What can you do when Berlin gives you -2 degrees in April? We decided to give ourself a break from this great city with the ass-cold (free translation of the German term arschkalt) heart and start the season of Spring properly while escaping to Milan and visit the Milan Design Week. Sounds pretty spoiled, huh?
Well to be fair and square, Milan Design Week is a posh event only in certain ways. First of all most exhibitions and events are for free and without any guestlist involved. Secondly, flights from Berlin to Milan are more than affordable even close to Design Week. But mostly I think the event is so enjoyable and down to earth because the whole city with all inhabitants are curious about it and love to spend time visiting it. So you might enjoy the giant cockring designed by Hermes next to the Italian grannies from the neighborhood, or you might be playing in the playground of Toilet Paper Magazine or Marni with toddlers and battle for the best selfie poses with Italian high school kids. And I can promise you, you won’t win that battle.
So we were spoiled with good weather, nice Aperitivos and lots of playful design but were kind enough to come back to Berlin with lots of beautiful photos by Alicia Kassebohm. So after the jump we show you our favorite design highlights and trends we picked up there.
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by Claudio | Design, Travel
photos: Alicia Kassebohm
Exploring new cities has always been a pleasure for us. We come back with a bag full of new inspiration, ideas and urban concepts that we might want to see also in our beloved hometown. Last week Alicia Kassebohm and I had the great pleasure to travel to Milan to visit the prominent Milan Design Week invited by the Belgium Design initiative: Belgium is Design. Like last year we visited The Salone del Mobile which is the biggest fair for contemporary design products and the Fuorisalone (outside Salone) the uncountable mass of side-events happening all around the city. In over 5 districts of Milan the complete neighborhood is transformed into a walkable showroom where young and upcoming designers and small manufactures present their products. This brings not only a lot of creativity to the neighborhoods but also involves the inhabitants in what is usually a very elitist topic: design. This kind of urban participation is something I really miss in all the fairs and big events happening in Berlin. So this would be something I could really imagine in a Berlin of the future. After the jump you find our favorite impressions sorted out by districts, a little art museum adventure we had and the best pieces from the exhibition of our partners from the Belgium Design Initiative.
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by Claudio | Design, Travel
We have to admit that we are a little late with our trend review of the best of the Milan Design Week. But better late than never right? Not only did we have a great experience at the Airbnb House Warming exhibition, but were also impressed by other places with intriguing and remarkably intelligent design installations. Check out the 5 highlights we found after the jump that includes a couple of designs from here that were shown at the Berlin Design Selection showroom that’s currently traveling around Europe to several design events.
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by Claudio | Art, Travel
