Salon del Mobile - Virtually

I spent some time this afternoon at the Milan Furniture Fair - virtually that is. I found much of the "much hyped" contemporary furniture to be "more of the same." I comfort myself in knowing that virtually I don't have to travel through the miles of corridors of bad Italian stuff that is necessary when you are there in person - but I'm not sure that makes up for missing the dinners in wonderful out of the way places outside of Milan proper. The most interesting thing that I found was the current issue of "The David Report" and I include a quote from that to make us stop and think and put the design business into perspective:

"Why can’t products be allowed to collect memories like
good leather chair, why don’t we accept the patina of
usage like a loved skateboard, when will we accept aging
as life’s rich story, like a prized broach our grandmother
left us, or the lines of our grand father’s face, of a life
well lived!

Whilst our perceived redemption has been our recent
passion for sustainability and energy efficiency, this has
come from the expense of surplus, and for the majority
who remain in a state of abundant denial. We have to
face the fact, that as with climate change, we are at a
tipping point when the equilibrium is lost, and like our
current economic crisis, the currency of good design is
devalued by a tsunami of rapid change when everything
good or bad is submerged and becomes equally contaminated
and loses its relevance."

He too, questions the sheer volume of new chair designs that are annually created for this fair and others around the world. Can our creative energies be better spent?

Robi Renzi shows us how - he has captured the spirit of the times in the above design called Armadiature made of salvaged parts and shown at an exhibition space at the fair. See more images and close-ups at Mocoloco.

The Milan fair has become so important that even the Wall Street Journal has their say on what is hot at the fair this year.