Milan 2019 – Doppia Firma 2019 featured 19 works and small-scale series developed by contemporary designers such as Patricia Urquiola, Maarten de Celaeur, Masquespacio and more who teamed up with European master artisans. Each collection is the result of a creative exchange where project culture and expertise are cross-fertilised in an authentic expression of regional excellence.
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Doppia Firma 2019 was promoted by the Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship in collaboration with the Fondazione Cologni dei Mestieri d’Arteand Living – the Corriere della Sera magazine for interiors, design and lifestyle. Several of the works were commissioned specifically for the showcase, while others were sourced by the project’s partners.
The Doppia Firma designers went beyond the borders of their country in search of extraordinary artisans. In some cases, designers and artisans from the same country connected – or reconnected – with each other in pursuit of creative innovation. Each of the works speaks to the inclusive and borderless language of talent and craftsmanship across Europe and beyond.
Brussels-based designer Maarten de Ceulaer created a totemic lampshade in collaboration with Belgian stain-glass manufacturer Atelier Mestdagh “I wanted to highlight the craft process through design. Glass is blown into a hot bubble that is then cut into flat stripes which are joined together to create patterns. This design brings stain glass back to its original three dimensional shape,” says the designer to Archipanic.
Japanese designer Masayuki Kajiwara teamed with Swiss Atelier Öi to create a playful story of an intimate relation between a liquid content and a glass container. “The structure, made up of different layers of glass, represents a frozen moment of a liquid state,” say at Atelier Öi to Archipanic.
Masquespacio is a Spanish studio known for its colorful imprint. For Doppia Firma 2019 they teamed up with Italian terracotta flooring manufacturer Poggi Ugo to create a set of handmade terracotta flower vases, according to artisanal techniques. “Paying homage to a traditional monochromatic material meant that we had to focus on volumes rather than colours. And the result is an architecturally vibrant collection,” says Christophe Penasse of Masquespacio to Archipanic.
Milan-based designer Patricia Urquiola and Bottega Ghianda created a set of trays with organic shapes, interpreted with the colours and natural hues of wood and shades of blue. Creating a solid form from layered wood, the shape of the trays was modelled using a subtraction method.
The Beverly hand crafted chest was designed and produced by French designer Emmanuel Babled and the Portuguese foundation FRESS – Fundação Ricardo do Espírito Santo Silva which protects and promotes Portuguese decorative arts and handicrafts within the residency program Passo Ao Futuro.curated by . Handcrafted from different woods, the furniture features a hand-carved unique surface design and suggests a mystery to be solved. Four legs made of copper give to the cabinet a fresh and sleek look.
London-based designer Tomás Alonso created a bespoke bar set comprising a grooved tray and a smooth, cylindrical carafe handmade in fine silver by the artisans of the Wiener Silber Manufactur. The four tumblers and the ice cube-dish are crafted by the Viennese company J. & L. Lobmeyr. All the items have a corrugated bottom to correspond to the grooves on the tray. The design is completed by grooved silver tongs for the ice-cubes.
Vito Nesta and San Patrignano design lab gave an artistic twist to on a screen. The Italian designer reinvented different materials, by which the artisans of San Patrignano crafted the metal structure and painted by hand the decorative pattern animated by ‘Cloudy’ watercolour-like splashes on both sides.
All photos: courtesy of Doppia Firma 2019.
RELATED STORIES: read more about Milan Design week 2019 on Archipanic…
