The Design Files: More from Milan! - Felicity Splatt's Design Week Diary

Hey hey! Today the Milan Design Week coverage continues with this fantastic wrap-up by Melbourne ex-pat Felicity Splatt. Felicity is currently living in Austria, but makes the trip to Milan every year for design week... and this year offered to send me her highlights!

Along with her favourite design finds, Felicity shares some shots of the super-trendy Milanese locals, her pick for the best Pizza in town... and she even includes a visit to the Lago apartment (soooo jealous!). I feel so lucky to have so much fantastic first-hand news and photos to share with you all..! It's gotta be the next best thing to being there!

Felicity Splatt's Milan Design Week diary

To Milan for Design Week. In addition to the Salone Internazionale del Mobile (Furniture Fair) out at the showgrounds, the city hosts literally hundreds of events over this week.

One of the first stops was Established & Sons at the wonderful space La Pelota. La Pelota used to be a court for playing Jai alai, but these days is a multipurpose space used for a variety of events. Established and Sons constructed wooden warrens in which their wares were exhibited. I particularly liked the couch and the (somewhat frightening) clown lamps:

Across the road the nice Dutch designer Edwin Vlassenroot was exhibiting the latest iterations of his chandeliers. Constructed from postcard holders, these ones had hand-painted glass postcards forming the shade. Previous versions had wooden or copper cards. Edwin also had some small lamps on display. It’s nice to see his work again, only a pity that this year he isn’t exhibiting in his gorgeous apartment, because it’s great for a sticky-beak (there are some peeks on his website though!)

Chandeliers by Dutch designer Edwin Vlassenroot

At the Seoul Design Festival, some refreshing works... even if their security guard might not have been watching me closely enough (don’t worry, I didn’t touch anything!).

Pieces from the Seoul Design Festival

Then to the M’afrique exhibition with works by Stephen Burks:

In the amazing Palazzo Crivelli an interesting installation on the ground floor (below left), and a retrospective of Ettore Sottsass’s work by the Galleria Clio Calvi Rudi Volpi upstairs (below right).

From left to right: a great lamp, and the roast meat dome for Secondome and Bosa Ceramiche:

Back out onto the busy via Pontacchio, some Milanese youth:

I was exhausted from all the travelling that day, so stopped for some pizza and to try to figure out how I could possibly see so many events on foot in about a day and a half. Amazing pizza (of course) in the tiny Sibilla:

Later that night, wandered into the wonderful Spazio Rossana Orlandi where LOTS was happening. People in the courtyard/garden area enjoying apertivo (drinks + copious delicious snacks for €8 - smelled amazing and everyone was really enjoying their food) and fantastic exhibitions upstairs, downstairs, everywhere! Design Academy Eindhoven, Nacho Carbonell, Baccarat, Designhuis, Weltevree, among others.

Shots from the Spazio Rossana Orlandi garden - top photos by Felicity Splatt, bottom image Megan Morton.

Weltevrees work was really nice, particularly the Floris Schoonderbeek’s Axechair. The legs are made of axe handles, and the body of the chair of a nice solid metal. I liked the quirky work of these young designers, maybe even more so when a handsome and talented trio of them offered me some prosecco...!

Floris Schoonderbeek’s Axechair - top righ image by Felicity Splatt, the others are from the Weltevree website.

The Revolving Chandelier by Bertjan Pot was bigger than I had imagined, and impressive. The heat of the light globes warms the air and causes the transparent and reflective shades to rotate:

Next day, headed down to the crazy Zona Tortona. Always full of people and so much design down here. Hit the Superstudio Piu pretty early, overwhelmed as usual by the masses on display. Gorgeous metallic Tom Dixon lamps:

This very interesting screen made up of lots of little (slide-sized) displays. A small camera mounted in the very centre (invisible from this side) tracks movement and projects the image to the screens, in shades of grey. That’s a person off to the right. When I was there, the other visitors and I were quite bewildered by the whole thing. Very nifty in action!

Down in some basement area, the Cloud Chair by Richard Hutten, and ceramic lamps by Chung Ji Hyun.

Up on the via Tortona, the Design Virus lamps by Pieke Bergemans, draped over tables, chairs and filing cabinets:

I really liked the cup chandelier (I’m sorry, I don’t know who this is by), in one of the Superstudios:

Visited the Lago apartment, intimidating guard at the front of the building, but he encouraged me to go in (other visitors weren’t so brave!). Apparently I was quite early as one poor resident was sitting on her bed putting on some moisturizer, while another started washing a mountain of dishes. The chair on the left pulls apart to become a mattress.

Walking around a city for days is really tough, even in comfy shoes, so I don’t know how these women did it:

I grabbed some snacks in the great Taste Lounge exhibition by Richard Ginora / Paola Navone. Lots of ceramics all around, including a giant wall of plates (left), and a super comfortable leather couch area with lots of reading material (right). Perfect for a nap!

(I had to add these additional shots from the Taste Lounge website! It is too fabulous! - Lucy)

...More from the Taste Lounge website

At Sander Mulder, the Woofers (left) and U-Tube (right):

On Sunday, out to the Salone, specifically to the Satellite where young designers present their work. Great ceramic lamps with golden insides from Apparatu / Mashallah Design.