriously compromised by its constructive logic. Francesco Binfare presented a wild sofa with metal structure and softly uplholstered named Corbeille.

Posted by gp at 10:34 AM | TrackBack

| Salone del Mobile 2006: Moroso

April 14, 2006 _fairs

Moroso's stand last year was breathtaking and this year was no less. Designed by Patricia Urquiola and Martino Berghinz; it was surrounded and internally divided by endless moving panels displaying the new products, in a synthetically black and white graphic expression, that reminds very much the one used by Alias.
An impressive amount of new products, a growing number of young and affirmed designers and deep investment in innovation, material research and creative verve make of Moroso one of the most influential companies in the contemporary furniture scene.
(For all details on the new products please read more after the jump!)

Patricia Urquiola presented the Shanghai Tip seating system with a vague Oriental inspiration. The new pieces represent very much Urquiolas's design style, simple, fresh, sophisticated, functional, perfect proportions and never banal. My favourite piece was Antibodi, a clever lounge chair also available as chaise longue; created from a cellular structure of reversible materials sewn in triangular shape, creating from one side a clean, geometrical structure and from the other side an extremely organic, flower petals like 3D pattern.

Shanghai Tip

Antibodi by Patricia Urquiola (in the picture)

The Spanish designer signs the greater part of Moroso's product range, but there is also space for young designers such as Tomek Rygalik with a self-supporting leather armchair; Clemens Weisshaar and his Countach table created with a software that controls the generation of unique geometries, the guys from 4Use presented a series of upholstered furniture with moveable backrest and Italian Luca Nichetto & Massimo Gardone presented Around the Roses, a collection of low tables with alicrite tops and textile based photo prints.

Raw Chair by Tomek Rygalik

Countach by Clemens Weisshaar

Around the Roses by Luca Nichetto & Massimo Gardone

Ross Lovegrove with Supernatural chair, Ron Arad with Ripple Chair and Konstantin Grcic with the brand new Ultra Chair represent the company's approach to plastic.

Ross Lovegrove's Supernatural

Ultra chair by Konstain Grcic

Ornamentation master Tord Boontje presented his collection of Corian tables; Nest, a new rotationally moulded armchair with embossed floral decorations; outsized upholstered seaters called Closer and a collection of vases and ceramic containers with various beautiful decorations.

Nest chair

The Other Side of Ceramics

Ron Arad presented the results of his collaboration with APAC (A Piece of Cloth). Using an innovative digitally enhanced process Arad has created a garment that has a dual function of clothing a person's body or the Ripple Chair.

Posted by gp at 11:35 PM

| Salone del Mobile 2006: Kartell

April 11, 2006 _fairs

Kartell had a very impressive stand. It covered 900 sqm and the company's entire collection since the beggining till the brand new products.
Optic (in the picture below) is the new stool designed by Patrick Jouin; the cube has a geometrically faceted surface but the effect is as natural as water.
Omnipresent Starck presented the series of coffee tables Top Top with their combination of different materials, shapes and finishes; the rotating moulded stool Royal T and the, at least strange if not more, stool Chicos (all the images after the jump).
For the first time Marcel Wanders joined the selected group of designers working for Kartell, he presented Stone, a jewel-like stool with an irregular surface. Also Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec joined for the first time, they designed a lovely transparent container, Panier, available in a wide colour palette.
The prolific (and always surprising) designer Patricia Urquiola presented the final version of her T Table, with decorated top.
My own favourite designer Alberto Meda presented a folding chair made of honeycomb plastic and metal. Antonio Citterio introduced a refined, high performance trolley, Flip. Piero Lissoni showed a series of upholstered sofa and armchair with transparent structure and high visual impact print.

Starck Top Top series of tables and Chicos stool

Royal T by Philippe Starck and Stone by Marcel Wanders

Panier by Bouroullecs

T Table by Patricia Urquiola

Honeycomb by Alberto Meda

Flip by Antonio Citterio

Pop by Piero Lissoni

Posted by gp at 8:56 PM

| Salone del Mobile 2006

Milan Design Week closed yesterday and I have lots of material to share with you. We have been walking and talking and shooting and it has been extremely inspiring.
For the first time this year the Salone moved to its new house, the new Trade Fair designed by Massimiliano Fuksas. The building is simply outstanding, it has a great transparent central axis that gives visual and functional continuity, on both sides the pavilions are clean and neat buildings covered with reflecting metal; the result is a huge transparent building that virtually disappears to the sight.

Posted by gp at 7:02 PM

|Preview Salone del Mobile: Driade

April 3, 2006 _events

There are many good reasons for me to love this original magazine rack that Driade will present for the first time this week at Milan. Designed by Francisco Gomez Paz, Omero is made of modular injected aluminium cones and steel legs, the result is a stunning simple and sophisticated object I completely fell in love with.

Posted by gp at 11:04 AM

| Preview Salone del Mobile: Domodinamica

Among the new projects the italian company Domodinamica will display the Mist Table by Milan based designer Rodrigo Torres. Characterised by the tense and fluid surfaces, the table was conceived as the perfect companion for the Mist armchair presented last year. Made of steel tubes and aluminium injected joints is available in black, white and chrome finish and in different sizes, ranging from coffee table to meeting table.

Posted by gp at 10:05 AM

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