Have you been to Milan before?
This was my second time to Milan during the Salone Del Mobile. The last time was 2011.
What brought you to Milan this year?
Hogg&Lamb were the Australian winners of the Schneider Electric Interior Design Competition with our B&B Residence. We joined other Architects and Interior Designers from Brazil, China, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia and Spain for a week at the Milan Furniture Fair.
How does this global fair translate locally to designers, architects and design enthusiasts?
Salone Del Mobile is a great opportunity to see where the latest trends and designs are heading. Those designs and products tend to be delayed by the time the reach Australia, so you get a bit of a head start by attending the fair. It’s also a good time to see what’s happening in a lot of the design universities through the off-salon exhibitions and installations that happen throughout the city.
What was your favourite installation?
With so much to see it’s difficult to narrow it down to just one! I really enjoyed the installations at Rossana Orlandi’s studios. A great selection of up and coming talent on display.
I also enjoyed Google’s A Space for Being installation, despite lining up for three hours in the rain to see it! It was very interesting to experience first-hand how our built environments can affect physiology.
What was your favourite stand at the fair grounds?
Preciosa, in the Euroluce Hall was great. Their Breath of Light installation was a beautiful combination of traditional hand blown glass and the latest controller technology.
I also enjoyed edra’s installation, in particular their new Grande Soffice sofa. By far the most comfortable sofa I’ve ever sat on: a great relief after all the days walking at the fairgrounds, which are immense.
Otherwise, I thought it was a year of refinement rather than development.
What was your rose of the week?
As an Architect, there were two standout buildings I managed to visit whilst in Milan. Firstly, Fondazione Prada by OMA. A wonderful collection of architectural spaces, perfectly judged and exquisitely detailed. The second was Villa Necchi Campliglio, by architect Piero Portaluppi, built in the 1930s. A luxurious and elegant art deco villa in the centre of Milan, now open as a public museum. Both are definite musts for any designer visiting Milan!
And thorn?
Definitely the exchange rate…ouch!
Are you coming back next year?
As an Architect, I’d say that the Salone Del Mobile is something that can be visited on occasions. There is so much to experience and take in, it really is quite exhausting. I think it will take me a couple of years until I feel ready for the challenge again!
Hogg&Lamb
hoggandlamb.com
Photography by Holly Graham
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