After two pandemic-interrupted years, Salone del Mobile, one of the world’s most respected design fairs, was back IRL this week in Milan, Italy. WIRED went to the stands, stalls and exhibitions looking for the most interesting new products, designs and designers. An absolute melting pot of creative talent, Salone del Mobile – think of CES, but for the world of interiors – transforms the city with pop-ups, while household global brands and aspiring design candidates rub side by side and showcase their ideas in the Italian sunshine. Hard gig! But the show forms famous opinions and kickstarts design trends. Here’s what caught our eye.
Ikea Unlimited Pladpiller
Photo: Albin Händig / IKEA
Proof that the vinyl revolution has evolved far beyond the audiophile listening spaces, this record player – its name means “unlimited” in Swedish – has been designed in collaboration with giants in electronic music Swedish House Mafia. Details remain sparse, but the thick design will have Bluetooth connectivity as well as analog connectors. Fortunately, it comes with a cartridge from the credible brand Audio Technica, which should lift the performance beyond the bog standard and ensure that your records are not damaged, as can so often happen with cheap needles. The turntable will be available in the fall and will be launched along with a range of other music-oriented pieces, including a desk specifically designed to accommodate music production sets. $ TBD from Ikea.
CEA Designs Abaco Modular Bathroom
Photo: Massimo Marcante / IKEA
Save your jokes about prison toilets, because this is an unusually innovative modular bathroom system from the Italian company CEA Designs. By combining drain, flush and bidet functions together with optional units with shower heads, screens, basins and faucets, the idea is that having all the works in one room (hidden neatly inside the units) makes it much easier to set up. a room as a bathroom. Made entirely of infinitely recyclable and hygienic stainless steel, this durable design offers stylish integrated lighting on the floor as well as rear-mounted LEDs that illuminate the wall it is placed against. Price on request from CEA Designs.
Simon Schmitz Lighting DIA Lamp
Photo: IKEA
Based in Hamburg, Germany, Simon Schmitz creates modern sculptural lighting that is both functional and performative. Nowhere is this balance better illustrated than in the monolithic DIA floor lamp. This eye-catching 1.8 meter high tower in anodised aluminum, steel and glass has two powerful 3000K LEDs that can be adjusted to act as either downlights, floodlights or both, depending on the atmosphere you want to create. Inside the glass tube, two red steel cables conduct electricity between the two LEDs, while also providing structural braces for the entire design. The cooling element mounted on the top looks as if it is floating in the air when the light is on. $ TBD from Simon Schmitz.
Krill Design Homeware 3D printed from lemons
Photo: IKEA
We came across the Italian design studio Krill last year when it launched Ohmie, fully compostable lamps, each made from the peel of three juicy Sicilian oranges. The discarded peel is added to a biopolymer base derived from vegetable starch, which can then be used for 3D printing. But not content with sticking to one citrus fruit, the company has now adapted its material to use Mediterranean lemons. The first three items made with the bright yellow biopolymer are a magazine holder, a wall clock and of course a fruit bowl. Without forgetting its orange origins, Krill has also added two more items to its Ribera collection: Methoa totemic modular desktop organizer, and Hidee, an open vase with a concave shape that makes inserted flower stalks appear to disappear. Not only do these products look and smell appealing (yes, each has the natural aroma of the fruit it is made from), each product offsets approximately one kilogram of CO22. $ 68 (€ 65) and up at Krill Design.
Pierre Murot U1 Wall light
Pierre Murot is an industrial designer trained by Paris’ ENSCI-Les Ateliers and École Boulle. His work explores new ways of working with often forgotten natural materials, and recycles them in distinct and contemporary ways. At Salone, he exhibited a project that looks for innovative ways of working with clay, and adapts the artisanal extrusion to create modern functional objects. His original research project, carried out on site at a traditional clay brickworks in the Dordogne region of France, has led to a number of pieces, including these deceptively simple, richly textured LED wall lamps, as well as a collection of modular storage units that remind me of our study time, build shelves of scaffolding planks and breeze blocks, however, with a lot more class. $ TBD from Pierre Murot
Cyryl Zakrzewski Noise Bar
Photo: IKEA
Many products on display at Salone 2022 try to use recycled plastic to make something aesthetically pleasing. Some efforts are more successful than others, such as this piece by Polish designer Cyryl Zakrzewski, who believes that “plastic should now be considered a luxury material.” Zakrzewski’s 6-foot-long Noise sideboard, which looks more like a topological card than a living room piece of furniture, is made entirely of recycled plastic, which is CNC-milled to create its signature waveform panels. Part of the designer’s Continuum collection, the synthetic material — made using Tree plastica Polish collective that has created its own turbine injectors and machines to enable efficient plastic recycling on a small scale – is designed to look like natural stone until you get close and the true nature of the sideboard structure becomes clear. $ TBD from Cyryl Zakrzewski
Prostoria Rostrum and Sabot sofas
Photo: IKEA
Modularity was big news at the show, with countless brands revealing products that can be tuned, adjusted, expanded and upgraded to suit your needs and space. In addition to the Abaco bathroom (see above), we were hugely impressed with the work of the Slovenian furniture brand Prostoria. Works with Benjamin Huberts Layer design agency, the company created two modular sofas – Rostrum and Sabot – both of which can be configured for the home and workplace, and especially the gray zone in between brought to us by the WFH revolution. In addition to being able to scale the sofas to fit your space, they can each be equipped with accessories such as power elements, height-adjustable side tables, pouffes, planters and even screen dividers to create booths. $ TBD from Prostoria
La Pavoni Cellini Evolution kaffemaskine
While we are all for the simplicity of the time-saving touch screen of a modern bean-to-cup coffee machine, it’s hard not to fall for the overtly analogous charm of this all-Italian La Pavoni coffee machine. Weighing 66 pounds and having two boilers, Cellini Evoluzione combines professional-quality components in a household-sized machine with brilliant tactile dials (redesigned and upgraded on this new version) and acres of high-quality stainless steel. We got a first look at the new machine backstage at the Smeg stand (which acquired La Pavoni in 2019), and can confirm that this new version is priced to take on as Rocket Espresso and La Marzocco. $ 2,464 (£ 2,000) from Smeg
Baku circle, rectangle, square
Photo: IKEA
There is a lightness of touch to Baku Sakashita’s work, focusing on the importance of the handmade form, with naturalistic forms and materials blending effortlessly with modern functionality. His latest lighting project, three portable lamps with wireless charging, are sleek, sculptural and wonderfully tactile, with the bulb, wireless charging coils and electronics buried deep inside. They are subtle, practical and inventive – three touchstones that are so often missed when combining art and technology. $ TBD from Baku Studio
Lunch dinner table
Photo: IKEA
Georg Mengel is a Copenhagen designer of tables and chairs, but before this his M.Sc. engineer saw him work in the cement industry. It is not surprising, then, that he believes that concrete is a versatile material that is underutilized outside construction. So he started creating concrete furniture inspired by the modernist classics and Danish and Japanese design traditions. The problem was that the resulting pieces weighed way too much.
Mengel used his engineering skills to experiment with cement reinforced with both carbon and alkali-resistant fiberglass to make stronger, thinner slabs with less concrete. As a result, his 7.8-foot-long dinner table weighs 220 pounds when it would weigh 550 pounds if made with traditional things. “The material used is kept to a minimum, with a minimal footprint for shock conditions,” says Mengel. “This also allows the pieces to be shipped as a flat pack, taking up as little space as possible during transport.” Price on request from M3ng3l.