Okuda San Miguel x NOROO Group, installation at Tortona Rocks 2024 – Courtesy of NOROO Group.

Design—Archipanic Media Partnered with Tortona Rocks, the cutting-edge design destination on Tortona Street, the post-industrial cradle of Milan Design Week. This year, the platform proved that sustainable design can go along with fun. How come? We asked Alessandra Salici, Project Manager of Tortona Rocks 2024.

• RELATED STORIES: Read more about Milan Design Week 2024 on Archipanic.

POP Pottery of Puglia @ the Autentico exhibition, Tortona Rock 2024.

Sustainability is an overrated word at Milan Design Week. Still, despite the green-washing, it produces a gigantic amount of waste. What does Tortona Rock do about it?

“Last year, we managed to reduce our waste to a mere 1.398 kg, with an impressive 94% of it being upcycled and reused for new products. We also introduced our innovative Waste-Less program, urging exhibitors to minimise their use of single-use materials. During the design week, our partners diligently inspected all installations, identifying materials that could be repurposed.”

AQUA installation by StudioPepe x Archiproducts Milano – Photo via IG by@archiproducts_milano.

This year’s overarching theme was ‘Prelude’ – How did you develop this concept?

“We borrowed this musical term to address the values of chorality, multidisciplinarity, and the universality of the design language. In our troubled times, design can act as a detector of new visions and inspirations. It is a prelude to new ideas.”

Courtesy of NOROO Group.

NOROO Group is a leading Korean company at the forefront of sustainability in the colour sector. At Tortona Rocks 2024, it teamed up with visionary Spanish artist OKUDA San Miguel to create a vibrant pavilion where guests could pose, take selfies and enjoy a pop explosion of colour.

Courtesy of NOROO Group.

Sun Appeal, a Swiss company rethinking the role of solar panels, presented an exhibition focusing on solar energy projects by students of the Swiss school SUPSI. Together, they created a solar pavilion to showcase the design potential of solar energy, elevating solar panels to a new level of sensibility and poetry.

Building with the sun exhibition by Sun Appeal – Photo via IG by @tortonarocks.

Ikea, a company that has always kept more than one eye on sustainability, returned to Milan with the 1st exhibition and playground, exploring frequently similar ways we deal with moving out on our own for the first time. 1st as our first flat, first home party, first home romantic dinner and more. A maze led visitors to a space everyone could relate to. 1st as your own space of independence.

1st, exhibition by IKEA – Photo by Archipanic.

Preciosa Lighting combined technology with sustainability with a mesmerising installation inspired by retro gaming and early digital aesthetics. Visitors could venture into an immersive space celebrating the legacy of Bohemian crystal.

Archiproducts curated a special exhibition dedicated to the Italian southern region of Apulia, focusing on sustainability. Affreschi & Affreschi from Lecce presents Handprints, a wallpaper on plaster-based cloth that looks like a wall, designed by Fabio Novembre. From Altamura, Amura presents Lapis, a modular couch designed by Emanuel Gargano and Anton Cristell inspired by pebbles and earth. POP, Pottery of Puglia is a new brand and collaborative design project bringing together six Apulian cities with a long-standing heritage in ceramic craftsmanship. Studio Light Mariano from Corigliano d’Otranto presented luminous craftwork inspired by folkloristic Apulian festivals and church rose windows.

Lapis sofa by Amura @ the Autentico exhibition.

Archiproducts also unveiled the ACQUA interior design project by StudioPepe. The online platform for architects and designers presented a blue-toned apartment with pieces by its partner companies, such as Alcantara, Élitis, Davide Groppi, Door, Lodes, Natuzzi, and more.

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All photos courtesy of Tortona Rocks 2024 and the exhibitors, unless stated otherwise.

Studio Light Mariano @ the Autentico exhibition.