Archinect - News

BIG creates mirrored installation for Audi at Milan Design Week

2024-04-25T11:46:00-04:00

Bjarke Ingels Group has designed an installation for the car brand Audi, installed at Milan Design Week. Titled ‘Reflaction,’ a play on the words “reflection” and “action,” the installation seeks to convey how “our actions in the world reflect the very essence of our existence,” according to Audi.

Image credit: Audi House of Progress

The installation is configured as a ‘plus’ symbol when viewed from above, dividing the site into four spaces constructed from a minimal selection of materials. The walls of the installation are formed of 33 x 28-foot mirrors, which, according to Audi, “creates an immersive spatial illusion, highlighting the brand's continuous effort to overcome the limits of innovation.”

Image credit: Audi House of Progress

Each space is grounded in a particular theme, namely Community, Knowledge, Performance, and Digital. The Community section features a ‘circular forest’ of Japanese maples to provid...

Architect-designed furniture and products at the 2024 Salone del Mobile

2024-04-19T13:13:00-04:00

Milan Design Week’s Salone del Mobile is set to conclude on Sunday, after a week which has seen the unveiling of a wide range of furnishing products.

“It is here that prototypes and innovations in terms of furnishings, domestic spaces, and lifestyles are presented: bedrooms, living and dining areas, entrance corridors, and service areas, outdoor spaces with their furniture and cupboards, upholsterers, tables and chairs set the scene for a narrative that starts with this room, exploring how the way we live is changing and, consequently, home living and furnishing,” the organizers said about the 2024 edition.

This year’s trade fair has included several products designed in collaboration with architects and architectural designers, continuing a trend that we reported on back in previous years, where we showcased work by Zaha Hadid Architects, Kengo Kuma and Associates, and OMA. To highlight this trend once again, our editorial team has collected some of the standout collaborations betw...

MAD Architects creates Milan Design Week pavilion inspired by mountains

2024-04-18T12:17:00-04:00

MAD Architects has completed its latest installation for Milan Design Week. Titled ‘Amazing Walk.’ the project marks the seventh time MAD has participated in the event.

Image credit: Moreno Maggi

Set within the Cortile della Farmacia courtyard at the University of Milan, the ‘Amazing Walk’ seeks to “blur the boundary between built and natural environments in a surreal way.” Standing 24.6 feet tall, the internal column-free piece is formed of hundreds of triangular elements configured to reflect “the shape of mountains.”

Image credit: Moreno Maggi

The installation is constructed from an aluminum alloy covered in a semi-permeable composite membrane. The resulting finish offers varying visuals under different lighting conditions while, during the night, lights and mist blur the edges of the materials to give the illusion that the pavilion is floating.

Image credit: Moreno Maggi

“This open design invites explorat...

JR debuts latest Italian commission 'La Nascita' for Milan Design Week

2024-04-11T13:03:00-04:00

French street art pioneer JR has debuted his latest piece, a massive illusory trompe l’oeil piece animating the facade of Milan’s Stazione Centrale railway station, in advance of the start of Milan Design Week in the Italian cultural nexus.

His latest commission is titled La Nascita (Italian for “the birth”) and will run until May 1st, following two previous Italian projects at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence and Palazzo Farnese in Rome that were completed in 2021.

“In spaces that have social issues, my work is about bringing people together. In a place like this, a huge range of people come to catch the train. When they find themselves in front of an exhibition, they will suddenly have a different kind of interaction,” he told The Art Newspaper at its unveiling.

More of our coverage of Milan Design Week can be found here.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by JR (@jr)

Samuel Ross unveils Brutalism-inspired Kohler smart toilet concept for Milan Design Week

2024-04-02T12:59:00-04:00

Designer Samuel Ross has shared a preview of the new Formation 02, his first smart toilet concept for Kohler, ahead of the opening of this year’s Milan Design Week on April 16th.

The piece is inspired by Brutalist architecture and will retail for $25,000. The brand is marketing his creation as an inspired demarcation from the traditional silhouettes used in its Eir Smart Toilet line.

Ross sees it as a sculptural enhancement of a necessity intended for use in a variety of settings he describes as capable of delivering "democratic, open, public experiences."

Image courtesy Kohler Co.

His design intentions were so described via a scrollable digital 'Manifesto' relating Ross and his studio SR_A’s philosophy and new model for water solutions. This adds to Ross’ longstanding creative relationship with Kohler, which includes the Formation 01 faucets the new product, rendered Haptic Orange, serves to compliment.

Image courtesy Kohler Co.

"Our objective goes beyond function — it’s closer to v...

Carlo Ratti Associati team creates ‘world’s largest board game’ at Milan Design Week

2023-04-27T10:55:00-04:00

A team comprising Carlo Ratti Associati, Italo Rota, Eni, and Blob Factory Gaming have presented an installation at Milan Design Week which transformed Milan’s Botanical Garden into a 37,000-square-foot interactive game. Titled ‘Walk the Talk,’ the board game saw over 400 energy-harvesting luminescent tiles form multiple pathways and crossroads across the landscape, engaging players in what the team calls “a discourse underlying the future of mobility.”

Image credit: Marco Beck Peccoz

The installation has been structured as a “metaphorical stroll around Milan” featuring the city’s major landmarks. Each of the 400 wooden tiles and 32 types of icons represents either an obstacle or a solution to the game’s theme of urban mobility, from traffic to public transportation and electric car sharing. Working either alone or in groups, players navigate throughout the ‘city’ by finding solutions to challenges such as overcrowded neighborhoods or a lack of pedestrian areas.

Image credit: Marco B...

MAD details new MOMENTUM installation for Milan Design Week 2023

2023-04-17T14:02:00-04:00

The lead-up to this year's Milan Design Week festival will include a new installation from Ma Yansong and Andrea D’Antrassi of MAD Architects as part of the INTERNI Design Re-Evolution exhibition held at the University of Milan.

Titled MOMENTUM, the 8-by-12.5-meter iron cube structure is tilted 45 degrees from its base and is being commissioned by AXA IM Alts for the duration of the fair. During the day, its ETFE polymer surface will reflect its surroundings while at night, the installation becomes more transparent as it yields to the artificial light source before becoming “the moment, a dialogue between thought and evolution that’s both pure and disarming.”

MAD says its presence “represents the moment when a new awareness is born, when the creative process begins.”

Image courtesy MAD Architects

“At a time when everything is immediate, and everything can be replicated digitally, MOMENTUM is, on the one hand, the spark, the original idea; on the other, it is the study, complexity an...

Take a look at some of our favorite architect-designed furniture and homegoods products at Salone del Mobile

2022-06-13T11:52:00-04:00

Milan Design Week’s Salone del Mobile is wrapping up this weekend with another impressive field of new furniture collections gracing its exhibition halls and the international design stage for the first time.

Furniture design has been an increasing hallmark of the architectural trade beginning with the advent of the Baroque Revival style in the 1890s. Iconic pieces from Charles and Ray Eames, Mies van der Rohe, Arne Jacobsen, and Isamu Noguchi have become heavily-copied household mainstays as a result. The 60th Salone was a showcase of architects’ continued experimentation and theorizing within that tradition, featuring designs from OMA, Zaha Hadid, and several other leading international studios.

Every piece in each collection strives to be an individual work of art that carries forward the discipline using the exhibition theme of Design with Nature developed by president Maria Porro. The 2022 Salone has 2,000 exhibitors overall. Scroll down to see our selection of architect-design...

Tod Williams and Billie Tsien on their Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park refresh

2022-06-09T13:11:00-04:00

Garden officials said Fred Meijer insisted on surpassing accessibility standards, as demonstrated by a miniature version of Nina Akamu’s 1999 bronze 'The American Horse' that allows the visually impaired to feel the sculpture. Mr. Williams and Ms. Tsien designed the landscape without significant grade changes, eliminating the need for landings and handrails, as well as stairs or steep ramps between buildings. The subtle slopes allow every visitor to use the same paths for the same experience.

As part of the Times’ new dedicated series for Milan Design Week, Matt Shaw previewed Tod Williams and Billie Tsien Architects (TWBTA)’s renovation of the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan ahead of its opening on July 1st.

The preview noted the project's deliberate focus on improved accessibility and the incorporation of local materials, as well as the introduction of new sculptural elements, and an interior inspired by the Pantheon in Rome.

The level of personal involvement for both architects was hand-designed wall tapestries and rugs scattered throughout the new welcome center's visitor and administrative areas. It is the extension of a vision first initiated by the West Michigan Horticultural Society in the early 1980s. As Tsien describes it, the 69,000-square-foot result “is a place both of the spirit and for people to gather."

The set design from 'Parasite' is getting top billing at next month's Milan Design Week

2021-08-13T14:30:00-04:00

A large wooden table located at the center of the Park family's luxurious living room, which the Kim family hides beneath after their break-in, is one of the key props visualizing the theme of socio-economic class divisions. The table, designed by Bahk Jong-sun, is one of 126 pieces of Korean craftworks that will be on display next month during Milan Design Week 2021, the world's biggest annual design and furniture fair since its inception in 1961.

The Oscar-nominated "Parasite" set was created by production designer Lee Ha-jun based on a sketch from director Bong Joon-ho. Lee is a graduate of Korea’s National University of Arts stage design program. He was introduced to Bahk Jong-sun by the artist Seungmo Park, who also created original pieces for the set.

The Milan Design Week exhibition is themed "All about Attitude" and includes 20 other works by Korean artists and designers in a five-day show that opens September 5th at the Palazzo Litta. Bahk Jong-sun produced several 3D models of the fake mansion and interiors before constructing the set. Vulture has a closer look at the 2019 movie’s production design here.

UNStudio and Swiss furniture brand USM join forces in Milan to explore the boundaries between work and domesticity

2018-04-20T14:06:00-04:00

"Work rules our lives today more than ever," says the design team behind Homework, an installation at Milan Design Week's furniture focused event, the 2018 Salone del Mobile, that explores the historically shifting boundaries between private and public spaces.

In 2012, a study by a bed manufacturer found that 80% of young New York City professionals work from bed regularly. As technology increasingly invades our home life, the way we occupy domestic interiors has greatly shifted with the potential for work to be exported virtually anywhere. Many of the most profound revisions to the architecture of daily life have occurred through the blurring of these spaces and how they change the ways in which we inhabit them.

USM, a Swiss manufacturer that specializes in modular furniture, is exploring what this might mean for them. Enlisting the help of UNStudio, the team created a theatrical installation that envisions the changes taking place within the world of work.

In their...

MVRDV creates a jewelry inspired installation for Milan Design Week 2018

2018-04-19T13:41:00-04:00

MVRDV collaborated with Bvlgari for Milan Design Week 2018 in an installation embodying the Italian jewelry brand’s creative approach. The firm transformed Bvlgari’s iconic Serpenti bracelet into a unique architectural experience. Finely crafted scales fill an entire room combined with mirrors to create a kaleidoscope effect, introducing the visitor to Bvlgari's world of precious and unconventional materials.

Serpenti installation for Bvlgari at Milan Design Week 2018, by MVRDV. Image: MVRDV.

“With this installation, we wanted to capture the colors, materials and inventiveness of Bvlgari as a world-renowned brand,” says Jacob van Rijs, co-founder, MVRDV. “By turning their timeless Serpenti pattern into a space, jewelry becomes architecture. Enter the Serpenti!”

The showcase at Milan Design Week takes place in the Brera Design District as part of Milan’s Fuorisalone. The installation is on view until 22 April 2018.

Zaha Hadid Architects design 3D-printed chairs for Nagami's Milan debut

2018-04-18T16:20:00-04:00

Milan Design Week just kicked off, and one impressive highlight is the debut exhibition Brave New World: Re-thinking Design in the New Age of Technology by brand-new Spanish company, Nagami.

Marking the brand's official launch event, the show at the Nagami pop-up showroom in Milan's Brera Design District features four exquisite chairs—designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, Ross Lovegrove, and Daniel Widrig—that combined computational design and large-scale robotic 3D printing.

Bow & Rise by Zaha Hadid Architects for Nagami

Architect: Zaha Hadid Architects
Design: Patrik Schumacher
Design Team: Sebastian Andia

Design description: "Bow and Rise are the latest results of the extensive, ongoing research that Zaha Hadid Architects is conducting within the domains of 3D printing and material experimentation. These chairs combine pristine design informed b...

MAD slips through borders with Salone del Mobile installation

2016-04-13T13:53:00-04:00

Borders are often controversial and rarely flexible, but Ma Yansong of MAD has playfully reinterpreted them with his installation for the 2016 Salone del Mobile in Milan. “Borders are usually seen as something closed and unapproachable but I think it’s interesting to make borders attractive, dynamic and engaging," Yansong said about his 'Invisible Border' installation, which strings strands of EFTE across the Cortile d’Onore courtyard. "So we decided to play with the border between the historical loggias and the garden in front of it, and design a transition in-between them.”

Part shelter, part fragmented contemplation site for the sky above, the strands emit a whistling sound in the wind, and are designed to provide a surface for illumination at night (with lighting provided by iGuzzini Illuminazione).

“Our installation blurs the boundaries between the traditional and the contemporary. You see the difference in each end, but the transition is very organic," Yansong continued. "It’s ...

Zaha Hadid Granite & Marble Furniture Collection for CITCO

2014-04-16T20:18:00-04:00

[...] Zaha Hadid took to Milan Design Week’s Salone del Mobile to unveil a series of brand new series of furniture. Created for Italian interior design firm CITCO, the series consists of three distinct pieces: a shelving unit, table, and fireplace.