Highlights of Milan Design Week 2024

In a stunning display of creativity and innovation, Lasvit, the renowned Czech artisanal glassmaking design house, emerged victorious and won the FuoriSalone Award 2024.

The centrepiece of Lasvit's exhibition, ‘Re/Creation’, situated at the beautiful Palazzo Isimbardi, was "Porta," a monumental installation by the brand's Art Director Maxim Velcovsky. The piece consists of 10 fused glass sculptures - with the largest reaching almost 5 meters high - demonstrating the fusion of artisanal craftsmanship with industrial ingenuity. The sculptures feature hand-made reliefs and serve as a glass canvas suitable for structural elements in architecture.

Hermès

Hermès has been a regular at the furniture and design fair since 2011. This year the brand once again showcased at La Pelota, a historic venue in the trendy Brera district. Hermès’ ‘The Topography of Material’ exhibit focused on an installation exploring the materiality of earth and celebrating new and archival objects.

In place of the grand theatrical installations that have defined Hermès presentations in previous years, the room was immersed in darkness and at first appeared relatively sparse. Until, the visitor took a few steps further in and turned their gaze downward: covering the enormous floor was a striking series of panels covered variously with raw earth, terracotta, bricks, rocks, adobe, and wood, with criss-crossing black walkways overlaid to create the effect of walking through an archaeological site– all depicting a jockey’s silk jersey. A powerful symbol of the house’s cultural heritage – the jockey silk with colourful geometric motifs is an inspiration for leather goods and textiles. The showcase aimed at drawing bridges between Hermès' contemporary language and its history, each object from the most recent collections presented alongside a piece from the past (dating as far back as the 1930s) to discreetly demonstrate how the maison's objects are unaffected by time and passing trends.

Loro Piana

In homage to the life and work of Italian architect and designer Cini Boeri, who is often cited as an exemplar of Milanese elegance and one of the greats of Italian design, Lora Piana Interiors presented an installation designed in collaboration with the Archivio Cini Boeri (the historic Italian company that has always produced Boeri’s furniture), transforming Loro Piana’s Milanese headquarters, Cortile della Seta, into a serene, ethereal space. The breath taking glass-ceilinged atrium of the silent luxury powerhouse, which opened a few years ago after a revamp by the Belgian master minimalist Vincent van Duysen, served as the perfect backdrop for ‘A Tribute to Cini Boeri’. The exhibit marks the dual centenary of Boeri’s birth and Loro Piana’s founding—a serendipitous coincidence that reflects their shared values of functionality, innovation and human-centric design.

Featuring Arflex furniture pieces designed by Cini Boeri imagined in exclusive Loro Piana fabrics, this showcase is a testament to Boeri's enduring appeal. The installation welcomed visitors to freely interact with the capsule furniture collection, to touch, sit and even lay down which injected the event with a joyous fervour in reflection of Boeri’s playful, enduring influence and visionary appeal.

Technogym

This Milan Design week, to celebrate its 40th anniversary renowned home fitness brand Technogym, invited 40 leading designers including Antonio Citterio, Kelly Hoppen, Nendo, Patricia Urquiola and Rolf Sachs to reinterpret the brand's weight storage bench.

Titled ‘Design to Move’, the exhibition explored the intricate relationship between design, and wellness, blending style with functionality – a cornerstone of Technogym’s ethos. Founded in 1983 by Nerio Alessandri, as a fitness, wellness, sports and health brand that specialises in smart fitness equipment.

Showcased at Technogym's three-storey flagship store in Milan, the customised designs range from padded seating and colourful decals to sleek, metallic finishes. The show was conceived by acclaimed Italian designer Giulio Cappellini and curated by Bruna Roccasalva, artistic director of Fondazione Furla to explore the concept of wellness through the individual artistic interpretations of various designers. Following the conclusion of design week the specially designed benches will be auctioned in partnership with Sotheby’s, with the proceeds donated to UNICEF- an initiative that highlights the brand’s commitment to promoting global well-being.

Design Space AlUla

Design Space AlUla is the first permanent gallery in AlUla that aims to preserve the heritage of the region. It debuted this year at Milan Design Week with a special cultural project and an installation designed by Dutch architecture studio Cloud and renowned designer Sabine Marcelis. Set within Mediateca Santa Teresa, a library building in the fascinating Brera District in Milan. The exhibition explored traditional craft, materials and artisanal skills from the region, which was inline with Fuorisalone’s 2024 theme of ‘Materia Natura’. While, the scenography reflected the warm and earthy hues of AlUla and presented it as a hub of culture, creativity and storytelling.

The pieces on display included designs by leading artists and designers that were featured in two recent design initiatives in AlUla - Madrasat Addeera Editions and the AlUla Design Residency, respectively curated by Spanish creative director Samer Yamani and Ali Ismail Karami.

The highlights included Saudi artist Dr Zahrah Alghamdi’s ‘The Magical Pillars’; an impressive leather and embroidery recreation of native rock pillars; Argentinian designer Cristian Mohaded’s ‘AlWaha’, a room divider inspired by Al Khous, the art of frond weaving; and TECHNOCrafts’ 3D printed ‘Alwadiya: The Living Pots (a special creation by the curator himself).

Gucci

Gucci’s creative director Sabato de Sarno’s ‘Ancora’ campaign continues to fascinate in Milan as the brand unveiled Gucci Design Ancora in its newly reopened flagship on Via Montenapoleone. Entering through a carpeted staircase enclosed by lacquered walls in the dark red ‘Ancora Rosso’ shade that is a signature of the De Sarno era at Gucci, visitors were pleasantly surprised to witness an acid green installation set-up by the time they reached the top.

Inside the striking maze, created by Spanish architect Guillermo Santomà, were five objects De Sarno had chosen from several Italian masters over the years that had been re-issued in the Ancora-red hue for this year’s Milan Design Week. The Le Mura sofa by Mario Bellini for Tacchini from 1972; the Clessidra rug from an iconic design of Piero Portaluppi made by CC-Tapis; the Storet tallboy by Nanda Vigo for Acerbis in 1994; the Opachi vase by Tobia Scarpa for Venini in 1960; and the Parola lamp by Gae Aulenti and Piero Castiglioni for FontanaArte in 1980 each displayed to be admired from all angles. ‘Through Design Ancora, Gucci doesn’t simply celebrate old icons, it creates new ones,’ said Michela Pelizzari, founder of the Milanese based creative P: S Agency, who co-curated the project.

Saint Laurent

The Paris-based fashion house goes back in time to 1953 and the private collection of Anala and Armando Planchart who commissioned the legendary architect Gio Ponti to create their hilltop Venezuelan villa overlooking Caracas. On finishing the project, Ponti commissioned artisans from Italy to help furnish the space and signed on the iconic tableware brand Ginori 1735 to create a collection of porcelain plates featuring motifs from around the villa and the couple’s initials.

It is these plates that creative director Anthony Vaccarello curated and had reissued from the original 1’957 Villa Planchart Segnaposto’ collection by the ceramic experts for Saint Laurent’s celebration of Milan Design Week. Displayed in oscillating tubes on a raised platform that mirrored the height of La Villa Planchart, the presentation marked a fusion of multiple design icons.

Loewe

Loewe’s creative director Jonathan Anderson mainly worked with alumni from the brand’s prestigious Craft Prize on his first-ever lighting installation at Milan Design Week. Staged at Palazzo Citterio in the heart of the Brera Design District, the presentation featured one-of-a-kind lighting designs from 24 artists who the brand has either worked with or supported in the past.

Extraordinarily, it was the first time that any of the chosen makers had worked with light, which led to remarkably unique and original products. From Enrico David’s curved Onyx table lamp that features the face of a woman on closer inspection and Dahye Jeong’s spherical structure using an ancient weaving technique using horsehair, to Young Song Lee’s hollowed-out calabash fruits covered in coiled mulberry-tree paper and Dame Magdalene Odundo’s curved leather hanging lamps - each captured the celebratory spirit of Loewe in the world of craft and design that promotes and helps preserve the most intricate techniques from all over the world.

Saint Louis

As the craft of crystal and glassmaking was inscribed in UNESCO’s ‘Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity’ in December 2023, Saint-Louis, Europe’s first glassmaker, immerses visitors at Milan Design Week with two new crystal collections. Ornamentalist Pierre-Marie breathes new life into hand-cutting techniques with the fascinating and colourful Chamade collection, while designer Stefania di Petrillo's Torsade lighting collection astounds with its elegant twists and turns.

Bottega Veneta

This Milan Design Week, Bottega Veneta presented ‘On The Rocks’ at the Palazzo San Fedele, a special location for the brand as it was the setting for creative director Matthieu Blazy’s first show and is its soon-to-be Head Quarters. Partnering with Cassina and Fondation Le Corbusier, the brand focuses on the iconic ‘LC14 Tabouret Cabanon’ stool described as a timeless icon of Le Corbusier that illustrates the excellence of the Cassina carpentry workshop. First conceived by the designer for his Côte d'Azur cabin, it was inspired by a washed-up whisky box he found on the shores beneath the residence, hence the title of the installation, which saw several reiterations piled high, one on top of the other, symbolising a rugged coastline. Crafted in Bottega Veneta’s signature leatherwork and designed in a special charred-wood technique that draws on traditional Japanese methods. Each piece is meticulously enveloped in Bottega Veneta’s Intreccio foulard technique, meticulously hand-woven at the brands’ artisanal atelier.

VENINI

VENINI, the largest and most prestigious artistic glassmaker in Venice and one of the best renowned in the world presented an inspiring collection at Salone. The centrepiece of the presentation was the new collection of previously unproduced works and reissues of works by Gio Ponti. Among the most significant collaborations in VENINI’s history, the partnership with Architect Ponti has undoubtedly left an indelible mark on the brand's journey. Wishing to pay tribute to this creative partnership, VENINI had chosen to unveil a collection of reissues and previously unreleased works, designed by the architect since the late 1940s. This included sets of glasses and bottles adorned with “pezze”, pieces of coloured glass, a vase, carafe, and glasses with coloured canes, bottles featuring feminine silhouettes in two-tone glass, and a collection of chandeliers and stained-glass windows reissued from Ponti's original designs.

La Double J

La Double J’s installation inspired by the solar system created by Max Siedentopf showcased the brand’s new home collection ‘Solar’, featuring 36 pieces of porcelains with gold accents, hand blown Murano glassware and Como-printed Linens. Evoking the vibrant energy of the Mediterranean in spring, the Milan Design Week 2024 presentation, ‘Dancing Plates’ scenography hailed the season of rebirth and the dazzling power of the sun. With exquisite craftsmanship as a constant, meticulous attention to detail, and a vibrant use of colour, it reflected the values and creative enthusiasm of J.J. Martin’s spectacular brand.