5 unconventional chandeliers at Milan Design Week 2023. Familia by Maximilian Marchesani at Nilufar Gallery – Photo by the designer.

Design – Whether they hang from an Opera House ceiling or majestically shine in ballrooms and mansions, chandeliers are born to be heroes; they are bespoke statement lighting designs with the mission to create awe. At Milan Design Week 2023, even the most classic design piece has been reimagined with contemporary purposes and values. We selected five unconventional chandeliers ready to shine with new powerful messages.

• RELATED STORIES: Read more about Milan Design Week 2023 on Archipanic.

Total blue Venetian chandelier

Le Grand Bleu by iDOGI at Salone del Mobile 2023 – Courtesy of iDOGI.

Renowned for the creation of ‘bespoke’ majestic Venetian art glass chandeliers, luminous sculptures, and furnishings, Venetian company iDOGI presents Le Grand Bleu, a 3,000-piece and 4-metre tall Rezzonico-style Venetian chandelier with an unexpected total-blue look. “The prestigious residences and palaces of our clients often house several generations of the same family, each with their own taste. This is why we created a monochrome Rezzonico in light-blue tones, with a more contemporary character.” iDOGI President Domenico Caminiti told Archipanic.

Sound-tuning luminous diffractions

Saint-Louis has been blowing and cutting chandeliers since the 19th century. This year the French glass manufacturer teamed up with light and sound studio Nonotak to explore the relationship between glass and sound with a choreographed soundscape set in a church cloister. Here, a classic 48-light royal chandelier is hijacked with moving light diffractions animating the piece with a stroboscopic-like effect tuning with music.

Desacralized cascades of light

Desacralized by Galerie Philia – Photo credit Maison Mouton Noir, courtesy of Galerie Philia.

Galerie Philia has challenged international designers to explore the dichotomy/dialogue of heavenly and secular values for the Desacralized exhibition within a former Milanese church. Italian design duo Morghen Studio created Cascades of Light,  a luminous sculptural installation transcending and subliming the iconic significance of historic chandeliers. Read more…

Nature and technology’s precarious balance

Vai o Stai by chandelier – Photo by Maximilian Marchesani.

Nilufar Gallery has presented a solo exhibition of Italian designer Maximilian Marchesani who created post-anthropocentric chandeliers where technology is directly digested by the natural element, which becomes its skin and skeleton. A new and fascinating balance between the natural and the artificial emerges. The Familia chandelier is made from hazel tree branches, electric wires, and parrot plumes; the Vai o Stai designs interweave wires, beech tree branches, human hair, LEDs, and mohair wool.

Suspended bejeweled sculptural lights

Courtesy of Lindsey Adelman.

At Alcova, American designer Lindsey Adelman presents the Soft Opening installation featuring illuminated Mobiles, Cages, and Rock Lights that come together to create a celestial atmosphere set against a dark, otherworldly backdrop within a former abattoir. “The Mobiles–sculptural light works made up of hanging elements based on principles of equilibrium–are very much about the process,” Adelman told Archipanic. Each of the seven Mobiles is made up of three to four pieces chosen from a palette of a dozen different types of precious objects, all crafted, sculpted, or hand-blown in advance.