Rizzoli Galleria, Milano

Continuing our tour of the world’s bookstores, we found a Rizzoli inside the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuelle II in Milano. It is affiliated with the one in New York.

The Rizzoli Galleria are on three floors, it is not huge but carries quite a variety of Italian and international books.

According to the publicity material, the store guaranteed that true librarians are there to help customers, not mere store assistants.

It was temporarily closed and reopened in 2014, modernized.

The idea is to”re-launch physical brick and mortar bookstores, in order to highlight the beauty of discovering books and their contents, through a unique experience that could never be paralleled by an on-line store.” Bravo.

There are stations where one can browse today’s newspapers and current magazines electronically. Huh, even Abitare !

The store is flexibly designed to accommodate various types of events, notice the table on bicycle wheels above.

Space for talks and book-signing.

The owners wish to have both stores, the one in Milan and the one in New York, to keep on being recognized as truly “iconic” places, to act as cultural agents and to act as catalysts to spread culture. While we were living in NYC, we certainly frequented the stores, especially the one on West Broadway, SoHo.

Travel books section.

The upper floor offers an interesting view of the Galleria and shoppers below.

On the day of our visit (in June 2016), it is the same day as the Champions League Final. There were chants by happy (and a little bit drunk) fans from Madrid on both sides. The two teams playing in the final were Atlético Madrid and Real Madrid, both Madrid teams.

We are glad in a sense that the gallery where Rizzoli is has not been turned into yet another haute couture boutique alley. There are plenty of fashion houses in Milano that are within a few minutes walk from here.

There is even a McD in here (not visible from the bookstore). Happy browsing.

Click on the link books under category to see other bookstores around the world.

Arts & Foods, Milano – part 4

This is the last of our 4-part mega blogpost about the exhibition –  Arts & Foods. Rituals since 1851 at the Palazzo di Triennale …

On the day, we were a bit of short of time because of our train for Venice in the afternoon. So we rushed through the museum. This was a far cry from the crush of people at the Expo 2015. At the Triennale, there was hardly anyone and we could enjoy the exhibits at our own pace.

This is the part of the show that we saw really quickly – it is mostly about appliances and equipment.

Magic Chef by American Stove Corporation 1935

Many of the objects here are made by Alessi. First, there are these oversized reproductions of iconic designs of daily objects. La Conica by Aldo Rossi.

Philip Starck’s “Juicy salif” – looking even more alien-like when it is five foot tall.

Alessi was founded in 1921 in Omegna as a maker of tableware and household objects. During the 1950s the company gradually replaces soft metals with stainless steel, marking the transition from artisanal craftsmanship to mass production.

La Cupola by Aldo Rossi. We actually own one but it is not being used much – yeah, Nespresso’s fault.

There are several windows displaying small tools for the kitchen. Most if not all are timers. Timers definitely do not need to look like a clock.

Alessi begins working with external designers in 1955. In the 70’s and 80, Alessi became a “factory of Italian design”.

Alessi’s mission is now one of translating its quest for the most advanced cultural, aesthetic, design and functional quality into mass production. The company is committed to a design approach in which the most advanced expression of international creativity is always balanced against the desires of the general public.

Well, the Arts & Foods was one of those exhibitions that had both depth and breadth, that we would love to spend more time seeing but just cannot manage.

This post closes the 4-part story. Click here, here and here to read the earlier posts.

 

Arts & Foods, Milano – part 3

Continuing with our tour of the Arts & Foods. Rituals since 1851 at the Palazzo di Triennale …  click to see part 1 and part 2.

This section of the exhibition is concerned with more conceptual rather than the applied aspects of foods, starting with an igloo made of bread by Mario Merz (in the far corner below).

Urs Fischer – a chalet made of bread – popular Process Art / Arte Povera idea.

Apparently, there was a whole village made of these bread houses when originally installed in 2004-5. Apparently, using bread as construction material has been popular.

Edward & Nancy Reddin Kienholz (US) made Useful Art No. 3 (1992) –   it will be curious to see when all the lighters are on …

Subodh Gupta – Two cows – 2003-8

Sarah Lucas (UK) created this in 1992 originally. 

Sarah Lucas pretty much took over the British pavillion with a much more provocative set at the Venice Biennale – see later post.

Frank Gehry (US) – the GFT Fish. Fish is a favorite inspiration of this architect. I(Chris) attended a conference at one of his fish-themed creation in Berlin – it is really fantastical – see the post here.

The fish is looking at the Leaning Fork with Meatball and Spaghetti (1994) by the husband and wife team of Clares Oldenberg and Coosje van Bruggen.

Tom Friedman – Big big Mac

Jake & Dinos Chapman (aka the Chapman Brothers) made “When the World Ends” – one of a series of landscape of miniatures – that mix Nazi soldiers, along with various characters from the fast food chain McDonald’s, committing violent acts on a boat ushered by dolphins … the shores are littered with bodies and heads on sticks.

There are several of these installations, displayed in a large glass case, which are apocalyptic in setting, minute in size, but rich in disturbing details.

This sculpture looked eerie to us in that it is just a little bit smaller than a real human, which amplifies the vulnerability of the subject. To get a sense of its scale, it is visible in the picture of the bread house above.

Pleats Please Sushi 2014. The fashion designer Issey Miyaki known for his technology-driven clothing design used the pleated material he developed to make sushis and doughnuts.

The next post concludes our visit.

Arts & Foods, Milano – part 2

Part 1 of our tour of the Arts & Foods. Rituals since 1851 at the Palazzo di Triennale is here.

ARTS&FOODS CONTINUA

According to the Catalog, the show “… allows us to take a unique and unrepeatable journey through the artistic languages that have characterized the relationship between arts and foods since 1851 – the year of the first Expo, to the present day.”

This section of the exhibition was eye-catching for the pastel colors of the walls.

This is the 60’s – 70’s.

Probably one of the first things people will think of when ask about arts and foods – Andy Warhol’s soup cans

Mel Ramos – the lost painting of 1965, 2012

More food posters – all by Amando Testa – mostly from the 60’s

Coca-cola retail designs

In the golden age of glamorous, international commercial flights (think BOAC and PanAm) these plastic utensils was cool …

Maison Bulle

We could not find description of the next few items in the Catalog.

This unit could have been in the house of M. and Mme. Arpel in the comedy Mon Oncle (1959 Academy Award winner) which chronicled a Monsieur Hulot’s struggle against postwar French modernism.

… yes, they are Panton chairs in this 70’s dining room set

Dress with steak, chicken feet and drumstick prints.

Moschino-branded McDonald’s matching set.

More photos in part 3 and part 4 to come.

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Arts & Foods, Milano – part 1

Before we go any further into Venice and the Biennale, let’s come back to Milan for a bit of applied arts.

Arts & Foods. Rituals since 1851 is an exhibition curated by Germano Celant, held at the Palazzo di Triennale in Milan from April 9 to November 1, 2015. It was a World Expo “pavilion” that was located outside the Rho grounds. With our Expo Milano 2015 entrance tickets, we got to visit the Arts & Foods exhibition for free.

According to the exhibition catalog, “Visitors have the opportunity to immerse themselves physically in a spectacular route where works of art, drawings and architectural models, films, objects, documents, books, menus, and album covers bring to life a narrative that set works and images in their own historical, sociological and anthropological context.” What an all inclusive statement …  hope it lives up to the promise.

One of the first few halls explored the design of dining rooms, public and private, from the 19th to the 20th century.

Czech cubism circa 1912 – Vlastislav Hofman

The show unites two themes – Arts & Foods – that are favorite topics of this blog. We liked the show enough to buy the exhibition catalog (“Catalog”), a heavy brick which we lugged around all the way to Venice and back.

A pristine 19th century butcher shop ?

An entire bar, full size, from late 19th century Italy was replicated here !

Charles Rennie Mackintosh set

There was a long display cases in which many pieces of cutleries laid out. When so many knives, scissors, forks, etc. of different sizes and shapes are presented side-by-side, it reminded me of a kit carried by movie villains who torture the hero.

The following knives and forks were a bit of a surprise for me (Chris) – these instruments were used by cannabilistic Pacific islanders. They use special tools for eating humans. Sue has seen them when she visited New Zealand years ago, and still recognized them.

Wahaika from New Zealand, 1888 (liver cleavers)

Ai cula ni bokola – cannibal fork from New Caledonia, 1888; Iculanibokola – cannibal fork from Fiji, 1874, 1884. Some of the tools themselves are made of bones, possibly human bones.

The show also traced the development of the modern kitchen from 1920 – 1950s.

Frankfurt kitchen – designed in 1926 by an Austrian architect – we saw a more complete set up at the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) in Vienna – click here.

L’Autarca table by Angelo Fasce, 1935

Spazialita lunari by Fortunato Depero 1923 – a Futurist, Balla’s colleague

Crockery with Suprematist graphics by Nikolai M Suetin, 1930.

Kazimir Malevich, like his paintings.

Gaggia from 1950, the customer-facing side

… and the server side

More professional food service machines : soda recharging machine, 1920; Molidor electric grinder, 1945 , Polarstar multi-station coffee maker, …

More to come in the next post.

 

Our trips 2015, part 1

Dear Readers, Happy New Year !

This is our first post of 2016. It is almost a tradition of this blog – the first post takes a look back at some of the places we visited last year.

Click on links, where provided to read more about the places of interest. There are usually a series of related posts per location, you can discover them easily in the calendar at the bottom of the post.

In reverse chronological order:

Swiss alps featuring Matterhorn – we went up to Zermatt on December 30 – this was taken from a view point at Gornergrat – ‎3,135 m (10,285 ft)

Piazza San Marco, Venezia, Italy in October

Tree of Life, World Expo 2015, Milano, Italy in October

Chamonix, France in September long weekend

Crozet, France in August, business meeting

BBQ on Lac Leman lake front, Lausanne

Basel, Switzerland in July

Annecy, France in June – day trip ended with surprise firework display

Louisiana Museum of Art, Humlebæk, Denmark in June

Copenhagen, Denmark in June

See next post for the places we went in the first half of 2015.

 

 

 

World Expo 2015, Milano – part 2

Continuing with our tour of Expo 2015 in Milano …   part 1 is here

One of the pavilion that we wanted to see (as we have heard much praise about it) was the Padiglione Giaponne (Japanese Pavilion). But it was so popular that when we found the tail of a long line coiled around the back of the pavilion – we were informed by a notice board that, according to our position in the queue, we were three and half hours from the entrance.

We gave up.

Here is another sign which said that if the line is here, the wait is five hours – that kind of line must have occurred during the weekend. Who can wait that long ?  Crazy. But they are serious, it says – to make the last entrance at 8 pm, the last time to join the queue is at 3 pm !

If you look carefully at the sign, disabled visitors or people with infants have a shorter wait (50 minutes versus 300 minutes). My friends who brought a young child and a baby carriage confirmed the advantage. Only parents are allowed to go in with the child.

The other pavilion where we actually spent some time inside was the South Korean pavilion. The wait was only 1 hour as announced but it was actually less than 1 hour.

The Korean pavilion put on a more hi-tech and simultaneously artsy exhibition.

Kimchi was artfully glorified as a traditional healthful food.

This little boy is not static, it looks like a hologram of some sort.

This exhibit employed two industrial robot to move around the space (silently), turning  and spinning around two giant video screens while the graphics flows back and forth in unison. Nice.

We had dinner at the pavilion, partly because it was about to open (so there was no line outside).

But we wandered how authentic would the restaurant be, given the surroundings. Well, it was run by Bibigo, owned by a chaebol – CJ-Cheiljedang (CJ제일제당) – it was ok.

More corporate speak – “Expo 2015 was also a great laboratory of ideas and insights, an opportunity to rediscover old traditions and to learn about cultures and distant lands, a window on the world of technology and innovation, which has allowed us to peek will be the future of agriculture and food production worldwide.”

Belgium – “a time corridor leading to food’s future”

This is a system of hydroponics and aquaculture where the fish poop in water is directly used to fertilize the vegetables grown under artificial light.

China – “a wheat field blowing in wind reminds us we are part of the planet” – the orange flowers were chrysantheums.

Czech Republic – “nature, innovation, tourism and art … all in harmony beneath the same roof”

Our overall impression is that the idea of the Expo was exciting but its contents were overrated. The actual experience of attending the event was downright exhausting due to the sheer number of visitors and long hours of waiting. Nothing in there was worth waiting for hours after hours standing behind a line of people.

The next Expo will be held in Astana, Kazakhstan with the theme “Future Energy” and Dubai will host Expo 2020 having selected the theme “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future”.

Kazakhstan in Milano

Click this link to see all 52 pavilions built by the participating countries, and the 9 clusters which included exhibits by additional countries. One can explore further links to the specific exhibits inside each pavilion. There is really quite a lot to see at this site.

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World Expo 2015, Milano – part 1

In October, we took a tour of Milan and Venice – to see the World Expo 2015 and the 56th International Art Exhibition (La Biennale di Venezia). IT joined us for the Venetian leg of the trip. Here are pictures of the Expo 2015.

The line to enter was not as bad as we thought but there were far too many people everywhere.

 

Pavilion Zero located at the main entrance provides an introduction to the Expo Milano 2015 Site.

Pavilion Zero takes the visitor on a captivating journey to explore how much humankind has produced, the transformation of natural landscape, and the culture and rituals of food consumption

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The exhibition hall had many giant screens – talk about being immersive.

The official statistics indicate over 20 million visitors, more than 150 participants and about 5000 events held in 184 days.

Click this link to see all 52 pavilions built by the participating countries, and the 9 clusters which included exhibits by additional countries. One can explore further links to the specific exhibits inside each pavilion. There is really quite a lot to see at this site.

Germany – “where awareness is raised and transformed into action”

Much of what we have written below came from the official web site. So it may sound a bit “corporate”.

“Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life” – Expo Milano 2015 offers an opportunity to reflect upon, and discuss, solutions to the contradictions of the world today.

Feed the Planet, Energy for Life”, was aimed to give concrete answers to the important issues such as sustainable development and food security.

USA –  “Food 2.0 depends on each one of us”

We came across a parade of giant fruits and vegetables mingling with stuffed animals.

We fed ourselves in the pavilion of Tunisia where a couscous bar was found. Nothing special on the menu. But we bought some Tunisian harissa.

Padiglione Italia: le cifre del successo – the host country’s pavilion

Tree of Life – there was a show of lights and water jets every hour – it must be spectacular at night.

UK – “Following the buzz of a bee is easily than expected”

Vietnam – “Beauty birthed from mud”

Skyline of the exhibition grounds. It was not a sunny day (thankfully) so the temperature was not unbearable.

More pictures to come in our next post.

Highlights of the Salone Internazionale del Mobile 2014

This is my last post on the Salone. I am sure many of you had seen enough of my furniture pictures on this blog. Just in case you want to start from the beginning, click here.

Before I put up pictures of my trip in Kòln, Germany, here are some more stuff that I saw in Milano.

This room caught my eye especially the chandeliers.

Designer pieces.

Molteni & C

Zaha Hadid’s home at the “Where Architects Live” (Dove vivono gli architetti) exhibition

Roche Bobois

Clever wallpaper (including fake fireplace)

Graphic wallpaper

Minimal kitchen – so much so that it looks like the bedroom.

Furniture for a nightclub

“Kitchen, Soul, Design” (L’Italia che Vive)  360 degree view + surround sound media

 

It was an eye-opening, feet-killing, exhaustive day but it was worth it. Ciao.

driade, Alessi, Kartell at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile

Continuing with my posts on the stuff I saw at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan … here is a mix bag of brands – avant garde (driade), then mainstream modern housewares (Alessi) and plastic furniture (Kartell) …

driade, founded in Italy in 1968, like to define itself as an aesthetics laboratory. See their web site here (also where I took the above screenshot).

 

On driade’s website, about its history, it says:

… the multiplicity of languages that make it difficult to identify trends or relationships. A variety of authors, not always easily assessable and not all entirely acceptable, is building this century, which is characterized, in art and design, by pluralism, multiplicity of signs, and “idiolects” – as Roland Barthes called the use of language specific of a single author. 

Compared to some of the modern classics I saw (Vitra, Cassina – see earlier posts here and here), this statement about Driade’s pieces does make some sense.

The last time I was in Milano, I went to their showroom and wrote a blog post – here.

Norma by Borek Sipek.

Apollonia (the lights) also by Borek Sipek.

Alessi – needs no introduction.

They have a store on the main raised pedestrian walkway.

As well as a store selling pots and pans inside one of the exhibition halls.

They were probably one of the very few companies that were not just showing but were actually selling something.

I had no idea that Alessi makes so many different models of watches.

Since I posted about Kartell in Paris (click here), here are a couple of photos of their exhibition space surrounded by bright yellow gold curved walls.

I did not like their space, too cluttered and it barely showed off their products. I honestly do not remember what I saw, especially after I have already been exposed to hundreds of chairs …

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Giorgetti at the Salone

Continuing with my posts on the stuff I saw at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan … earlier posts on Poliform, Vitra and Knoll are here, here and here.

I know nothing about this company until the exhibition. And I liked some of their pieces.

Wood is their strong suit. A high level of craftsmanship exercised in the design and manufacture is visible.

The pieces are not exactly modern with all straight lines and right angles. Yet there is something modern about their designs.

The shapes are organic and relies on carpentry to achieve the desired look.

Some minimal decorations are included.

 

According to their web site here,

Beauty is a stratification of elements that dialogue with one another, but it is also a constant quest for contents and values.

All the pieces projected a non-industrial, warm ambiance. I think their pieces work best in a domestic setting.

 

Some pieces on display are for the office, however and I definitely can see them in the lobby / reception area of a law office.

Some of the interiors use Asian accessories and accents. Their web site even has an option for Chinese (the others are English and Italian). So they must be attracting quite a bit of business from that country.

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Constant Change by Hong Kong at the Triennale

Hong Kong participated in the Salone d’Onore at La Triennale di Milano. The exhibition is called Constant Change – a theme that is very Hong Kong-esque given its historical and demographics background.

 

 

I was genuinely, pleasantly surprised. The red lamp shades were used in the street market by butchers to make the meat looks redder and fresher. Have not seen them for years  – I really did not expect to see them in a museum in Italy.

 

 

The exhibition has a decent web site, go here and explore. Try the app too.

 

The curator said this about the show:

Hong Kong is a disjointed city. The parts of the city are not coherent, … Hong Kong appears disjointed but when you look at it street by street, it is actually harmonious in its own way. It is just totally different from any city in Europe. Hong Kong is always changing and it changes so fast. That’s why you get inspired. It looks to the future rather than the past, …

 

… When you walk the streets of Hong Kong, you can see what happened twenty years ago and what may happen in the next twenty years. It appears a very modern city, but at same time it’s full of contradictions: it’s crafty and digital, traditional and breaking tradition – all at the same time.

 

The center piece is an immersive multimedia show playback-ed on six giant screens.

 

 

Six synchronized sequences of images ran concurrently in a loop, accompanied by a soundtrack whose propulsive, almost droning rhythm and melody really matched the images and held the piece together. I do not know who made the soundtrack. It was good. I am a Philip Glass fan and generally liked this style of music. I was really glad that the soundtrack sounded new and fresh.

 

 

From time to time, a QR code appears and the viewers are encouraged to scan it with a smartphone which opens an app and provides more content and interactions. I did not try it but it sounded like a good idea (very 21st century !).

 

 

They served visitors instant coffee in little cups. They had a reason for doing it but I forgot …  White letters and words on the floor reproduce those signages found on Hong Kong’s streets.

 

 

The multimedia show is bookended by poster art by local artists and examples of work created by local design craftsman – zinc metal boxes for letters, mahjong tiles, etc.

 

 

It says “Not, Perfect”.

 

 

The audiovisual sequences featured the famous Star Ferry which shuttles between Hong Kong Island and the tip of the Kowloon peninsula. The ships are bi-directional – they do not have to make a U-turn after docking.

 

 

Growing up in Hong Kong, I travelled on those ships thousands of times and remember those chairs really well. The wooden back support, hinged in the middle between the front and back legs, can be tilted to a different position. Depending on the direction of the sailing, the seated passengers can all face forward and do not have to travel backwards.

 

 

“Change is the only constant. That is perhaps the most forthright statement – trite as it may seem – to describe Hong Kong.”

 

Identità Milano at the Triannale

During the week of the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, the Triannale di Milano held a number of special exhibitions. One of them concerns the city of Milan itself.

According to its web site  > here, it’s all about Milano,

The exhibition presents the historic signs and symbols of Milan, illustrating what the city has become today in the collective imagination through the evolution of its coat of arms and of the symbols of the city and its community. It also includes the faces of important native and adoptive Milanese, the city’s great artistic icons, and profiles of significant historical and modern buildings.

 

Here’s a sample of what I saw.

 

The specially commissioned graphics poster were displayed on a platform with slowly rotating easels.

Haha …  the furniture exhibition !

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Last Supper.

 

La Cotoletta alla milanese (similar to Wiener Schnitzel except the italian version is cooked and served with the bone in). See our post here about what we had in Vienna.

 

I have seen some of these painting in the Museo Novocento next to the Duomo during my last visit. See my blog posts about that museum here and here.

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Achille Castglioni is one of the few names I recognized. He designed our flatware.

 

The exhibition poster.

Viva Milano.

La Triannale di Milano

The Triannale Design Museum of Milano held a series of free special exhibitions to coincide with the Salone Internazionale del Mobile and Milan Design week. After seeing hundreds of chairs, tables and bedroom sets at the Salone, it was a welcomed change to see something different.

According to the museum’s own website  >>here:

Opened in 2007 as the first museum of Italian design. Located in the Triennale of Milan offers the visitor the chance to discover the excellence of Italian design through unedited points of view. No chronological order or by author, each year the Triennale Design Museum is renewed, transformed, changing the topics covered and composition.

A decent bookstore with a small collection of design objects.

Floor mosaics in the main lobby.

The regular exhibition (“Italian Design Beyond Its Crisis”) and its permanent collection required a ticket. As all the special exhibitions were free, I started with the freebies first. See later posts.

I had lunch at their cafeteria –  it was a communal table (hence, the 6 bottles of mineral water) and I sat on the most uncomfortable stool in my life. The design effectively kept people from sitting around taking up space.

But the cafe also had some interesting antiques in a corner for patrons to use. While they might be design classics, they do not exactly look comfortable.

The museum is located in Parco Sempione and it has a nice small garden in the back.

Looking back at the museum from the park. The white boxes were exhibition spaces temporarily erected during the week.

A dry pond can be found at the back of the garden. I wondered what it looks like when filled.

There were a podium, a lighthouse and several items in the pond – indeed a very strange or surreal set – a “swan” and two guys (from torso up only), both situated inside something that can only be described as a ring of yellow triangular wavelets – one guy waving or pointing at something and the other blonde one staring (with a frown) at the first guy. There must be some subtext here.

The rest of sculptures in the garden was nice but unremarkable.

Since I had a train to catch in the afternoon, I could not see the rest of the museum with its permanent collection. What I saw in that half-day, however, was very viewable and enjoyable – they will be covered by a post or two in here.

 

FLB @ Colonne di San Lorenzo

Rather than posting more photos of furniture from the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, I will give the topic a break. So …

After a long day running around in the Salone, I left Rho Fiera and took the metro to Duomo. My hotel was centrally located and about 10 minutes down Via Torino on a side street. I booked it in a hurry as most hotel rooms were booked because of the Salone, except the very expensive and very cheap ones. The hotel was centrally located and generally adequate.

The hotel concierge only recommended an eatery just around the corner but would not offer any further advice (he probably took a bribe from that restaurant).  But there were so many restaurants in the area. As I wanted to explore the neighborhood any way, I started walking down Corso di Porta Ticinese – doing it “No Reservations” – Tony Bourdain style.

Fratelli la Bufala’s (FLB, “Buffalo Brothers”?) graphic sign suggests a steak house but it also says “pizzaioli emigranti” which I understood it to mean take out pizza.

Met a friendly guy who was tossing pizza and wanted to talk to me in Italian while I was waiting for my table.

FLB’s fillet served on a hot cast iron plate was quite good despite the sloppy presentation. The orange color sauce was made of sun-dried tomato.

FLB turns out to be a franchise, 100 or so restaurants mostly in Italy, that serves Neapolitan style pizza and buffalo meat. They have a backstory about three brothers and made a video about it – FLB.

The restaurant is located just across the street from the Colonne di San Lorenzo.

Colonne di San Lorenzo – one of the best known Roman ruins in Milano – built since the 4th century.

The Piazza Sant’Eustorgio in front of the basilica was slowly filling up with people. Groups standing or sitting in circles under the columns, really friendly atmosphere.

There was a DJ in the middle of the square working a silent disco. The revelers were all wearing wireless headphones with bright blue lights, bobbing away quietly.

During the summer, it becomes a public dance floor – Intellighenzia Electronica presenta: THE SOUND OF SILENCE.

Walking further down towards the canals … the whole area really reminded me of St Mark’s Place in the East Village of NYC.

Two of the canals that were Milan’s major import/export route since the 1200’s meet here at the Darsena (old river port) which looked like a rather messy pond now.

Naviglio Pavese

Naviglio Grande

On that weekend night, people of Milan were out in droves having a drink on the street …

Good times …

Fashion Designers at the Salone

Continuing with photos from the Salone Internazionale del Mobile 2014 …

Guess which fashion designers were milking more revenue from its famous brand name by selling furniture ?

Here’s Versace. Well, he left the planet. So why not ?

Can’t miss the signature panthers.

Fendi. They have separate entrances for architects (on the left), Club Prestige (!) members (in the middle) and (mere) visitors (see the signs below the Fendi sign). The doorman-velvet rope phenomenon lives on …

Bentley managed to attract a crowd outside its door with a convertible, and they were doing the doorman thing too … look at him dancing …

Ungaro was there with proper wall treatment up front  (… unlike Bentley’s white walls )

Diesel has a large pavilion …

… and a pop/age reference ?

Missoni was there looking so Brazilian …

… and so very casual

These two rooms are by Blumarine. There was hardly any design in the furniture, except textile design.

A Chinese gentleman was showing great interest in this set of communist red-big flower print sofa.

Last but not least, Pierre Cardin was evidently still around.

No. I did not see Casa Armani in the Salone. Well, they have a whole building in downtown Milano. See the post on Manzoni 31 from our last trip.

Lots more photos to come …

 

Knoll, Cassina at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile

Continuing with my posts on the stuff I saw at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan …

 

Knoll’s exhibition space is right next to Vitra’s space (see previous post here). These two companies have a lot in common – from their business scope to their historical origins. Knoll was founded in 1938 in New York City.

According to Knoll’s site:

Our founders, Hans and Florence Knoll, embraced the creative genius at the Bauhaus School and the Cranbrook Academy of Art to create new types of furniture and environments for the workplace. Their approach, where craftsmanship joined with technology through the use of design, anchors our perspective and shapes the values we endeavor to live by today.

It was at Cranbrook that Eero Saarinen met Charles Eames. The two young men, both committed to the exploration of potential new materials and processes, quickly became great friends, pushing each other creatively while collaborating on several projects. The most notable outcome of their partnership was the groundbreaking collection of molded plywood chairs for the MoMA-sponsored 1940 Organic Design in Home Furnishings competition. Their collection was awarded first prize in all categories.

Saarinen’s Pedestal Collection debuted in 1958. I like this kind of tables where there are few things underneath the table for you to kick or bump your knee – an annoying problem frequently encountered by tall people (like me).

David Adjaye’s Washington Collection

04 Counter by OMA and Knoll

Cassina was founded in 1927 in the region of Brianza, Italy (same region as Poliform, see earlier post here).

Cassina’s space was created by architect Sou Fujimoto – named Floating Forest. He created the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London’s Kensington Gardens in 2013.

According to Cassina’s web site:

On entering Cassina’s stand at the Salone del Mobile in Rho Fiera, a sense of wellbeing immediately overcomes the visitor creating an intrinsic balance between man, nature, comfort and the home.

Numerous mirrors suspended from above reflect and multiply this natural forest setting to infinity, creating volume and at the same time space, with endless possibilities. 

While the effect was dramatic and fun, it was also quite confusing. With so many people milling about, I was too busy trying to watch where I was going rather than admiring the furniture.

Cassina’s 2014 Collection boasts new designs by Jaime Hayon, Piero Lissoni, Luca Nichetto, Patrick Norguet and Jean Nouvel.

Cassina is also releasing re-editions from Le Corbusier (LC1, LC2, LC3 or LC4?), Pierre Jeanneret, Charlotte Perriand and Marcel Breuer. Cassina is the worldwide exclusive licensee of Le Corbusier’s designs.

Cassina is part of the Poltrona Frau group which also owns Capellini and has its original luxury leather collection.

Scattered around Cassina’s Floating Forest are these cute “sculpture” of model car pileups.

Fun stuff !  More to come …

 

 

Vitra at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile

Continuing with my posts on the stuff I saw at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan …  Vitra had a large white, airy space, built with translucent boxes/bricks.

According to Wikipedia and Vitra’s own site:   Vitra is a Swiss family-owned furniture company founded in 1950’s and dedicated to improving the quality of homes, offices and public spaces through the power of design. They first started with the licensed production in Europe of Eames designs originally owned by Herman Miller.

In 1967 the company introduced the Panton Chair by Verner Panton – the first cantilever chair out of plastic.  Now the Vitra home collection includes classic furniture design pieces by Charles and Ray Eames, George Nelson, Verner Panton, Alexander Girard and Jean Prouvé.

Charles and Ray Eames are an American husband and wife team of architects/modern furniture designers Their story is well documented so I will not repeat here. These are the Eames’ Aluminum Chairs EA in 28 new colors.

We are using Eames Plastic Side Chair DSR in white. To see more of the Eames collection by Vitra, go here.

Eames home bird overlooking people in meetings.

Girard (b0rn 1907 in NYC) is widely known for his contributions in the field of American textile design, particularly through his work for Herman Miller (1952 to 1975), where he created fabrics for the designs of George Nelson and Charles and Ray Eames.

Girard created numerous textile patterns and products reflecting his love of festive colours, patterns and textures. He favoured abstract and geometric forms in a variety of different colour constellations, typically featuring a cheerful palette.

In 1963, he created a collection of 22 brightly painted, semi-abstract and sculptural wooden dolls for his own Santa Fe home. Working from the originals, the Vitra Design Museum has reissued some models of Girard’s figures.

Vitra also produces the works of designers such as Antonio Citterio, Jasper Morrison, Alberto Meda, Maarten van Severen, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Hella Jongerius and Barber Osgerby.

Jasper Morrison, English (born 1959) advocates “New Simplicity”, a more modest and also more serious approach to design.

Wooden table by Edward Barber & Jay Osgerby + Eames aluminum chairs.

This year, they are relaunching the Landi Chair, designed in 1938 by Hans Coray (see silver chairs below).

Nice show, happy living.

Click here to see Vitra’s own spiel of their exhibition at the Salone.

 

Poliform/Varenna at the Salone

There were so much to see at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile 2014 in Milano. I will have quite a few posts …

Poliform was one of the first showrooms I visited. From their very well designed web site :

Poliform’s history is that of a company, despite having achieved an international dimension, nonetheless it has maintained its family character. Established in 1970 as the evolution of a small artisan’s shop dating back to 1942, Poliform invested in new production technologies and the products have successfully evolved into functional and modular systems. 

The monochromatic concept looks cool but I am not sure if I want to live in the showcased interiors. The living room sofa set looks functional but lacks design flair. Overall, the ambience is too dark.

Their design would really work well in a NYC loft space with triple height ceiling. On their web site, they explain:

Poliform’s comprehensive production range carries with it the design idea of a ‘Poliform house’ with stylistically compatible component parts; a ‘global project’ for each architectural situation thanks to the exceptional versatility of its modular systems. 

Not sure about the book shelf/display unit below. It looks nice in a company’s corporate library but at home ?

Their marble tables looked really good, thin and crispy top with interesting legs, especially this quasi-square coffee table.

Poliform acquired Varenna in 1996. I have always been impressed by Varenna’s dark wood, black-and-white marble, and stainless steel look of their kitchens. Check out Varenna’s web site here.

The monochromatic concept is much more palatable when it is in the kitchen where I expect the food to provide the color in the foreground.

No one would have the same storage jars, cups and bottles.

Their interior and kitchen catalogs were among the most informative and substantial.

I loved the stainless steel backsplash (which we had in Edgewater) and marble work top (our next kitchen) ?

Varenna’s look is very industrial, reminding me of restaurant kitchen, including the galleys we visited on a cruise ship, see our post here.

Overall, Varenna’s kitchen works for me but not the Poliform home as showcased in the Salone. Nevertheless, I like their overall aesthetic principles.

 

Salone Internazionale del Mobile 2014

After several attempts to go to the annual Salone Internazionale del Mobile (International Furniture Show) in Milan, I finally made it this year. Sue was traveling with her parents on a trip in Asia so she did not come with me. The event started on April 8 and ended on April 13. The last two days, Saturday and Sunday, are open to the general public. On other days, it is strictly for the trade only.

On the Saturday, I left Lausanne on the 06:17 train and arrived Milano at about 09:30. The train made a special stop at Rho Fiera, the station that serves the fairground where the show is held. It saved me probably an hour or more since I did not have to go to Milano Centrale and change to either a metro or a suburban train.

So I arrived soon after the show opened its doors. General admission was 30 euro. With online pre-registration, it took me very little time to buy a ticket.

The Fiera Milano fairground is one of the largest in the world, according to Wikipedia. Located in the west of Milano, near Rho, it was opened in 2005 with an investment of €755 million.

The complex includes eight pavilions for a total of 3,710,000 sq ft of covered exhibition space and 650,000 sq ft of outdoor space. Forget the numbers, it felt bigger than an airport  The web site of the Fiera Rho exhibition center is here.

This area is going to be the site of Expo 2015 – see graphics in photo above. I was hoping to see the one in Shanghai in 2012 but missed it. Given Milano’s proximity, I would definitely come to see it next year.

A central double-level corridor runs east-west in the middle of the fairground with pavilions/exhibition halls lining each of the sides. The top level has an automatic walkway like those that ferry passengers between airport terminals.

This is a map of the fairground.

 

Built in record time to plans by Italian architect Massimiliano Fuksas, the Rho complex is an avant-garde glass and steel structure.

The glass and steel structure is composed of vortices and wavy surfaces.

There were restaurants, cafes and small shops located in the spaces between the exhibition halls and the central walkway.

Unfortunately, the quality of food in the sit-down restaurants looked no better than shopping mall fast food. I ended up eating a kebab on the lawn outside under the spring sunshine.

One of the exhibition hall is shaped like a UFO circa 1960’s due to its metallic skin and legs. It was the site for Design in Puglia during the Salone.

Underneath the giant creature is a small pool.

From a distance, it looks like the undulating roof above the central walkway has swallowed a small building.

I will take you inside some of these exhibition halls in the next few posts.

In the mean time, take a look at the designer-graphics posters for past Salone which I posted here after I canceled my last attempt to see the Salone.