April 5, 2019
7 Releases We’re Excited to See at Salone del Mobile
The 58th edition of the Salone del Mobile is a veritable menagerie of furnishings.
Hella Jongerius plays with the archetypal couch form, draping it in a fabric woven from eight colored yarns in two thicknesses. VITRA Courtesy the designer and manufacturer
Who—or what—will we meet at this year’s Salone del Mobile, the 58th installment of the furniture fair in Milan? As designers meet increasingly stringent performance and sustainability requirements, to say nothing of ever more complex programs (a social club in an office, an office in a home), they’ve also begun to embrace personality in the objects they create. This is a moment not for systems furniture but of an almost zoological individualism. Look to Hella Jongerius’s Vlinder Sofa for Vitra, previewed last year and officially debuting at Milan this season. It’s a classic couch in a cozy sweater: offbeat, charismatic, casual, like a stylish hippopotamus. While the annual event promises innovative designs that push the industry forward in a serious manner, it’s good to remember that designing in ways both daring and critical can coexist with having fun. As the following page shows, there are lizards, round-winged birds, and three-legged bugs, if you only look for them.
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