SHOW I NG promi se
Meet some of the most influential designers showing at Milan this year.
ALAIN GILLES began his career in the financial sector but a move to Paris to study industrial design changed everything. He opened his studio in 2007, creating for brands such as Italy’s Bonaldo, France’s La Chance and Belgium’s Buzzispace. His designs always break with convention but remain strangely approachable. Of his global aesthetic, he says he has lived all over the world and doesn’t rely on one culture for his design language. “I’m a Belgian from Brussels but do not feel wedded to that style – I’m as influenced by my time in the US and France.”
“My new armchair ‘Eddy’ is really related to the structure of things. I like to examine structures and interpret a design with this in mind.” The design uses quick release hub technology found on bicycles and offers options for leather or fabric pockets slung from the frame.
“I thought about the way bicycles are put together for years but never found the right project to incorporate these ideas,” he says. “I love the way bikes can have panniers and satchels and thought it might be good to design an armchair with this sort of on-board storage. It came together after reading a book on fixie bikes – years of thinking about bike parts tumbled out and ‘Eddy’ is the result. It’s almost like the concept behind a backpack – having everything close at hand,” says Gilles. alaingilles.com
Tehran-born Milanese
curator and gallerist Nina Yashar established her Nilufar Gallery in 1979. Originally dealing in oriental carpets she fell in love with Scandinavian and Nordic furniture on a visit to Stockholm, and began to “feverishly” collect it. Yashar’s enthusiasm has not waned. Now as much a commissioner of limited-edition contemporary pieces as she is a dealer in fine examples of 20th-century vintage furniture and antique oriental carpets, Yashar is one of the most important figures in modern Italian design.
Her enormous Nilufar Depot, opened in 2015 was designed by renowned architect Roberto Baciocchi, who also designs Prada’s retail stores. The 1500sqm space is spread over three floors, and features a huge central void from where the room displays can be viewed like theatre sets. Its industrial style is in sync with Yashar’s overarching interest in how furniture from different eras can create a new dialogue when placed together. Within the raw steel structure some of the rarest examples of 20th-century design exist alongside experimental works by Martino Gamper, Bethan Laura Wood and Lindsey Adelman.
Nilufar Gallery in the chic shopping street Via Della Spiga is quite a different experience, set up like a labyrinth of smaller rooms in an old Milanese building. The gallery recently hosted a special exhibition of the work of celebrated mid-century Brazilian designer Joaquim Tenreiro and launched a new lighting collection by the man who can do no wrong, Michael Anastassiades, called Fontana Amorosa. nilufar.com
of Konstantin Grcic has had a constant presence in the design world since he first burst onto the scene with products for British company SCP in the early 90s. His work is highly varied and always incredibly strong. While Grcic refers to himself as an industrial designer he started his career as a cabinetmaker in Dorset before studying design at Royal College of Art, London. He enjoys the challenges of designing products for mass production and takes great pleasure in finding technically refined solutions to problems. Of his new light for Flos and technology’s role in shaping products, he says, “The technology of today makes poetry in design possible because technology can be so invisible.”
Based in Munich since 1991, Grcic works for a range of furniture, lighting and home accessories companies. This year, his classic ‘Chair_ One’ of 2004 was relaunched by Magis in new finishes, and work for Cassina, Plank, Flos and Mattiazzi was showing. His ‘Soft Props’ sofa design for Cassina features a thick tubular arm that runs around the side and rear and forms the support for the modular cushions. The arm takes a direct reference from handrails found in Milan’s underground and a historical reference to a ship’s railing as Cassina was once a major supplier of furniture for passenger liners. “Design is not about designing new things all the time, it’s also an evolution of things that have gone before,” says Grcic. He has also referenced designs by Achille Castiglioni, Mies van der Rohe and Michael Thonet’s iconic ‘No. 14’ chair in his new ‘Monza Bistro’ chair design for Plank. konstantin-grcic.com