Milan Archives - The Design Writer

Highlights from Milan Design Week 2017

April 30, 2017January 1, 2023despc

This year, for me, Milan Design Week is all about The Milan Report 2017, a self-publishing venture that I’m launching along with the excellent Giovanna Dunmall (London design expert and writer) and Marcus Piper (multi-talented graphic designer, designer, typographer and writer).

We’re currently putting together a range of design week Q&As, themed features, diaries, picks, contributions from experts, as well as original photography, graphic design and typography – to see for yourself, pre-order here.

And, while I dedicate my time to that, check out a few highlights in picture form as follows – all photos taken by me.

A string quintet plays in the garden of Casa degli Atellani, where Da Vinci lived while painting the last supper – really! – thanks to AirBNB.

Milan 2016: Ex.t thinks beyond the bathroom

May 23, 2016January 1, 2023despc

By Penny Craswell

Based in Florence, Italy, ex.t has always pushed boundaries when it comes to bathroom design, striving for simplicity and elegance while thinking outside the basics of bath, basin and bowl. This year, they launched two new ranges, in both cases commissioning a non-bathroom designer to create something different to go alongside their bathroom products.

Plateau and Raso designed by Sebastian Herkner for ex.t. Image: supplied

In the case of the new Plataeu and Raso collection, German furniture designer Sebastian Herkner was approached to design a range that includes mirrors and pendant lights in addition to washbasin, console and bathtub. An architectural language is created through the use of a shelf that sits just behind and below the rim of the basin, console and bath, creating a functional space to rest bathroom items, while also adding the illusion of a shadow or extra dimension. The mirror features the same shadow, an extension to the oval shape by way of a transparent frame on one side only. Meanwhile, the Raso lighting pendants in pink, grey, white and transparent glass offer a complementary design object that softens the bathroom interior. Read more →

Design and food: new concepts in edible growth

January 26, 2015January 1, 2023despc

By Penny Craswell

Growing your own food has become a movement worldwide, with city-dwellers getting up close and personal with their food for the first time since food technologies made food production and distribution on a global scale possible. Designers are taking this one step further, addressing food futures and working with the community to create new ways of growing food.

Chloe Rutzerveld Edible Growth with mushrooms and greens

Dutch designer Chloe Rutzerveld is addressing food futures by thinking small, as she relates in her talk at Ninety Minutes of Frame in Amsterdam. Using a personalized 3D file, Rutzerveld creates a small lattice shape in pastry or pasta, adding seeds, spores and yeast, with the resulting object developing and growing over five days into a delicious, edible and beautiful object.