Photo: Wendy Goodman
Salone del Mobile Milano, also known as the Milan Furniture Fair, takes over the city for a week in mid-April, with venues throughout the city, along with the main event showcasing international design in 20 pavilions on the fairgrounds in the Rho area, on the outskirts of town. There’s so much to take in that you can’t possibly see everything you want to see, but you can explore spaces not usually open to the public, such as the interior of the Rotonda della Besana, where Caesarstone and Tom Dixon staged their project.
Tomas Maier, creative director of Bottega Veneta, took advantage of the historic rooms of the palazzo that houses the company’s Home Collection showroom and retail space. In one room, the marble fireplace was dramatically heightened by the trompe l’oeil painting surrounding it.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
A selection of new Bottega Veneta pieces looking contemporary and timeless.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
The dramatic juxtaposition of modern design and historic frameworks was everywhere. Here, in the courtyard of San Simpliciano Basilica, the New York gallery Friedman Benda presented “50 Manga Chairs,” by Oki Sato, founder of Nendo Studio. The exhibit was shown on a platform that looked like a hovering magic carpet at dusk, each chair lit from below within the illuminated border of the floor.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
In a room within the Pinacoteca di Brera courtyard, Baccarat presented the show “Lumières Out of the Box,” with designs by Arik Levy, Marcel Wanders, and, here, Hans van Bentem, whose eight-and-a-half-foot-tall vase of 13,000 octagons was inspired by the original vase made in marble by Baccarat in 1909. The designs were displayed in giant packing crates, referencing the wooden crates that Baccarat has used for shipping over decades.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
At Moooi, along with new carpets and furniture, Dutch designer Marcel Wanders presented his spectacular book project Rijks, Masters of the Golden Age, exploring 17th-century paintings in the Gallery of Honor within the famous Amsterdam museum. The oversize book marries technology and history by zeroing in on details of paintings not graspable with the naked eye.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
Also at Moooi, Lorenza Bozzoli gave her velvet furniture a sensual edge of long, silky fringe that begged to be touched.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
Italian designer and architect Piero Lissoni is sitting pretty on his three-seater sofa for Kartell in a nifty houndstooth fabric.
Photo: Courtesy of Kartell/2016 Getty Images
The Italian design renegade Gaetano Pesce presented a 2010-made chair, Senza Fine Unica, that’s fit for a king.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
The Poliform booth at the fair was mobbed. Here, a low circular marble-topped table decided to nest with a large wooden coffee table, and why not?
Photo: Wendy Goodman
And then you have what can only be described as an ingenious kitchen in a box by Clei, shown here closed up and at rest.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
After a few pulls, the entire kitchen opens up, complete with shelving, and you are ready to go.
Photo: Courtesy of Resource Furniture
“The Restaurant,” by Tom Dixon x Caesarstone, within the jaw-dropping space of the Rotonda Della Besana, featured four conceptual kitchens designed to represent the elements: fire, water, earth, and air.
The kitchen island here is “earth,” and needs no room to grow.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
Tom Dixon x Caesarstone’s installation was simply magnificent, allowing the grand proportions of the space to soar above the different kitchen displays.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
The rigging alone was a design feat.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
Swarovski enlisted world-class designers Ron Arad, Aldo Bakker, Daniel Libeskind, Fredrikson Stallard, Kim Thomé, Raw Edges, Tomás Alonso, Tord Boontje, and the late Zaha Hadid, whose Crista centerpiece is shown here, to launch its first home collection.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
When gallerist and design forecaster Rossana Orlandi opened her gallery in 2002 in an old tie factory, it quickly became the go-to place to see hot designers’ latest work and hang out in the wonderful café-garden, where everyone continues to gather during the fair. Never let it be said that you weren’t there!
Photo: Wendy Goodman
Lasvit presented its exhibition of new lighting in Palazzo Serbelloni, commissioning freestanding structures designed by architect Marek Deyl so as not to disturb the historic interior.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
The seated dinner at Palazzo Crespi, hosted by Judy Dobias of Camron PR, swept you back to a time and place when the dinner table was set with silver and illuminated by candlelight, with nary a glowing iPhone in sight.
Photo: Wendy Goodman
