Salone del Mobile 2014 Round-Up

Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola’s first kitchen for Italian brand Boffi combines practical modular components with surfaces made from tactile and sustainable materials including wood and stone. A total of 107 available elements includes a sliding wood table top with rounded edges that gives the island unit an imposing sense of solidity.

“Salinas is the beach of my childhood,” said Urquiola. “It is the memory of the kitchen in my grandfather’s house, with views of the beach and the emotions associated with those moments.”

Italian designers Simone Farresin and Andrea Trimarchi presented a project exploring ways of using lava from Mount Etna, close to where Trimarchi was brought up in Sicily, in various states to create a collection of sculptural objects.

The outcomes of their experiments included furniture produced from solid basalt and a clock that depicts the passing of hours, minutes and seconds by pushing three types of volcanic sand of different ages around separate horizontal plates.

Remelting volcanic rocks produced glass that was blown to create a series of vessels and boxes, while fibres made from melted lava were used to produce wall hangings depicting microscopic views of the rocks and mythological references to Sicily.

Marble specialist Marsotto displayed a series of objects created by Jasper Morrison (pictured, the ‘Arena’ table), Konstantin Grcic, Naoto Fukasawa, Ross Lovegrove, Philippe Nigro and Studio Irvine that respond to the challenges of contemporary working scenarios.

The desks, tables and storage solutions showcased Marsotto’s technical capabilities and new ways of using a material that featured prominently at this year’s fair. A highlight was a two-part desk by Konstantin Grcic that pivots to offer different configurations.

Nendo’s installation for fashion brand COS was typical of the Japanese studio’s pursuit of elegant solutions that tell a story through their form and material.

Geometric steel frames supported and surrounded simple white shirts with sections coloured to match the position and rhythm of the installation.

“The smartly ordered shirts are crisp, classic white until they fall inside the steel cube frames, at which point they take on colour as though the space itself has dyed them,” explained Nendo founder Oki Sato.

At Rossana Orlandi’s showroom in the Sant’Ambrogio district, Italian designer Francesco Meda presented his Bridge lamp, a simple object made from a laser-cut sheet of brass that is bent to create a rigid shape capable of supporting a concealed strip of LED bulbs.

The efficiency of the design and its combination of a traditional material with cutting-edge manufacturing processes and lighting technologies results in a sculptural, sustainable and contemporary product.

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