Tradition meets science, the new modus operandi of change-makers at Milan Design Week 2023
 Atelier Luma showed experiments with agricultural by-products including salt during Salone del Mobile 2023 at Alcova Project Space in Milan, Italy. Photo Heidi Dokulil. Key messages at this year’s exhibition, held in April, were the skills of makers and the nuances of materials, both powerful weapons in the war against fakes and fuelling the leap towards sustainable manufacturing and supply chain models. Experimentation with techniques, from age-old traditional crafts that require practice and time to highly technical innovations (or a novel hybrid of the two), provided a unifying theme for the latest collections by furniture brands and a swathe of fashion houses whose new homewares ranges express a deep knowledge of craft going back hundreds of years.  At Prada, the focus is on the latest scientific research into the complex relationship between design and the environment. Curated by the Milan-and Rotterdam-based Italian design firm Formafantasma, founded by Simone Farresin and Andrea Trimarchi, Prada Frames: Materials in Flux unites academics and practitioners from around the world to provide insights into the ethical and aesthetic implications central to Prada’s design processes. “We conceived Prada Frames as a transdisciplinary symposium looking at the relation between design, architecture and the environment,” says Farresin. “The aim is to bring together designers, architects, artists, curators, producers, but also scientists, anthropologists, activists and legal and economic experts. The inclusion of voices and disciplines beyond design is not only a way to increase the scale and depth of research, but an ethical position that respects the expertise, lived experience and skills of individuals and institutions in other fields.”   Those perspectives come from the likes of Professor Veena Sahajwalla, a Sydney-based inventor, engineer and materials scientist, whose novel research on materials innovation at UNSW Sydney is turning the idea of waste on its head. Adds Trimarchi: “We are also thinking about the long-term role Prada Frames could have as an educational initiative, and exploring different options and ideas.”  While big names always dominate the high streets, the grittier city fringe is a treasure hunt for the unknown. At the former Porta Vittoria Abattoir, Alcova’s Valentina Ciuffi and Joseph Grima’s quest to show the work of independent designers delivered some fascinating projects. Huge industrial warehouses opened up to spaces filled with more than 90 projects, from traditional pottery to furniture made with recycled materials. Highlights included the French research team Atelier Luma, who showed their experiments with agricultural by-products including rice straw, salt and algae that echoed the investigations and material developments presented by Prada Frames.  Materials in focus at Frantoio Sociale, a meeting space to discuss circularity, material flows, waste and raw materials during Salone del Mobile 2023 on April 20, 2023 at Alcova Project Space in Milan, Italy. Photo Heidi Dokulil. |