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MATTIA BALSAMINI Photographer For our outdoor furniture story (page 226), Italian photographer Balsamini travelled south to Sardinia, where he was fascinated by the unpredictable weather. ‘Everything was ever-changing,’ he recalls. ‘Our senses were alert, reacting to the nature around us. So many images we took connect to specific moments and even childhood memories I had of this same landscape.’ Balsamini is collaborating with a friend on a project on self-perception and neurosciences. DAVEN WU Singapore editor Wu has been writing about design, travel and lifestyle for us since 2000, and is now in charge of our new Bookmark series (page 213), celebrating hospitality openings around the world. ‘I’m so encouraged by how designers and hoteliers are finding ways to breathe new life into older buildings with the kind of sensitivity…

Besides assembling the panoply of products, people and presentations that marks our annual celebration of Salone del Mobile, our Design Issue underscores one of the key principles that has made Salone the world’s pre-eminent player in its field for more than 60 years: namely, the need for making, and maintaining, connections. Fortuitously, for our cover, Prada Frames – the symposium launched by Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin of Formafantasma as an antidote to the hustle and bustle of the world’s largest design fair – reflects the same concern, this year gathering a cohort of thinkers to examine ‘infrastructure through the lens of movement’ in a waiting room at Milano Centrale station, and aboard Arlecchino, a Gio Ponti-designed train recently resurrected by Fondazione FS Italiane. It’s to the latter we were…

‘MOONBEAM’ TABLE LAMP by Six N Five, for Poltrona Frau Lighting might not be what immediately springs to mind in the portfolio of the leather magnates at Poltrona Frau, but the company has, in fact, been developing research into the sector for some years. A new collaboration with the Argentine digital artist Ezequiel Pini, of Barcelona-based studio Six N Five, has resulted in a table and floor lamp of hallowed lunar beauty. The ‘Moonbeam’ table lamp mimics the enigmatic quality of a lunar eclipse, with a disc of pearl white satin glass partially obscured by a disc of leather, and anchored with a brass rod and base. The effect is poetic and mesmerising – an intimate presence by the bedside or a soothing companion for the desk. ‘Light is an…

Our annual jaunt to Milan to scour Salone for furnishing humdingers is one of the highlights of our calendar. Exploring the fair can be exhilarating and enlightening, but also somewhat exhausting, and we’d never get through it without a few appetising interludes to keep us on track. We frequently find ourselves at legendary Salone hangout Bar Basso, but our mouthwatering offerings can be picked up in just about any Milanese café or bar. For an aperitivo, we might order a negroni sbagliato, or a martini spritz, a cocktail made with vermouth, prosecco and soda water. Aperitivos are typically served with cicchetti – these snacks or small side dishes, similar to Spanish tapas, have their origins in Venice, and are generally eaten with fingers or toothpicks, usually while standing up. Our…

How do you solve a problem like Salone? How do you catch a crowd and pin it down? Even before the pandemic, the fair was facing, if not quite an existential crisis, then certainly a complex conundrum: how to maintain its relevance in a rapidly changing industry. How could companies justify the cost, not to mention the carbon footprint, for such a transient entity? After the financial crash of 2008, design was embraced by several sectors as a tool for progress. Different brands and commercial partnerships started appearing in Milan for design week. Installations, talks, exhibitions and provocations emerged as the more definitive attractions and, suddenly, Salone del Mobile was no longer synonymous with design week. Design was more exciting than furniture, and design week quickly engulfed Salone as a…

When Formafantasma’s Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin first announced their now-yearly Prada Frames symposium, launched in 2022 during Milan Design Week with the support of the Italian fashion house, it was a welcome antidote to the unforgiving pace and commercial focus of the event. Previous editions have dealt with materials and their relationship to the natural world, the exploitation of forests, and the politics of home. But, for its fourth edition, the pair plan to tackle the connective tissue that unites these issues. ‘We’re looking at infrastructure through the lens of movement,’ says Farresin of the theme, which they have titled ‘In Transit’. More than a dozen academics, designers, artists and thinkers – including MoMA senior curator Paola Antonelli, AI scholar Kate Crawford and poet Tung-Hui Hu – will lead…