The Milan Design Week is by now the most important event, worldwide, concerning industrial design, especially in the furniture sector.
And certainly everyone now knows the Fuorisalone event that takes place annually in conjunction with the Salone del Mobile in Milan, but perhaps not everyone knows the history and evolution of this spontaneous event that comes to life and takes place during the month of April now since the 80s.
The Fuorisalone is not a trade fair event, but it is free and spontaneous organization and aggregation of companies operating in the world of furniture, architecture, design, applied art and industry.
It is an event that has taken more and more foot and today is the main event – almost the centralizing event – of the famous Design Week in Milan.
The city becomes a Museum of Design, all to be discovered!
It is not located in a particular area, but spreads throughout the city, animating it with temporary installations designed by important and famous architects and artists, populating areas, areas and historic buildings of Milan, in some cases otherwise not normally accessible during the year; it creates spaces and paths to be discovered by getting lost in the streets of Milan.
From downtown, the San Babila area, to the “youngest” area of the city: Tortona area; Lambrate Design District, Brera Design District, Steam Factory in the former Enel headquarters now a multidisciplinary recreational citadel, the Triennale, Corso Como etc.
It is obviously an opportunity to renew and enhance some public areas of the city with the aim of creating more developed places, making them accessible to the inhabitants, responding specifically to the needs of the population.
And it is precisely in this scenario that we place collaborations with various companies, paradoxically not directly linked to the world of design.
Work in progress – Ausi City lab
Companies at Fuorisalone: Eterno Ivica, DAMN, MoscaPartners
An example is Eterno Ivica, a company from Padua, which has now reached its fourth year of collaboration with the studio Mosca & Partner, who are in charge of redefining each year a new and original installation for Palazzo Litta, an historical example of Milanese baroque architecture, headquarters of the Regional Office of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism for Lombardy, the Regional Museum of Lombardy and the Archeology Superintendency of Fine Arts and Landscape for the Metropolitan City of Milan.
This year, in addition to the already consolidated collaboration with DAMN° and MoscaPartners for Eterno Ivica, two important challenges have been presented: the “official” presentation of the Phonolook Design panels at the Fuorisalone and the supports for the raised floors with the joist system that contributed to the realization of the very important Audi installation.
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- Work in progress – Pedestal laying
So three were the important appointments for the company during the famous Design Week in Milan City (from April 16 to 22, 2018): Palazzo Litta in Corso Magenta where the English studio of Asif Khan designed “the Tempietto nel Bosco“; Corso Venezia where the Audi City Lab took place, designed by MAD associate studio and the realization of dOT – design Outdoor Taste in Piazza San Marco.
“Tempietto nel Bosco” by Asif Khan
For this edition The Litta Variations / 4th movement was inspired by the practices used in the musical field, specifically the formal technique of variation, a compositional process by virtue of which a basic thematic element is transformed into something else that however maintains with the model a very close relationship.
Tempietto nel Bosco by Asif Khan
The wooden installation, characterized by a strong upward projection, interprets the natural element of the wood and at the same time the architecture of an open-air cathedral, a continuation of the Renaissance grid of the Palace which, through a matrix of interconnected rooms and corridors, leads to a place of peace and relaxation.
The intimate surrounding rooms are intended as a place to relax and converse during the intense days of Milan Design Week. A soft surface underfoot offers a contrasting texture with the many kilometers of sidewalk that visitors will go through
says Asif Khan.
For this installation Eterno Ivica supplied well over 1000 New Maxi adjustable supports with fixed head for all types of joists rising from the “ciotolato” of the court the important square wooden mesh that serves as a base to the red temple in the wood, thus creating a platform of almost 200 square meters, perfectly stable and level.
The beams stand out by recreating, conceptually and visually, a dense mesh of trees that installing itself in the white gravel create paths, areas of protection and environments where one can rest (some hammocks emerge almost spontaneously from the subsoil to give refreshment to people who come to visit the installation) and suddenly a clearing, in the center, like “the eye of the storm”, rays of light that converge and then suddenly open and the clearing takes shape, recreating a space to host debates, dialogues, interviews and reflections. From different points of view. And it is precisely by changing point of view and moving towards the passage area under the portico that stands out with grace and elegance, for perfect integration with the porch, the bar area, made with the contribution of Foscarini lights, Manerba furniture and sound absorption panels Phonolook Design by Eterno Ivica, who elevated his products by suspending them almost to represent imperceptible white clouds.
Phonolook Design by Eterno Ivica
Audi City Lab – MAD associates
But that’s not all, the relevance of this year was precisely the presence of Eterno Ivica supports at the Audi City Lab in Corso Venezia 11, for which they were present “below” the event, supporting the flooring of over 1600 square meters of installation, with over 45.000 supports for raised floors with the joist laying system.
The MAD project for Audi City Lab, in Corso Venezia, focuses on the theme of intuition, reconfiguring not only a physical but also an ideal space.
The coexistence of a circular ring (an element of absolute perfection and part of the Audi logo itself), as opposed to the square in which it is inscribed (the court of the sixteenth century building of Corso Venezia 11, always a place of comparison and growth) becomes the symbol of a constant search for perfection, always unreachable (the ring is in fact suspended) and which is itself the engine of progress.
Audi City Lab
The visitor is immersed in a space suspended between space and time, illuminated by a body of water surmounted by a ring of circular light, symbolically the fifth of the four rings Audi (and its values). It is the link with the vision. The hook, the door, the passage that could allow the realization of suspended things.
A dialogue that is a metaphor of the constant relationship between man and the elements, here interpreted by the perpetual game of reflections in which the changing forms of the sky are co-protagonists.
The concept of ‘time’, free from its metrics, thus becomes an unexpected nebulizing effect supported by a sound design controlled by an algorithm. One that invites one to look upwards: luminous, infinite and unexpected. But even without a finish line, just like the constant journey towards innovation.
A project inspired by the DNA of the Audi brand, where vision coincides with technological evolution, expressed here with the presence of the Aicon prototype, which redesigns the idea of luxury: invisible and dematerialized, is an integral part of the installation, and able to free and make the most of time thanks to new mobility models.
Aicon prototype
dOT – Design Outdoor Taste of Piazza San Marco
We already talked about an article long time ago, but this year returns in all its beauty. In the beating heart of the Brera Design District, for the Fuorisalone outdoor event, also “supported” by Eterno Ivica New Maxi supports, the ideal partners of a temporary urban garden where, in a 400 square meter setting immersed in green in the heart of Brera, a selection of prestigious brands of furniture, flooring and vases have found space, champagne and a new and dynamic artist installation, which have made dOT an oasis of well-being, conviviality and charm.
The mood of the 2018 edition was ‘Acqua e Mediterraneo‘, symbolically present with a designer spa and a wide floristic selection typical of the Mediterranean vegetation in the heart of Brera, a luxuriant urban garden, punctuated by elegant In&Out atmospheres and dictated by settings that make up a mosaic of solutions for living in the open air.
