If you are a tech-geek as I am, you might have heard about the hype that went on last week around a tiny helicopter, one of these toy-like machines almost all of us had the chance to remote control when we were children. But it was something special about this particular one. You wouldn't have to push any buttons to make it go up, or crazily manipulate a joystick to make it turn. With this helicopter, you just had to think about it going up for the thing to actually start flying, and to think about it going right to make it turn. It was mind-controlled by a student of the University of Minnesota, who only had to sat on a chair wearing a funny looking hat to make it go high (and go viral).
Besides being the experimental, fun and viral place for established brands, Fuorisalone is also, and above all, the home of young, fresh and experimental designers. As I said before, Ventura Lambrate consolidated this year as the cool place to be and to be seen, taking over Tortona’s kingdom of past years. Whereas Tortona has diluted its experimental heritage by hosting more commercial, less conceptually strong propositions over the years, Ventura Lambrate has preserved and even boosted the newness, forefront, fresh feeling that sometimes is hard to find in the well-established Milan.
After three posts on the Milan Salone and Euroluce, I thought I could write a bit about the not-so-known, but yet the most exciting, part of the Milan Design Week: the Fuorisalone exhibits. Fuorisalone (meaning in Italian, “outside the Salone”) are a conglomerate of exhibitions, showrooms and installations that happen across all the city of Milan. Those exhibits are mainly organized about four main design “districts”: Zona Tortona – the most renowned and used-to-be hip place, Brera – where big brands and luxury design takes place, Porta Romana and the newest, coolest,Ventura Lambrate – with only two years in the Milan design scene it has established itself already as the must go place if you really want to know what is the newest, trendiest in design.
Milan Design Week it´s almost reaching its end, and while I am still trying to digest all the trends and inspiration accumulated during these four hectic days, I wanted to share with you some of the highlights that I could already spot at this year's Euroluce edition.
After yesterday’s late start, my first complete Day 1 of Milan Design Week. It is actually incredible how much can you fit in one day. How many photographs, how many conversations, how many beautiful objects and how many cappuccinos you can handle in less than 24 hours. Exhausted, but extremely excited, my head still buzzing thinking about all I´ve seen today.
After a whole morning of trains, planes and buses, I finally managed to get to Milan for the Design Week and Euroluce. The sun was shining and the streets were packed once again with design students dressed in black and men in suits. There was, again, this vibe in the air that can only be felt here and now.
