Michael Anastassiades’ metallic, egg-shaped Swan Song urn – All photos are by Claudia Zalla, unless stated otherwise, courtesy of Alessi.
Design. Il Tornitore Matto, a pioneering design project by entrepreneur Alberto Alessi and industrial designer Giulio Iacchetti, presents The Last Pot, a collection and exhibition of funeral urns that redefines the idea of the urn by exploring how aspects of memory, space, and time can elevate a simple container into an urn. The project features works by international designers, including David Chipperfield, Michele de Lucchi, Daniel Libeskind, Giulio Iacchetti, EOOS, Mario Tsai, Audrey Large and more.
- RELATED STORIES: Read more about Milan Design Week 2025 on Archipanic.
[su_image_carousel source=”media: 43453,43454″ limit=”0″ slides_style=”minimal” crop=”none” columns=”2″ spacing=”no” captions=”yes” dots=”no” autoplay=”1″ speed=”immediate”]
“In essence, Alessi’s entire journey has been about creating containers,” explained Alberto Alessi. “We’ve crafted them for countless purposes, constantly striving to make them more beautiful, better built and perfectly suited to their intended use. Yet, there was a container we hadn’t explored, a design category that has received little attention: the funereal urn, the vessel meant to hold our ashes.”
Sketch by EOOS.
In 2010, during a dinner at Alberto Alessi’s home, the Austrian design trio EOOS highlighted the natural evolutionary link between the pot and the urn. They suggested creating a collection of urns to hold the ashes of both humans and pets. Fifteen years later, this concept evolved into a collection featuring eleven pieces for humans and six for animals.
[su_image_carousel source=”media: 43456,43459″ limit=”0″ slides_style=”minimal” crop=”none” columns=”2″ spacing=”no” captions=”yes” dots=”no” autoplay=”1″ speed=”immediate”]
The Last Pot includes symbolic items with mythological references, such as Michael Anastassiades‘s egg-shaped Swan Song urn and David Chipperfield‘s exploration of neutrality and balance in Tacet. Additionally, it features Philippe Starck’s THE LAST SPOT, a minimalist souvenir of self, and BONE TO BONE, a pet urn with a straightforward message: let’s get straight to the essence of things.
BONE TO BONE by Justice & Philippe Starck – Courtesy of the Starcks.
Mario Tsai created a book-shaped urn intentionally called Hidden in Life. Daniel Libeskind’s Khora urn was conceived as an object of meditation. Giulio Iacchetti‘s Teardrop and Mini Teardrop were designed to be tilted and hugged. Michele De Lucchi‘s Presenze in Rilievo was imagined as a refuge for absences.
Last Home by Naoto Fukasawa.
From the archetype of a home, or rather the Last Home, designed by Naoto Fukasawa, to EOOS’s stackable Totem urns and finally to Audrey Large’s A Silver Cord, a soft and organic urn-sculpture.
Teardrop by Giulio Iacchetti.
The Last Pot exhibition took place at Biblioteca Ostinata, a small library designed by AMDL CIRCLE near the University of Milan. Studio Giulio Iacchetti designed the intimate and weightless exhibition, which was in collaboration with Abet Laminati.
[su_image_carousel source=”media: 43452,43451″ limit=”0″ slides_style=”minimal” crop=”none” columns=”2″ spacing=”no” captions=”yes” dots=”no” autoplay=”1″ speed=”immediate”]
The Last Post Project is also documented in a book published by Edizioni Corraini. The book includes descriptive texts and sketches of the designs, as well as essays by Alberto Alessi, Giulio Iacchetti, EOOS, and Federica Sala.
A Silver Cord by Audrey Large.
All photos of THE LAST POT project are by Claudia Zalla, unless stated otherwise.
THE LAST POT exhibition in Milan – Photo by Matteo Bellomo.
THE LAST SPOT Jasmine & Philippe Starck – Courtesy of the Starcks.
