Milan Design Week kicks off this week with the opening of the 57th Annual Salone del Mobile (Milan Furniture Fair) at the Rho Fiera fairgrounds. Here’s a tasting of our favorite food design projects this year. Let us know what we missed by leaving a comment below.
TROPICAL MODERNISM
The indomitable Italo-Brazilian designer Lina Bo Bardi is having a bit of a renaissance. Besides being the only designer to be named twice in our roundup of our favorite designer’s favorite dining chairs in MOLD Magazine Issue 02, Italian gallerist Nina Yashar is showing her collection of Bo Bardi’s furniture designs. After visiting Sao Paulo five years ago, Yashar “fell for Lina Bo Bardi,” Wallpaper reports. As the first show dedicated to the furniture of Bo Bardi and her collaborator Giancarlo Palanti, Yashar also sees this as the most important show of her career as a gallerist. “This represents the peak of collecting,” Yashar told Wallpaper, “the cutting edge.” Nilufar Depot via Vincenzo Lancetti 34.
SALT OF THE EARTH
Hometown heroes Calico Wallpaper and Lindsey Adelman have teamed up to showcase a collection of lighting and murals inspired by the “alchemy and decay” caused by salt. Beyond the Deep is a result of materials explorations from the studios that used salt to transform surfaces with blooming patterns and the unexpected beauty of their natural process. Both New York-based design studios have a history of taking inspiration from natural formations and the awe of scientific (and interplanetary) discovery. See their multiroom collaboration at Via Maroncelli 7.
OBJECTS FOR LIVING
The New York-based eating experience designer Laila Gohar (and contributor to MOLD Magazine Issue 01) presents Sobremesa, an installation of a collection of materials, objects and tableware “for living and working,” for London-based brand e15. Taking inspiration on the Spanish word for the ritual of sharing conversation after a meal, Sobremesa is “a metaphoric dialogue of personal items that focus on celebrating creativity and quality over the blunt display of wealth and status.” The installation is a collaboration with architect David Chipperfield—a celebration for his latest collaboration with e15. e15 Showroom, via Tortona 34.
[See our coverage of Mexican design studio Pedro&Juana’s Sobremesa installation for Airbnb at Design Miami/ 2016.]
WRONG NEGRONI
What trip to Milan is complete without a late-night negroni at Bar Basso? Montreal-based designer Gabriel Scott collaborated with Bar Basso’s owner, Maurizio Stocchetto, to create a bespoke version of Scott’s Myriad light as an homage to the bar’s signature drink. Scott’s Myriad and Welles lighting will be warming up the bar, hopefully you’ll remember them the next morning. Bar Basso, via Plinio 39.
DINER STYLE
Iconic American designer David Rockwell is pulling out the stops and bringing his years of stage design experience to Milan with The Diner, an interpretation of American culinary culture in the heart of the city. The pop-up eatery is part of Surface Magazine’s celebration of 25 years in Milan. Situated at Ventura Centrale, next to the Centrale train station, the restaurant encompasses four distinct environments—the Roadside Diner, East Coast Luncheonette, Midwest Diner, and West Coast Diner—and serves three meals a day plus late-night cocktails. With New York mongers Murray’s Cheese running operations, grab a burger, cheese or shake and enjoy the playful graphic design details by 2×4. Ventura Centrale, via Ferrante Aporti 9.
COFFEE CULTURE
Italian food design group WE Factory is popping up in Milan with Workplace & Coffee, an exploration of office design, food and wellness at work. Through a series of workshops and lectures, the team behind WE Factory will lead participants to questions around how food relates to company culture. La Marzocco Temporary Cafe at BeHome, via Bigli 6.
ON THE GRIND
Valerie_Objects, the Antwerp-based design label, is back at it with an impressive collection of pepper and salt mills from an international cast of design superstars including Muller Van Severen (Belgium), Studio Wieki Somers (Netherlands), Maarten Baas (Netherlands), Sigve Knutson (Norway) + Thomas Ballouhey (France) and nendo (Japan). We especially love the playful simplicity of Muller Van Severen’s nickel-plated head and cubic resin body and nendo’s poetic ritual of pouring spices into a transparent base and using the ribbed bottom of the glass spice holder to grind. Spazio Rossana Orlandi via Matteo Bandello 14-16.
