Ten convivial table design projects at Milan Design Week 2024. Solar Collection by La DoubleJ in Max Siedentopf’s Dancing Plates installation – Courtesy of La DoubleJ.
Design—A joyful kinetic table display, a travelling trattoria offering views of iconic Italian panoramas, and a vitamin collection made from fruits and vegetables are among the most convivial table displays at Milan Design Week 2024. Check them all out!
RELATED STORIES: Read more about Milan Design Week 2024 on Archipanic.
A kinetic solar display by La DoubleJ
Courtesy of La DoubleJ.
La DoubleJ has presented the Solar Collection, a tribute to the impeccable craftsmanship of Italy’s finest artisans. As a vibrant symphony of warm colours, the series comes in terracotta tones, rich gold, and electric sky blue to celebrate our primary source of energy, the sun.
Courtesy of La DoubleJ.
Max Siedentopf‘s Dancing Plates installation, inspired by Eames’s ground-breaking 1957 Solar Do Nothing kinetic machine, is a testament to the innovative fusion of art and design. The mechanised scenography featured 16 machines spinning in sync, balanced over 50 pieces from the new Solar Collection, creating a mesmerising visual experience.
Vitamin-powered collection by Seletti
Photos by Antinori.
Italian figurative design company Seletti brought joy to the table with Vitamin, a new colourful lighting project by Marcantonio. The Italian designer continues experimenting with images from the natural world with a brand-new collection of a-bat-jours, candelabras, chandeliers, and candlesticks, where succulent vegetables and fresh fruits are the unexpected protagonists.
Photo by Seletti.
A tomato supports a carrot, which itself holds up a lemon; an orange becomes the base of a banana, which holds an eggplant; arrangements of peppers, peaches, cucumbers, and even pumpkins, eggplants, watermelons, pears, pineapples, and lemons give shape to bright sculptural forms. Vitamin is like a colourful, energising fruit salad.
Poppie flowers and espressos with Marimekko
Photos by Sean Davidson.
What is more convivial than an Italian neighbourhood café? Marimekko and interior design magazine Apartamento took over Bar Stoppani, a true institution of Milan’s Porta Venezia district. The Finnish design brand celebrated the 60th anniversary of its beloved Unikko print, filling the bar’s interiors with the iconic jumbo poppies pattern while keeping the cafe’s interior layout intact.
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The pop-up Unikko Café became a brilliant destination where locals and design week visitors mingled in front of a spritz or an espresso. The takeover was respectfully curated to the detail, from the awning and the floor to crockery, coasters, napkins and matches.
Markus Benesch’s optimistic and repurposed table design
Photos by Markus Benesch studio.
Gen Z, born between the late 1990s and early 2000s, is anxious about Climate Change. Austrian designer Markus Benesch presented the Riches to Rag exhibition at Palazzo Litta in the 5Vie Design District. Charged with an optimistic attitude, he presented a brand-new collection of furniture designs and home accessories crafted from repurposed and re-ennobled cheap materials.
The collection comprised shelves, seats, coffee tables and lamps. A colourful table set with quirky tableware was the perfect set for dinners shaped around a sense of joy and hope—a sustainable design gesture for future generations in vibrant colours.
Around the table, with Masquespacio
Photos: ©Anwyn Howarth.
Valencia-based design studio Masquespacio created the Around the Table lounge installation. At its heart laid a large, inviting table. Throughout the day, the setting acted as a curated stage where visitors could encounter a meticulously chosen selection of objects, including the studio’s newest ceramic Cylinder Lamp.
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As twilight descended, the table underwent a magical transformation, transforming into an intimate setting for exclusive dinners hosted by Isola Design District in collaboration with Macaroni Event. Find out more about Masquespacio on Archipanic.
Trattoria Altra Vista by Another view
Photos by Anotherview.
At Palazzo Litta, Anotherview presented Trattoria Altra Vista, the pilot episode of a travelling project bringing Italian gastronomical heritage and design-making across the country and beyond. The project is centred around creating an imaginary trattoria, a “lived-in” space rather than a mere design exhibition, which will be hosted each year in a different city globally.
On the walls of Trattoria Altra Vista, Italian for Another View, are windows portraying 24-hour-long videos of Italy’s iconic panoramas – from Milan to Venice, Naples and Polignano al Mare in Apulia. The Project’s art director, David Dolcini, tasked a group of Italian designers to present pieces, drawing inspiration from the artisanal and cultural traditions of the different featured locations.
‘Slow Objects’ by Bitossi Home
Photos via IG, follow @bitossihome.
Bitossi Home celebrated Oggetti Lenti, Italian for Slow Objects. Time is crucial in creating these items, emphasising craftsmanship and a deep respect for raw materials to foster sustainable consumption. Colombian designer Mercedes Salazar chose raffia to weave a colourful animal universe, while artisans from Bassano del Grappa used ribbon ceramic to create a series of baskets in unprecedented colours.
The exchange between geographies, ancient knowledge, and materials is enriched with a selection of naturally woven vintage objects curated by Francesca Sarti. A refined and light-hearted table set shone in a window display in the heart of Milan, in the 5Vie District—setting and mise-en-place by luxury catering company Mimosa Milano.
New convivial rituals by Orografie
Centrino by Elena Salmistraro x Orografie – Photo by Orografie.
At the Design Variations platform and group exhibition, the young Sicilian design company Orografie presented a brand-new collection inspired by the new rituals of conviviality. Among the new pieces was Centrino by Elena Salmistraro. The decorative and multifunctional aspects address two significant demands of modern design: fostering a sense of connection and offering small gestures of daily beauty to our living environments.
Pane e Vino by Francesca Lanzavecchia x Orografie – Photo by Orografie.
Pane e Vino, Bread and Wine, by Francesca Lanzavecchia, is a table totem, a whole that makes up a figure in its parts. It works when unfolded on the banquet table. It is a part of the whole, but also a whole made up of parts that speak of the communal dimension of the most intimate act of exchange man has ever been able to create, that of sharing nourishment for body and spirit.
Google’s multisensorial experience
Photos by Edoardo Delille & Giulia Piermartiri, courtesy of Google.
With the Making Sense of Color exhibition, Google and Chromasonic research lab invited visitors on a multisensorial journey. What do colours taste like? A section of the exhibition showed that colour can taste like an association of colours, like the sweet tinge of lemon in limoncello or the flower-steeped water, a summer beverage.
Colour can also have the flavour of a gathering of loved ones on a long table, with all the favourite coloured items from each seated member, from black placemats and blue glasses to green candles and the new white Pixel Fold [Read more].
Gunjan Gupta’s vernacular Indian supermarket
Photos courtesy of 5Vie Design District.
With the Indian Tiny Mega Store project, Gunjan Gupta brought to Milan the conviviality, ambience, perfumes, and colours of typical Indian supermarkets. At the 5Vie Design District’s headquarters, the Indian designer created an exquisite installation curated by Maria Cristina Didero, which featured beautifully crafted everyday objects.
At the Indian Tiny Mega Store, guests were surrounded by enchanting perfumes, delightful music, and soft Indian moods. Amidst this unique ambience, the audience discovered a limited offering of only 21 copies across a carefully curated selection of 21 products available for purchase within the tiny exhibition space [Read more].
Riches to Rags installation by Markus Benesch – Photo by Eugenio Novajra, courtesy of 5VIE.
