Interiors go playful with AI
Salone de Mobile, the largest furniture show of its kind and centerpiece of Milan Design Week, had the design world flocking to the cosmopolitan Italian city and this year’s edition was particularly exciting because it’s the first time since before the pandemic that the entire international industry has been able to come.
The biggest design brands launched the year’s directional pieces, giving us a glimpse of the trends that will influence the world in the coming months.
Maximalism
With economic uncertainty and geopolitical crises, it’s no wonder there’s a trend towards maximalism as an escape and a way of indulging. There’s definitely a renewed interest in the extravagant, the ornate, and the rococo, but there’s also an updated ’30s decadent feel, like in the interiors of Irish studio Kingston Lafferty Design at an apartment from that era in the 5vie district. Ornate floral wallpaper contrasts with statement pieces like a red leather rug and the Erasmo sofa by Afra and Tobia Scarpa. Bold colors and patterns also take center stage.
La Double J celebrated its debut in wallpapers through joyful prints drawn from the past seven years of their RTW collections, including Matisse, an abstract pattern with an Art Deco vibe. Liberty’s fabric collection designed by Federico Forquet had bold stripes and abstract patterns that referenced Italian futurism, while the upholstery of Etro had swirls of paisleys that the house is known for.
Playfulness
Roche Bobois’ BomBom collection by Joana Vasconcelos @rochebobois
Kiki Goti’s Neo-Vanity collection at Alcova @kikigoti
Mickey armchair by India Mahdavi for Gebrüder Thonet Vienna @gebruder_thonet_vienna
Roche Bobois’ BomBom collection by Joana Vasconcelos @rochebobois
Kiki Goti’s Neo-Vanity collection at Alcova @kikigoti
Mickey armchair by India Mahdavi for Gebrüder Thonet Vienna @gebruder_thonet_vienna
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Just like maximalism, playfulness in design and interiors lightens the prevailing mood. The pastel candy colors of Roche Bobois were a refreshing respite for weary fair visitors. BomBom, their new outdoor collection of sofas, rugs, and cushions with fluid and organic lines were designed by Joana Vasconcelos, recalling the facades of old houses in Lisbon.
The Venus Libreria by Fabio de Novembre plays with the iconic classic figure, paired with the whimsical Cocky Poltrona by Sfera Ebbasta. Robert Stadler had fun with fruits and vegetables in his OMG-GMO furniture collection that had watermelon slices for seats and aubergines for table legs.
Going AI
Light by Ryan Decker @ry.deck
Richard Yasmine collection @richard.yasmine
Stools and lights by Forma Rosa Studio at Alcova @formarosastudio
Light by Ryan Decker @ry.deck
Richard Yasmine collection @richard.yasmine
Stools and lights by Forma Rosa Studio at Alcova @formarosastudio
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Going back to normality after a life mostly in cyberspace, designers couldn’t wait to try their digital meanderings to create physical products.
Forma Rosa Studio generated fractal forms employing an algorithm as a template to create ceramic stools and lights using traditional pottery techniques. American designer Ryan Decker blurred the boundary between digital and real with alien-looking lights made of handmade components and flat aluminum sheets, which were printed with digital 3D renders and AI-generated textures.
Although Lebanese designer Richard Yasmine was inspired by nature’s volcano craters, his AI-designed, 3D-printed homeware was definitely not of this world.
Upcycling waste
Formafantasma x Tacchini collection @formafantasma
Peel chair by Prowl Studio @prowl__
Stools by Atelier Luma @atelierluma
Formafantasma x Tacchini collection @formafantasma
Peel chair by Prowl Studio @prowl__
Stools by Atelier Luma @atelierluma
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To reduce the environmental impact of their products, designers have been using waste materials from agriculture, construction and other industries.
Prowl Studio reimagined one of the most common pieces of fast furniture —the plastic stacking chair — by producing the Peel Chair from waste hemp fibers, making it compostable. Formafantasma, in collab with Tacchini, substituted plastic upholstery foam with surplus sheep’s wool and natural latex. Material research studio Atelier Luma employed the byproduct of rice production for acoustic panels and rice hulls and olive waste for their stools.
Small lights
The era of the big light is making way for the era of lightscaping through vignettes and corners with table lamps and floor lamps with the big light above used only when one has to look for things. The big light in the ceiling, in fact, is being replaced by small lights in multiples, if need be, like in Marcel Wanders’ Capeline lamps that fill the ceiling in a setting for Louis Vuitton.
Less Instagram, more experience
Cristina Celestino’s “Clay Court Club” @cristinacelestino
Gubi collection at Bagni Misteriosi lido @gubiofficial
Lachlan Turczan’s “Shaped by Water” installation for Google @lachlanturczan
Cristina Celestino’s “Clay Court Club” @cristinacelestino
Gubi collection at Bagni Misteriosi lido @gubiofficial
Lachlan Turczan’s “Shaped by Water” installation for Google @lachlanturczan
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Instead of focusing on just making Instagram-worthy installations, many exhibitors chose to concentrate on giving visitors an “experience.”
Google commissioned Lachlan Turczan who designed theater-like spaces that use mirrored steel basins of water as giant speakers, vibrating at different frequencies to create hypnotic wave patterns. Sound becomes a tool that allows the artist to sculpt pools of water into dynamic, shifting landscapes, giving guests a first-of-its-kind experience that reveals the hidden qualities of water when acted upon by sound and light.
For Cristina Celestino’s “Clay Court Club” installation, she gave visitors the feel of a vintage tennis club by temporarily refitting the historic Tennis Club Milano Bonacossa, designed in 1930 by Giovanni Muzio, with her furniture and fittings that referenced nets, courts and rackets. Gubi, on the other hand, took over the 1930s Bagni Misteriosi lido to stage an immersive, sensory spectacle.