This year’s Swiss Design Map for Milan, created by the Consulate General of Switzerland and sponsored by the City of Milan will help visitors navigate Helvetic design through 30 addresses at Fuorisalone 2018.
It’s the perfect tool to get to the bottom of Swissness, that feeling of absolute precision and attention to details that has always distinguished Swiss design, especially at Milan’s Salone del Mobile.
Don’t miss a thing, from the project Swiss Loves Design at the exhibit in Palazzo Litta dedicated to emerging talent, to the representatives from the most prestigious Swiss design schools — Lausanne’s ECAL and Geneva’s HEAD — to the companies in the Swiss Design District of Tortona. Closing out the festivities, Swiss and Italian forces unite in a project addressing urban transportation under the name Microlino.
Atelier OÏ
Founded in 1991 by Aurel Aebi, Armand Louis, and Patrick Reymond, Atelier Oï has strived to break the barriers between genres to promote interdisciplinary creativity with an approach falling somewhere between architecture, design, and scenography.
Mastering multiple disciplines with a team effort and an intimate knowledge of materials has allowed the group to create stunning projects recognized around the globe. Through experimentation, cultural exchanges and events dedicated to their works, Atelier Oï has tackled projects for Artemide, B&B Italia, Bulgari, Danese, Foscarini, Moroso, Pringle of Scotland, and Louis Vuitton.
ECAL Lausanne
Internationally praised and regularly present among the top 10 art and design universities in the world, the institute directed by Alexis Georgacopoulos offers six Bachelor’s programs, five Master’s programs, and two Master’s programs for Advanced Studies (Design for Luxury and Craftsmanship & Design Research for Digital Innovation).
This year in Milan, the university will make an appearance with The Future Sausage by Carolien Niebling at the SaloneSatellite, at the Ikea festival, and at the exhibit The Punkt. Urban Mobility Project at Palazzo Litta. Also conducted by the Swiss university, don’t miss the shows in the Elite Hotel and the Elite Gallery in Via Formentini.
HEAD Geneva
Based in the city center, Geneva’s HEAD is one of the most important institutions for art and design in Europe with 700 students coming from over 40 different countries. Teaching methods are varied with specific projects managed by internationally recognized figures established in the field.
The institute will be present in the Brera Design District with the In My Head exhibit: 250 square meters of fantastical creativity in a labyrinth of immersive halls. The heart of the exhibit presents the personal perspectives of twenty students from the Department of Interior Architecture.
GramazioResearch
Fabio Gramazio and Mattias Kohler are both architects with multidisciplinary interests ranging from computerized design to the creation of robots and innovation of materials. In 2000, they founded the architecture studio Gramazio & Kohler, where they’ve dedicated themselves to the research platform Empa NEST, a future workshop for the construction of sustainable buildings.
Opening the first laboratory in the world for robots in the field of architecture at Zurich’s ETH, the duo’s research was informative for digital architecture, creating a new field of research by combining advanced architectural designs with processes of construction through the use of robotics.
Their contribution at this year’s Milan Design Week comes in the form of Reinforce Expose. The inner forms of tomorrow, hosted at the Istituto Svizzero in Via Vecchio Politecnico.
Microlino
Microlino isn’t a car, yet it draws inspiration from the bubble-cars of the 1950’s and combines the advantages of a motorcycle with those of a car.
Designed as the ideal vehicle for daily distances of around 35 km, it can be charged in a normal outlet in just four hours and requires no special charging station.
Thanks to its reduced dimension, the vehicle can be parked facing directly towards the sidewalk, with the door opening towards the front. Using 60% less energy for both production and use, those interested can check out the pre-series at Milano Red in the Swiss Design District. Production is set to begin next summer.
Opening Photo: THE SWISS TOUCH IN 30 ADDRESSES FOR HELVETIC DESIGN AT MILAN’S SALONE DEL MOBILE. PHOTO: ELITE HOTEL BY ECAL, THE PROJECT PRESENTED FOR FUORISALONE 2017
