Furniture designers explore what it is to be sustainable

By Colleen Barry MILAN » Designers are confronting what it means to be sustainable at the Milan Furniture Show.

There is the tried and true — durable, sometimes luxurious classic pieces that can be passed down through generations. Increasingly, the focus is also on materials and sourcing, ensuring that they exploit neither workers nor the environment. Perhaps pieces are built from recycled materials, or thought is given to their eventual recyclability. And designers are also using their work to address problems facing society in public spaces and private, including energy use, pollution and human flows.

“Design needs to bring social innovation. It cannot be reduced to an embellishment,” said architect Carlo Ratti, who recreated the four seasons under a crystal-topped pavilion opposite Milan’s Duomo cathedral. Ratti, who runs an MIT research project exploring new technologies and design in cities, used heat generated by dropping the temperatures for winter to create summer. He called that “an exercise in circular economies,” exploring the relationship between nature and the city, and the effect of climate change.

Some highlights from the Milan Furniture Fair and collateral design week events that ran from April 17-22: the curves of the metal giving way to a slight airy space. The dark green aluminum picks up the light, dappling along the black lacquered wood.

“Cassina is for me haute couture,” Erwan Bouroullec said. “It is very precise, based on craftsmanship in Italy at the very best level in Europe, maybe the world. For me it is almost political to consider that it is very important to maintain that savoir-faire. And at the same time, it is political for me to do a chair which costs 90 euros.” (About $110.)

The brothers also made a simple plastic chair, “Elementaire,” for the Danish company Hay. “It is something like jeans or a white T-shirt, something you need,” Erwan said. “And you need to be well-dressed for a special party, but every day you need in your kitchen or your garden this plastic chair that you can buy for a convenient price.”

Sustainability means lasting, he said. “You can decide you don’t want this table,” he said, motioning to the matching 142 Cotone table. “But you cannot destroy this table.”

The brothers also designed a series of unfinished Venetian glass elements to define spaces, including dome-shaped alcoves and squared niches for WonderGlass, in neutrals ranging from amber to aquamarine, evoking antique glass insulators. provides a fun, bouncy give in the seat and back. The design is exceptionally simple, comprising three elements: a metal frame that is 100 percent recycled aluminum, fabric and glass reinforcements.

“All three need each other to work. The frame on its own would have very little stability,” Newson said.

The side chair, for home or office use, comes in three frame colors and six mesh shades, allowing for bold combinations for the contemporary eye. And it stacks.

The seat is in the DNA of the Knoll group, bringing together both a lean profile and simplicity, with strong technical aspects.

“It says Knoll,” Newson said. “It is quite a graphic product.”

The Cirql pieces will be featured on the terrace of the new 25hotel that Aisslinger is designing in a 1957 office building in Cologne, Germany. Dedon’s fiber is extremely weatherresistant, good for beaches and mountain resorts.

“For Dedon, it is important not to do throwaway pieces that are harmful to the environment,” Aisslinger said.