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Whether it’s a sofa, bookcase, sideboard, or coffee table, the objects we put in our home are an expression of ourselves, and with them we establish an intimate, very personal relationship. The home is a temple to memories and emotions. It’s a comfortable, welcoming refuge. Based on the products on show in June at Salone del Mobile and Milano Design Week, there’s a shift towards increasingly sophisticated looks, with a preference for fine materials, soft lines, customizability, and artisanal quality. Not to mention a commitment to the environment.
The Cimento Collection was introduced in 2019, with art direction by Aldo Parisotto from the Parisotto + Formenton Architetti studio. This innovative collection uses a material called CIMENTO®, a composite of mineral aggregates with a cement binder. The collection has now been expanded with new elements inspired by the city of Venice. Designed by Parisotto + Formenton, Lido is a table that’s suitable for both indoors and out. Then there’s the Bovolo lamp, by BBA Studio; the Torcello chairs, by Defne Koz and Marco Susani; coffee tables by Omri Revesz; and the Accademia bookcase, designed by Studio 63.
Collaboration with designer Patricia Urquiola, combined with a long process of experimentation to develop innovative new materials, has seen the firm pushing the collection in new directions. A good example is its composites based on fragments of inert materials, such as glass and quartz, or a mixture of marble and cork. These materials have been used to create furniture and furnishing accessories that not only surprise with their colors and intriguing shapes, but also their tactile effect of alternating rough and smooth surfaces, sandblasted and smooth finishes, and rough or fine mixtures. And this is a tactile effect that can also be perceived with the eye. The range of products designed by Urquiola includes a series of artworks and mirrors in the Canal Grande Capsule Collection, which, with its rich inlay work and decorative elements, is like a piece of Venetian architecture to hang in your home.
From flooring to furniture elements, Fiemme Tremila’s new Solo collection for the home was designed by aledolci&co. The collection is distinguished by its purity, essential lines, durability, and reliability. But first and foremost, Solo is about wood, the firm having transformed the quality of its flooring products into furniture that’s built to last. The furniture is made using biocompatible wood blocks, assembled using a dry joint system, without glue or fasteners. The blocks themselves are Triplostrato®, the same material used for the firm’s flooring, comprising three layers of solid wood.
This innovative biocompatible material contributes to improving air quality – a real advantage, with indoor spaces sometimes recording pollution levels up to five times higher than outdoors. The wood, which is certified by the CNR-IVaLSA, is free of harmful substances but contains VOCs – that is, the volatile organic compounds that are present in forests and help purify the air.
This is an essential collection, comprising a chest, sideboard, table, display unit, side table, and coffee table – in other words, the basic furniture elements of many homes. The designs feature combinations of full and empty spaces, light and dark, angled and projecting volumes. Each piece uses up to five varieties of wood – oak, walnut, elm, Burma teak, larch – and is available with planed, brushed, smooth, and saw cut finishes. The aesthetic and tactile qualities of the furniture is complemented by an incomparable olfactory quality, with the BioPlus® treatment, based on waxes and vegetable resins, bringing out the natural scent of the timber.
Solo creates a new relationship between objects and people – a solid and reliable relationship that will last through time. Architect Alessandro Dolci says, “we considered the relationships that form between people and things. These are emotional relationships that can last for generations. We believe that memory includes support systems that help preserve it, give it an aesthetic, and help us share it”.
>>> Discover the latest in outdoor furniture displayed at Salone and Fuorisalone 2022.
A factor that determines the wellbeing of a person in any environment is acoustic comfort. For over a decade, Caimi has been researching and experimenting in the field of acoustics so that it can bring both acoustic and aesthetic quality to its products. Public seating is a new area for this firm that has always worked on the basis that quality acoustics in any space depend on using high-performance materials and technologies for every furniture element. This was the approach behind its new collection of sofas and armchairs for public settings, created in collaboration with Open Lab and some of the biggest names in design today.
Napwork, based on an idea by Paola Navone, is a modular system of sofas with soft lines, generous shapes, and plentiful padding that uses Snowsound Fiber technology.
The a+b design team created Snowrking, a collection of seats with very high backs to provide privacy that’s available in versions for the center or corner of a room.
Cilindri, designed by Claudio Bellini, features a cylindrical backrest and is available as a sofa and armchair. Volumi, by Caimi Lab, is a line of sound-absorbing ottomans and small armchairs with extremely essential lines.
>>> Beauty, spas, bathroom furniture: new frontiers in wellness on show at Milano Design Week 2022.
After a ten-year absence, Friuli-based company Presotto returned to Salone Internazionale del Mobile representing the Estel Group, with a versatile collection for every room of the house. The exhibition space, designed by architect Angelo Parisi and stylist Carla Bernardis, was designed to take visitors on a visual and sensorial journey through six different areas, each corresponding to a particular international style and each catapulting visitors into what could be elegant apartments in some large European capital. Each setting showcased the company's collections, demonstrating how they’re adaptable to any room of the house. The featured products included new additions to the iModulart, Pari&Dispari, and Inclinart ranges for the living area; the overhauled Tecnopolis collection, the Invictus cabin and the Ikarus modular island for the bedroom; and 25 new accessories designed for the home office, developed in collaboration with Estel.
Quadrifoglio was at Salone Internazionale del Mobile with its overhauled brand identity. Now with three divisions – Design Office, Design Living, and Design Lighting – the firm aims to offer increasingly specialized products in each area to cater to every need.
New products from the Design Office division includes the e-10 executive desk with its rigorous geometries; the X1 work desk, whose patented tubular steel structure is a key feature; and the Ode, a chair distinguished by its single structure that hides the MEC28 mechanism – state-of-the-art self-regulating technology that provides maximum postural wellbeing. With curving, elegant lines and an ergonomic design, the Diésis is a chair suitable for the executive environment. Last but not least in Quadrifoglio’s range of office products is its modular XW partition system, available as an accessorized glazed version or with wood paneling, for dividing spaces and creating privacy for office users.
The exhibited products from the Design Living division are equally at home in work, hospitality, and residential spaces. Among the most innovative chairs on show was Moon, designed by Serena Papait according to typically Scandinavian principles of ergonomics and functionality. The Flipper coffee table can be easily transformed from a regular table to an individual workstation; the Six table features graceful, balanced lines; while the Compasso by Dorigo Design is a sculptural wooden seat. A lot of new upholstered furniture was also on show, including the City Decò armchair, designed by Edi & Paolo Ciani, and the Miami, Montreal, and Melbourne storage ottomans, which add a touch of trendiness to any space. Another highlight is the Bloom sideboard, with its elegant, solid appearance.
The Design Lighting division offers smart and flexible architectural solutions. The Cartesio system, designed by Moreno de Giorgio, features miniaturized components and an extremely slim structure. Also by the same designer, Cd Led creates an interplay of basic geometric shapes, such as circles, triangles, and squares. With rings that create a visually striking effect, the Planet pendant lamp is available with bronze, gold, and weathering steel finishes. Finally, the Starlight lamp, designed by Serena Papait, combines geometric forms to create a dynamic, modular effect.
Surfaces were the star of Riflessi’s exhibit at Milano Design Week, with its collection of the same name blurring boundaries between materials by combining metal and artificial surfaces with marble and natural materials. Its Diamond mirror features a diamond-faceted stainless steel frame and a nano-ceramic treatment that makes the surface hardwearing and antibacterial.
The Surfaces range also includes table tops, sideboards, and coffee tables that feature marble as their dominant element. And a large variety of marbles is used – including Patagonia marble, sparkling Capraia marble, Verde Alpi and Verde Borgogna opaque marbles, and Rosso Levanto marble – which complement the elegant lines that characterize each product.
Visionnaire is a luxury brand whose mission is to bring elegance to our daily lives through unique objects that form connections between spaces and people. The firm’s vision goes beyond the functional concept of home to interpreting the domestic space as marking a boundary between us and the rest of the world through the creation of an intimate relationship between people and household items. The home is a temple built from memories, emotions, and relationships. And this is the idea behind Visionnaire’s pavilion at Salone del Mobile, which presents a journey in six parts, with representative living spaces forming a backdrop to the new Mythica collection.
Designed by Alessandro La Spada with artistic direction by Eleonore Cavalli, the six sections are Winter Garden, Atrium, Convivium, Daytime Oasis, Alcove, and Boudoir, which together tell the story of the brand. Visionnaire also took advantage of the opportunity to exhibit some of its iconic pieces alongside the new Valiant dining table and the Babylon Rack and Foster upholstered furniture from the Mythica collection. These include the Caprice collection, designed by m2atelier to satisfy every caprice; the Zoe and Aries armchairs; the Sputnik-Oxy lighting system, an evolution of the previous Sputnik; the new Villa D’Este kitchen, designed by Mauro Lipparini and a tribute to the ritual of entertaining; the Aubade bed, by Alessandro La Spada, which evokes the ritual of sunrise; and the collection designed by Studiopepe, Arianna Lelli Mari, and Chiara Di Pinto, which explores the five senses, previewing the larger Empire of the Senses project for the boudoir.
Visionnaire also presented a new project at the event. Dubbed Visionnaire NFT, the firm is exploring the possibilities of NFT (Non-Fungible Tokens) and Web3 technologies. Visionnaire has sold Apollo Belvedere, a sculpture in Carrara marble by visual artist Jonathan Monaghan, using the technology. The partnership with 4ARTechnologies, which provided its patented digital fingerprint to securely connect the physical sculpture to its NFT+ with a digital watermark, made the sale possible. The NFT+ is linked to the 4ART artwork passport, which not only contains the original artwork file, but also additional information such as the provenance and history of the sculpture, along with proof of authenticity and ownership.
The last of the new Visionnaire products on show at Salone was Nature’s Jewel Box, which was exhibited in the Visionnaire Design Gallery during Milano Design Week. This product collection designed by Steve Leung celebrates nature with organic and zoomorphic forms creating a kind of metamorphosis between natural elements and furniture. The collection specifically celebrates the resilience of trees through objects that combine wood with metal, marble, upholstery, and velvets, such as the Rohan dining table, the Alya and Ruth armchairs, the Asha chair, and the Sarin and Ruben coffee tables.
Paolo Castelli SpA, a company based in Ozzano dell’Emilia, Bologna, showcased its 2022 products, Inspiration and Green Kiss, at two locations in Milan: its booth at the exhibition and its flagship store in Via Madonnina.
The Inspiration collection includes the Ipanema series, comprising a sofa, armchair, and coffee table, all inspired by the refinement of French furnishings and distinguished by lines that are clean and rigorous while also soft and delicate. Also part of the collection is Ellipse, a series of tables and coffee tables with circular and oval lines made of Nero Marquina marble and metal, or metal alone. The Bar Table is a small table reminiscent of what you might find at a Parisian bistro. The Ottomana Chair is an EPS chair with no backrest and a light, informal design. Comprising aluminum uprights and shelves in sandblasted bronze tempered glass and ash, Petra is an ideal system for functionally separating the rooms of the house with maximum compositional freedom. Ama is a collection of sofas and armchairs with art deco–inspired lines, a high seat, a low back, and soft, rounded shapes. Manta, Stellantis, and Terminal are three lighting systems. The first is a satin brass and Murano glass pendant. More than just a lamp, Stellantis is a luminous sculpture, composed of six Murano glass cones attached to a vertical brass rod. Available in pendant and wall versions, Terminal is an outdoor lamp available in borosilicate glass or hand-glazed ceramic.
The Green Kiss collection reveals the firm’s commitment to the environment. It’s part of the Imane series, comprising a table, upholstered chairs, and a coffee table made of natural materials and finished by hand. Vao Bed, the bed that completes the Vao series, has soft padding in organic rubber and natural stuffing.
Marble is a noble material that can create an elegant, opulent atmosphere in the home. Long used for floors and the walls of bathrooms and kitchens, the latest trend is for marble to be used for a wide range of objects suitable for any room in the house. Koket has a long history of specializing in marble. With this expertise behind it, it’s created a unique and surprising collection of marble objects. The firm was at Salone with its oval Paris dining table, which joins the existing round version. The new design features two tri-point satin brass legs and seats up to eight. Black Marquina marble, Carrara marble, Estremoz marble, and Sahara Noir marble versions are available.
The Decodiva dining table is distinguished by the pronounced veining formed by crystallized minerals deposited by water that has passed through the stone and then evaporated. Different stone versions are available: New Imperador marble, Sahara Noir marble, and Golden & Spider marble.
Coffee tables have become one of the stars of interior design. The Rita coffee table is a special piece distinguished by the brand’s hallmark colors of black and gold.
Finally, the Vengeance table lamp is one of the bestselling pieces from the collection. Polished brass hands wrap around the lamp’s marble column base, representing the hands of a woman who’s taking back what is rightfully hers.
Please refer to the individual images in the gallery to look through the photo credits
