During the month of April of each year, the most important events in the world of design happen in Milan. Milan Design Week is defined by Salone del Mobile and Fuorisalone and during these days, the design is celebrated to the absolute best. Fuorisalone is the collection of events that happen in different districts of Milan during the Salone. So, today we present you Milan’s Design Districts Guide for 2019.
Milan’s Design Districts Guide: Milan Design Week 2019
Brera Design District
The Brera District, this year is the stage for many beautiful art installations. Here are our top picks.
Gaetano Pesche: the Up armchair
The Up armchair, underlines the treatment of women in a patriarchal society and will be the leading art installation for Milan Design Week 2019.
Where to find it: Piazza del Duomo, 20122 Milano MI, Italy
Moooi: “A Life Extraordinary”
During this year’s Salone del Mobile, Moooi is bringing a sensational brand experience. This year it moved to a new location in Milan’s district Brera. Here, the lifestyle brand will offer visitors the change to submerge themselves in a world of luxury, whimsicality and originality to showcase once more what an extraordinary life means.
Where to find it: Mediateca St. Teresa, Via della Moscova 28
Bang & Olufsen: “93 Years”
The Danish electronics brand Bang & Olufsen is sure to stun visitors this year at the Milan Design Week’s Fuorisalone exhibition with their interactive installation telling its 93-year history.
Where to find it: Via Brera, 13, 20121 Milano MI, Italy
Melissa and Campana: Special Collection and Installation
During the Fuorisalone, Melissa in collaboration with the Campana brothers will showcase an artistic installation celebrating their partnership. The art installation has crochet pieces which are assembled in a pyramidal structure in the centre of the main hall. This way, Melissa hopes to immerse the visitor in her universe and in the heritage of one of the most long-lived and successful collaborations in their history.
Where to find it: Via Palermo 1
KORAI: “Sense of Nature” Installation of Japanese Crafts Brand
With crafts from all over Japan, KORAI expresses the harmony of “nature and home” and conveys the beautiful appearance and tactile characteristics of Japanese crafts, delivering coolness to the cities of the world.
Where to find it: Galleria Seno, Via Ciovasso, 19, 20121 Milano MI, Italy
Nodus, Exto, Matì, Extendo & Leolori
This year the district of Brera also hosts an exceptional project born from the synergy of five Italian brands – Nodus, Exto, Matì, Extendo, and Leolori – united by their passion for quality and research. Making it the meeting point for an amazing exhibit.
Where to find it: Basilica San Simpliciano – Piazza San Simpliciano, 7
“Essentially Diverse”
The exhibition Brazil: Essentially Diverse was brought together by a unified narrative that offers sensorial experiences. The exhibition is an expression of the plurality and colours that sprout from Brazil, presenting the uniqueness of their material culture and focusing on its roots and transformative power.
Where to find it: La Permanente – Via Filippo Turati, 34
Tortona Design District
Alex Chinneck: IQOS World
The IQOS World is a highly evocative environmental installation and site-specific environmental project. During Fuorisalone, the project will make the architecture of the buildings in front of the former manufacturing area will be the protagonists, while inside them sculptural groupings will subvert visitors’ perceptions.
Where to find it: Opicio 31 Via Tortona, 31, 20144
Rhizomatiks: Lexus Design Event – Superstudio Più
An immersive experience using lighting technology to showcase a vision for a more human-centered tomorrow was realized by the Japanese design studio, Rhizomatiks.
Where to find it: Via Tortona, 27, 20144 Milano MI, Italy
ASIA DESIGN MILANO
As the exhibition and communication project, reference platform of the Milan Design Week for the Asian creative scene. ASIA DESIGN MILANO has returned. Born from the partnership between Milan Space Makers and Sarpi Bridge Oriental Design Week, this year they propose a new project focusing on Israel, a country where East and West meet.
Where to find it: Via Giacomo Watt, 15, 20143 Milano MI, Italy
Lifetools: “Design For All”
On display is a line of “design for all” objects, conceived and realized in Italy to help those with permanent or temporary physical difficulties and disabilities.
Where to find it: Opicio 31 Via Tortona, 31, 20143 Milano MI, Italy
Zonca International: OVER A CENTURY OF LIGHTS: THE TAYLOR-MADE INNOVATION
Through five days of exhibition and party, Zonca International celebrates over a century of lighting creations.
Where to find it: Via Privata Gaspare Bugatti 11/13
EIN&ZWANZIG competition – WORLD’S FINEST DESIGN TALENTS
The international “ein&zwanzig” competition works in the area of interior and lifestyle. They address and support talented young designers with innovating ideas and pioneering works. An international jury of experts selects and awards 21 projects from design students and graduates.
Where to find it: Opicio 31 Via Tortona, 31, 20143 Milano MI, Italy
Check our article about MILAN DESIGN WEEK: TOP BRANDS THAT MAKES THE EVENT!
La Triennale di Milano
La Triennale di Milano houses 5 different exhibitions this year.
“Broken Nature: Design Takes on Human Survival”
Curated by Paola Antonelli, the XXII Triennale di Milano just unveiled its newest thematic exhibition. This modern art celebration explores the interaction that the humankind has with the natural environment and how we have been putting it in jeopardy for over the past years.
La Nazione delle Piante
The Nation of Plants is a non-technical scientific show curated by Stefano Mancuso, one of the world’s leading experts in plant neurobiology.
Urban Center – Milano 2030
With the opening of the new Urban Center, Milan is taking part in the XXII Triennale di Milano International Exhibition. The Urban Center will hosts the Milano 2030 exhibition during the Milan Design Week.
Bernie Krause and United Visual Artists: The Great Animal Orchestra
Bernie Krause has recorded and studied the secret and complex organization of animal vocalizations by travelling the world in search of the nonhuman origins of music. He collected more than 5,000 hours of recordings of natural habitats.
Mario Bellini: Italian Beauty
For the first time in his long career, Mario Bellini has not set up the exhibition himself but has given way to the architect Dario Curatolo who has signed the exhibition project. The exhibition is a transversal journey of almost 60 years between design, architecture and exhibitions.
Where to find it: Viale Emilio Alemagna, 6, 20121 Milano MI, Italy
“5 Vie” District
Seletti Design Pride
Design Pride is the most democratic party of Milan Design Week. A parade filled with balloons, music, dancing, and performances that will last a big part of Wednesday afternoon, on April 10.
Where to find it: starts from Piazza Castello and ends in Piazza Affari
Ugo La Pietra: Territorial Design, Genius Loci
With this exhibition, Genius Loci, Ugo La Pietra is the big guest of honour chosen for the 2019 edition of Fuorisalone of the 5vie District
Where to find it: Via Cesare Correnti 14
Kiki Van Eijk and Joost Van Bleiswijk
A Dutch duo who work on the limits of self-production, showing their love for materials and craftsmanship through their projects.
Where to find it: 14 Via Cesare Correnti
“Human Code” by Roberto Sironi
In the heart of the 5VIE, an installation was placed and a series of ten unpublished works have found their home in the underground spaces of the SIAM headquarters. An art exhibition during Milan Design Week that explores through art, science, and technology.
Where to find it: Fonderia Battaglia
Ventura Centrale District
Also the Ventura Centrale District holds many beautiful design projects, here are some of our favorites.
LAYER for Dekton by Benjamin Hubert: Raytrace
For Milan Design Week 2019, the British designer Benjamin Hubert has teamed up with surface specialist Cosentino to create a large architectural installation. Created through his studio LAYER, “Raytrace” features a 25-meter long and 6-meter high triangular passage seemingly balanced on a single edge within a dark, atmospheric space.
AGC: Emergence of Form
Experience an emotional space where glass and ceramic converge using AGC’s unique processing and molding technology to produce a snapshot of ever-changing natural phenomena.
DPOT: “Poetic Geometry” – MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY BRAZILIAN FURNITURE
Inside a vaulted warehouse at Via Ferrante Aporti 135, selected works of celebrated Brazilian masters like Geraldo de Barros, Lina Bo Bardi, and Sergio Bernardes, along with contemporary designers Claudia Moreira Salles and Fernando Prado can be viewed and enjoyed.
FREITAG: INFLUENCER – De-sinning the Designer
Swiss bag maker FREITAG and artist Georg Lendorff are inviting designers and consumers at the Milan Design Week 2019 to take a thoughtful stroll through the light and fess up to their design and consumer sins. And perhaps put some behind them.“Instead of talking about good design in Milan, why don’t we take a look at bad design?”
SKY-FRAME: A Piece of Sky
During Fuorisalone, Sky-Frame, the Swiss manufacturer of frameless sliding doors, will present “A Piece of Sky”, an installation designed by award-winning architect and designer Stephan Huerlemann.
Where to find it: Via Ferrante Aporti, 20127 Milano MI, Italy
Porta Venezia
Handmade Jewelry Workshop
During Milan Design Week you can also admire fashion design, costume jewelry entirely designed and hand-crafted in a workshop, set in the heart of Milan.
Where to find it: via Tadino 3
Voliumani by Barbara Vistarini
Dozens and dozens of small hands will rest placid on the entrance walls of the building, waiting to take off. The shapes, cut out two-dimensional on black cardboard acquire a symbolic value and are shaped like butterfly wings. Even the imperfections become narrative elements that speak of a “handmade” way that is not taken for granted.
Where to find it: Palazzo Bocconi, C.so Venezia 48
Doppia Firma: A Dialogue Between Design and Artisanal Excellence
Doppia Firma 2019 brought together a collection of 19 works and small-scale series by innovative designers and master artisans from around Europe. Each object is the result of a creative exchange between a designer/artist and an artisan/manufacturer.
Where to find it: Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship
WonderGlass and nendo: Shape of Gravity
The exhibition from Fuorisalone titled Shape of Gravity features a collection of gravity formed furniture and tabletop objects handcrafted in Venice including a prodigious chandelier.
Where to find it: Istituto dei Ciechi – Via Vivaio 7, 20122, Milano
Isola Design District
April Key: “Ocean Drive”
April Key will present her first lighting collection Ocean Drive, a fusion between Art Deco architecture, lighting and sculptures. The exhibition will host ten of her pieces that are made out of laser cut plexiglass, while the neon pieces are handcrafted by Turkish artisans.
Where to find it: Via Cola Montano 8
Giorgio Deplano: Campidarte
Campidarte aims to create furniture products with a modern and colorful style, which only reveal a more careful look at their composition, given by the reuse of abandoned industrial materials and components.
Where to find it: via De Castillia, 26
DesignByThem
Milan Design Week 2019 will be the international debut of a new furniture collaboration between DesignByThem founders/designers Sarah Gibson and Nicholas Karlovasitis and Australian fashion designer Dion Lee. Besides that the Australian design house will also be showcasing over 30 of their signature pieces as well.
Where to find it: via Cola Montano, 8
Francesco Tramontano
Francesco Tramontano’s golden, silver and brass jewellery are strictly handmade. Every piece, different from the other, wants to tell the story of the Neapolitan and Mediterranean culture.
Where to find it: via Pastrengo, 21
Hartwerp
Hartwerp‘s work goes beyond functionality and should be labeled sculptural work or installation art rather than furniture.
Where to find it: via De Castillia, 26
