Lake Como Design Festival 2024 celebrates 'Lightness’

Lake Como Design Festival 2024, Villa del Grumello - Courtesy of LCDF.

Villa del Grumello – All photos are courtesy of Lake Como Design Festival 2024.

Design. Lightness, the fil rouge of Lake Como Design Festival 2024, “can be expressed in countless forms and can find its reason for being in all the different realms of creativity,” explains Lorenzo Butti, creator and artistic director of LCDW. The event also offers the chance to visit a medieval palazzo, forgotten chapels, a Renaissance villa, and a stunning 19th-century conservatory.

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Tribute to Ico Parisi at Villa del Grumello – Photo by Nicolò Panzeri.

The festival’s fulcrum is Villa del Grumello, a stunning Renaissance architecture studded in a private park and garden with breathtaking views of Lake Como [Map]. In the central hall, you can discover a showcase paying homage to architect Ico Parisi, which features some of his light and poetic pieces: a blue carpet designed for Amini and a Murano glass vase on a crystal and rosewood coffee table.

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Also on display are Andrea Branzi’s light architectural vessels made from a sheet of ivory-hued cellulose pulp and Mario Trimarchi’s gravity-defying pieces, which combine marble and glass. Murano glassware by Mano in Mano from the Spinzi Collection dialogues with serene lake views. The villa’s dock becomes the starting point for an ideal journey with the Paesaggi d’Acqua—Water landscapes—installation curated by Niccolò Nessi and Stefano Larotonda.

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The park surrounding Villa del Grumello is full of surprises. Walk along the Chilometro della Conoscenza, an inspiring path connecting 15 hectares of lake-view parks dotted with chapels, greenhouses, and lemon houses. Here, Maria Gennaro curated a design selection that blends traditional craftsmanship with technology, arcane forms and innovation.

Alice Pilastre, Mathilde Tinturier and Andy Farrow at Chilometro della Conoscenza – Photo by Margherita Bonetti.

Alice Pilastre, Mathilde Tinturier and Andy Farrow created a site-specific jewel-like installation made from tree branches, metal and porcelain that seems to float weightlessly in mid-air. Inspired by the delicate art of balancing eggs, Studio Yellowdot reimagined the humble egg holder as a symphony of movement and grace.

Studio Yellowdot at Chilometro della Conoscenza – Photo by Margherita Bonetti.

The 19th-century conservatory Serra del Grumello hosts a temporary restaurant curated by Michelin-starred chef Samuel Carugati. The restaurant features lights and furniture by FENIX®, Pedrali, and Davide Groppi.

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Head to Como city centre for more design exhibitions. At Palazzo del Broletto in Como’s main square [Map], The Form of Lightness exhibition offers a 1924-2024 design journey through 28 lightness-imbued epic chairs by design masters from Cini Boeri and Tomu Katayanagi’s cutting-edge Ghost armchair to Gio Ponti’s Superleggera, the famed ‘super-light’ icon designed for Cassina, but also seats by Mario Botta, Eileen Gray, Vico Magistretti, Alberto Meda, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Verner Panton and more.

Exhibiton at Palazzo del Broletto – Photo by Nicolò Panzeri.

Lake Como Design Festival 2024 opens to the public the doors of San Pietro in Atrio [Map], a deconsecrated church dating back to the 13th century. Here, the Lightness on Paper exhibition interprets the theme of lightness through ancient engraving techniques with prints by Michele De Lucchi, Natalie du Pasquier, Franco Raggi, Formafantasma, and more. The display was created in collaboration with local publishing company Lithos.

Exhibiton at San Pietro in Atrio – Photo by Nicolò Panzeri.

Not far, at Spazio Natta [Map], designer Erlands and glass artist Bai Bai present the 8 Days of Lightness exhibition, bringing to life a collection of organic objects for meditative and self-observation training. Their EB WeightLight collectible objects invite the transformation of inner awareness into bodily movement through active impulse. The designers perform holistic rituals within the space.

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At Borgovico33 space [Map], Swiss gallery Grieder Contemporary presents the lightness-imbued art of acclaimed German artist Jorinde Voigt. The venue’s stunning architecture frames large-scale drawings integrating text and collage to create dynamic compositions and ethereal sculptures of intricate brass wires and chains.

Jorinde Voigt x Grieder Contemporary gallery at Borgovico33 – Photo by Nicolò Panzeri.

At Villa Anna, just outside Como [Map], the gallery presents lightweight objects that seem to defy gravity, photographs that capture fleeting moments of brightness, and installations that playfully challenge the perception of space and size.