What did the Salone del Mobile and the Fuorisalone, held in Milan from 4 to 9 April, have to offer in terms of design and sustainability? The best projects and the opinions of industry insiders.
The Design Week 2017 in Milan – whose key pillars were the Salone del Mobile, the Salone Satellite and the Fuorisalone – demonstrates that sustainable design exists but is not yet widespread. It is a cross-cutting theme with many different facets, common to the work of many young designers, particularly from abroad, who exhibited their projects and products – often prototypes. But it has not yet become a prerequisite for the design of any product or service. There are, however, grounds for asserting that awareness within the design world is growing and is set to play an increasingly central role.
"I find that there are now far too many things to see during design week – says Giovanna Talocci, designer and vice president of Adi, the association for industrial design –. It is an asset for Milan, which benefits from it, but a drawback for industry insiders because the landscape ends up being very scattered. In what I saw at the Salone del Mobile and at the Fuorisalone events, sustainability was not a dominant theme. Technology was more so. Among the exhibitions I enjoyed White in the city by Oikos at the Accademia di Brera and Palazzo Cusani – installations of small urban architectures on the theme of white, physical, material but also conceptual – which brought together big names in architecture and emerging talent. And the work on the theme of nomadism by the students at the Fabbrica del Vapore."
"What struck me most – recounts Luisa Bocchietto, architect, president of the World Design Organization (Wdo), which oversees all industrial design associations worldwide – was the turnout of Italian and international visitors both at the Salone and around the city, far higher than in previous years. I had the impression that the quality level is ever higher, but that the proposals resemble one another a little too much. I think what is happening in the world of design is what happens in the fashion sector: shared colour trends and choices, less development of distinct identities. The various ownership changes and acquisitions do not favour identity, in favour of the pursuit of markets with strong spending power. Companies seem more interested in formal and image-related aspects, less in research and experimentation."
"Sustainability and circular design are not yet established trends or familiar words that have entered the vocabulary of producers – states Massimo Farinatti, architect and designer, vice president of Adi Lombardia –. I cannot say I saw any very interesting projects in which a cross-cutting sensitivity towards the environment emerges, and that disappoints me. Innovation and technological research maintain a consistently high level, expressed for instance in the potential to create customised products through 3D printing."
It is the more sensitive young designers who have picked up on change, alongside emerging new behaviours such as digital nomadism or social issues such as the flow of migrants and the multiethnic transformation of society. All elements that call for ideas, new visions and design solutions outside traditional frameworks – not only for everyday domestic objects but also for redefining collective spaces and cities. It is a scenario still taking shape, one in which education will play a decisive role: schools and universities of design are increasingly orienting their teaching around sustainability as the core of the design process.
The installation designed by architect Benedetta Tagliabue using waste timber and realised by the American Hardwood Council for the Material Immaterial exhibition of the magazine Interni at the Università degli Studi di Milano.
The furniture collection Mabeo Furniture, produced in Botswana by Peter Mabeo through the transformation of sustainably certified timbers and recycled metals by local craftspeople, signed by well-known designers such as Patricia Urquiola, Patty Johnson and Garth Roberts, and new talents such as Ines Bressand. On d