The Dezeen team are reporting live from Milan Design Week (15-19 April). Read on for all the coverage from the first day (Monday 15 April) – and follow the live feed for today’s activity!
5:00pm As anticipated in the first entry today, we can now bring you pictures from the launch of Samuel Ross’s first toilet for Kohler.
The Dezeen team has finished the day, toasting the designer’s sculptural orange throne with one of the customary drinks of Milan design week that is, happily, a matching orange – an Aperol spritz. Saluti!
4:30pm In a busy day for IKEA at Milan design week, one of the most talked about projects to emerge from their activity is the launch of a collection of gaming furniture designed to subvert the genre’s stereotypical “cyberpunk-y” look.
One of the aims was to make gaming furniture that blends into the home when not in use. The collection includes the brand’s first successful attempt at inflatable furniture. Read the full story below ›
4:00pm Eighty earthenware jugs (known in Catalan as càntirs) designed by a variety of practitioners have been arranged on a central plinth at Inspired in Barcelona: Terra Rossa.
Encircled by freestanding muddied walls, the installation brings together a group of 15 artists whose aim is to celebrate soil “as the ultimate provider”.
Find out more about Inspired in Barcelona: Terra Rossa on Dezeen Events Guide ›
3:00pm The ritual of coffee drinking in Italy is serious business, and now design fans can add a new espresso coffee maker to their morning ritual, writes Dezeen’s Max Fraser. London-based designer Michael Anastassiades has designed his first one for Alessi featuring a geometric form in highly-polished stainless steel.
The Italian tabletop producer has released many recognisable stove-top coffee makers over the years from the likes of David Chipperfield, Aldo Rossi, Richard Sapper, Alessandro Mendini and Michele de Lucchi.
2:30pm Designer Hideki Yoshimoto has unveiled an immersive installation backed by illuminated panels in collaboration with Lexus at Milan design week.
The mirrored installation space features Lexus’ latest concept car along with a series of illuminated sculptures made from traditional Japanese paper encased in fibreglass– Starr Charles
2:00pm Hot dogs in Milan!
Among the food options offered at IKEA’s 1st exhibition was a fun array of innovative limited edition varmkorvar, or hot dogs.
They included a Tex Mex hot dog (pictured with extra jalapeños!) a shrimp hot dog and even an “ice hot dog” – Cajsa Carlson
1:30pm An installation at the Gucci Monte Napoleone flagship store showcases glossy, cherry-red versions of five Italian design icons including Mario Bellini’s Le Mura sofa, Tobia Scarpa’s Opachi vase and the Storet chest of drawers by Nanda Vigo.
The pieces are displayed in a series of carpet-covered rooms designed by architect Guillermo Santomà that look a bit like the Grinch’s lair, if he was really into post-war Italian design – Jennifer Hahn
1:00pm Dezeen editorial director Max Fraser writes “36 years after Italian lighting brand Flos first embraced working with an international designer – Philippe Starck – at the grand Palazzo Visconti, the brand returns to the Baroque palace this year for a presentation from three of their established collaborators: Formafantasma, Michael Anastassiades and Barber Osgerby”.
New works by the three studios are presented in a mirrored environment, reflecting the ornate interior and the contrasting contemporary lights.
According to Flos chief creative officer Barbara Conti, Palazzo Visconti represents “a design playground, a terrain of experimentation on which the genius of the designers can be expressed”.
12:30pm Italian tile brand Mutina has worked with French designer Ronan Bouroullec on its first collection specifically for outdoors.
On show in the garden of Spazio Cernaia, the Osso and Bottone ranges feature gently contoured edges and playful cutaways.
In a basement below the garden, the designer is also presenting Adadgio, a system of modules for making ceramic lattice wall sculptures, alongside a series of limited-edition vases – Amy Frearson
12:00pm Balloon!
11:30am Dezeen design editor Jennifer Hahn has visited the Lasvit installation at Milan design week. Play a game of renders versus reality with us! We think they did a pretty good job of realising the concept. What do you think?
Sometimes finished projects do not look anything like the initial renderings.
But the Lasvit installation pretty closely matches – weather and natural light-dependent – the original ideas for the space. What do you think? Tell us in the comments below!
10:30am International press are gathering at IKEA’s Milan space, where the brand is hosting an exhibition called 1st, which explores the experience of leaving home for the first time.
The exhibition includes a large open stage featuring different “rooms” and a bed topped with IKEA “red cuddly heart” cushions.
The Padiglione Visconti venue has been “transformed into an IKEA playground” showcasing products and experiences related to the theme of the exhibition. Read the full report from Jane Englefield below.
10:00am Following much-hyped installations with Formafantasma and Max Lamb, materials company Dzek has returned to Milan design week to showcase a collaboration with Christien Meindertsma.
The Dutch designer has adapted the traditional linoleum-making process to create architectural tiles that are endlessly re-mouldable.
“It’s like bread dough that lasts forever,” Meindertsma told Dezeen design editor Jennifer Hahn.
“It cures just enough to become something solid but then you can always decide for it to become something new if you need.”
“For me, that’s really the ultimate thing as a product designer,” she added. “I don’t know any other material that can do that.”
In the Milan design week installation, the tiles clad a monumental staircase leading to nowhere that was designed by Barcelona studio Arquitectura-G.
9:30am Dezeen US editor Ben Dreith was at the press opening of the seventh edition of Alcova yesterday, which is taking place across Villa Bagatti Valsecchi and Villa Borsani outside of Milan.
American designer and Dezeen Awards 2023 judge Colin King has created an installation for Calico Wallpaper at Alcova and said that installations in Milan “are getting more and more complex and interesting”.
Alcova founder Joseph Grima said Villa Borsani (pictured below) was important because it was the residence of Osvaldo Borsani and because his factory next door was “one of the places where Milanese design was born”.
Grima also highlighted this year is the first time Alcova has taken place at a residential location. Find out more about Alcova 2024 on Dezeen Events Guide ›
9:00am Dezeen’s editorial director Max Fraser, editor-at-large Amy Frearson, digitial editor Rupert Bickersteth, deputy editor Cajsa Carlson, US editor Ben Dreith, design editor Jennifer Hahn, social editor Clara Finnigan, design and interiors reporter Jane Englefield and editorial assistant Starr Charles are all on the ground in Milan reporting from the 62nd edition of Milan design week.
As things get underway catch up on the projects we have already published from Milan and checkout twenty must-see exhibitions and installations we have rounded-up, including a highly anticipated Salone del Mobile installation by David Lynch, an arts club by Faye Toogood and a “playground” by IKEA.
We’re also looking forward to seeing the debut of designer Samuel Ross’s first toilet for bathroom brand Kohler.
Dezeen Events Guide has created a Milan design week guide, highlighting the key events at the festival this year.
To keep you up to date, follow the live coverage from Milan design week. Dezeen Events Guide has created a Milan design week digital guide highlighting the key events at the festival.
See Dezeen Events Guide for all the latest information you need to know to attend the event, as well as a list of other architecture and design events taking place around the world.
All times are London time.
The lead image is by Jennifer Hahn.
