
Milan Furniture Fair, International Design Week 2018

International news
MILAN FURNITURE FAIR,DESIGN WEEK
INTERNATIONAL DESIGN WEEK 2018
text and photo: Oana BELEA JACKSON

Originally an international exhibition of furniture and interior decoration, the Milan Furniture Fair has become a major artistic event, the occasion for a city-wide explosion of creativity. Static, passive and repetitive exhibitions have been abandoned, with every brand, every store, every exhibition, every museum and every supplier competing to offer exciting new activities, shows and experiences.
For one week (April 17-22), 300,000 visitors invaded the fashion capital and transformed the city into a party capital pulsating with life, day and night.
So many activities are being organized that the only fear is missing out and missing an event. The new term "FOMO" (Fear of Missing Out) is the expression of a modern-day malaise nowhere more acutely felt than in Milan.
Located on the outskirts of the city, the 200,000 sq m exhibition space is made up of 24 pavilions, each dedicated to a different area of interior design. There are pavilions for bathrooms, kitchens, traditional luxury furniture, modern luxury furniture, contemporary design and - once every two years - lighting fixtures.
At the same time, the suppliers represented in Milan invite you to visit them, organizing either a cocktail, a show or a conference on the latest trends or a cooking demonstration using the latest cookers, hobs, ovens.
Lavish and spectacular parties are organized for loyal and prestigious customers. The shops are also taking advantage of the surge of visitors and are open late into the night.
Cos collaborated with Studio Swine to create "New Spring", a multi-sensory installation centered around a tree whose branches have cylindrical tubes at the ends that distribute white (soap-like) bubbles that spray floral scents when they touch the ground or other objects. The installation was intended to evoke "a lifetime of emotions in an instant" and was one of the most profound experiences.
Japan's Tokujin Yoshioka created a large-scale light installation for LG that showcases the latest technology in the form of an ethereal experience. Seventeen chairs, distributed in a grid pattern, made of 15mm-thick OLED light panels, waited for visitors to sit down and enjoy the play of light these panels created, from colored stripes to absolute black to pure white light.
Architecture firms MINI and London-based Studiomama created a "micro-neighborhood" that explores the collaboration between residents and architects.
The Ikea Festival hosted live performances, food stalls, oases for children to relax and play; Airbnb revealed hidden parts of the city to groups who led them through never-before-seen nooks and crannies; in collaboration with the IQOS Pathfinder Project (a global cultural platform that supports the most innovative creative talent), Quayola created "Jardins d'Ete", a series of videos that slowly blurred super high-definition photos of flowers into digital paintings inspired by French Impressionists, particularly the late paintings of Claude Monet.
The show is an opportunity to launch new furniture lines, new materials and finishes as well as novel collaborations between architects, designers and suppliers. John Pawson, David Chipperfield, Zaha Hadid's Zaha Hadid Office are just some of the names that have collaborated to create sofas, ceramics and bathroom mixers. While in the past there was a time lag between when prototypes were launched and when they hit the market, in today's "immediate" society, customers are no longer willing to wait: orders are delivered as soon as the fair is over.
Established & Sons and Lee Broom are leaders in the field, the former showcasing ready-to-deliver products, the latter going one step further and offering Fair visitors the chance to purchase products on the spot.
New trends are illustrated by temporary exhibitions that become magnets for the public. The fashion houses compete in putting on truly captivating shows. Louis Vuitton, Marni, Prada, Hermes, event exhibitions for which the public is willing to queue for hours, have the merit of highlighting trends and the general direction of interior design, perhaps also because fashion and interior design have begun to harmonize.
Craftsmanship in decor? Marni creates an installation featuring a traditional Colombian household.
Pink and red? You'll find them at the Prada Foundation.
The effect of these exhibits is so mesmerizing that no one can resist them, and no one wants to post the last one that's already made the Instagram rounds. A visit to the Milan International Furniture Fair, recently renamed Milan Design Week to include satellite events, allows us to discover the latest trends in interior design.
Without listing them in order of importance, the eight trends we noticed during this Design Week would be:
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