The Best of Superdesign Show 2022

Superdesign Show is the most visited and renowned exhibition which takes place every year at Superstudio Più laterally during the main exhibition - Salone Internazionale del Mobile. Located in Tortona Design District, over 60,000 people visited the exhibition this year. The exhibition is dedicated completely to interactions and promotion of design, art, fashion, technology, entertainment, innovation and to all other fields of contemporaneity bridging gaps between Italy and the rest of the world. Under the supervision of Gisella Bporioli and artistic direction by Giulio Cappellini, the show added buzz to the design capital of the world. 

The theme for the overall exhibit was entitled 'Looking ahead'. A deeper insight into the concept suggests distancing ourselves from the belief that "everything will be as before" and anticipating a future that has to be reformulated in all its expressions, in this fashion, the designers and companies were invited to align themselves with a way of thinking "beyond". 

Here are some exciting exhibitions that caught our attention:

1. Look into Nature by Adal

Known for harmonising landscapes, Adal, a Japanese company presented ‘Look into Nature’. The collection chooses colours and materials to create a closer connection between people and the environment. The German designer Michael Geldmacher has reinterpreted 12 pieces for indoor and outdoor furniture including chairs, chaise longues, tables, sofas, and modular panels which are aimed for comfort and functionality. Furthermore, they are integrated into the environment, creating a continuity between the inside and outside. 

2. Creative Flow by Affreschi&Affreschi 

Ever seen a wall that could roll up and not crumble? The “Creative Flow” is an installation by Affreschi&Affreschi where special handcrafted wallpapers are produced entirely of fresh plaster base that can be rolled up. The mixture is made up of 27 high quality raw materials, among which lime, grains of Carrara marble and Roman Travertine stand out, a mix of natural elements with a long Italian history. A 100% Made in Italy, innovative and environmentally sustainable formula that allows to obtain real painted wall effects.

3. Someone is Lying by Alcantara

"Someone is Lying", a project by Alcantara displays Pinocchio in gigantic size (10 meters in length and 6 meters in height) to seek attention as to what is true and false in the communication when it comes to the topic of safeguarding the planet. The project aims to highlight the growing problem of greenwashing, a practice used primarily by businesses to position themselves as being focused on environmental sustainability but without basing their actions on truthful, scientifically proven and understandable data.

4. AquaSymphony. Discover the Sound of water by Fondazione Biohabitat 

AquaSymphony - Discover the Sound of water is a project by Fondazione Biohabitat and team whose objective is to recreate the magic sounds of the most-hidden rainforests which question the new dimension of water, and simultaneously raise awareness about the importance of biodiversity, while spreading the culture of greenery and environmental sustainability throughout the city. It's a show of rare and unusual tropical plants, along with design elements immersed in a background music where flowing water echoes a lush forest of Sterlizia, banana trees and Jucca. The path ends up into two wet areas: two shower heads, rightly modified, emit heavy rain on two handpans, creating a sound-hypnotic carpet. 

5. Sincronia (Motion responsive luminous arena) by Habits Design Studio

Habits Design Studio, a Milanese multi-disciplinary design firm has presented an installation that investigates the relationship between movement, light and sound entitled 'Sincronia'. The dancers of Kataklò Athletic Dance Theatre and the visitors, dance or move inside the circle-shaped installation which generates luminous traces and sounds resulting in an emotional experience of the product, captured in a human and humanistic key. This has opened ways to create electronic products that can dialogue with the user and that foreshadow a future of emotionally responsive home automation. 

6. Ritual Gesture by Ellesanti®

Laura Santi's Ellesanti® jewels are emotional objects and symbols of vitality. The lightness of the jewels symbolise freedom of the self. For the project, simple geometries are generated and shaped through artistic experimentation and craftsmanship, creating patterns with strong recognition. Ellesanti transforms what is natural or new in a synthesis of shapes with the intent of inspiring timeless beauty. The jewel is a gestual ritual, a combination of design and fashion, perception and expression of the self.

7. Home Switch Home by Haier Europe

Haier Europe 's Home Switch Home is a project dedicated to Smart Home, Internet of Things and artificial intelligence. The purpose is to constantly innovate solutions where appliances and services converge in a connected ecosystem that improves and simplifies the user's daily experience. 

8. HK-UK: Design, Artistry and Craftsmanship by HKF&DA

Project HK-UK: Design, Artistry and Craftsmanship is a creative collaboration programme organised by the Hong Kong Furniture and Decoration Trade Association (HKF&DA) to nurture young design talent and promote industry connections. On display are 18 unique, imaginative pieces that cover local and global themes from architecture, jewellery, calligraphy and poetry to zen and contemporary urban lifestyles. Six HK multidisciplinary designers collaborated with six UK furniture designers, while 40 budding HK designers worked on the same themes with local design and production mentors. This fusion resulted in a coalescence of design creativity and production innovation. 

9. Enjoy by KLAKdesign 

Enjoy is a sinuous and multifunctional bench, designed for conviviality, fitness and meditation and, at the same time, it's an ethereal writing in Plexiglas, in various colours, to be hung on the walls or placed as a piece of furniture. Designed by KLAKdesign, Enjoy is produced in rotational PE and is illuminable. The exhibition concept is an emotional metaphor, in which the Enjoy benches are superimposed brick by brick, to represent the happiness we aspire to, which is built day after day. The words Enjoy, on the other hand, float and surround the visitor, representing the divine gift of joy to be grasped in the universe.

10. Sparks of Tomorrow by Lexus

Sparks of Tomorrow by Lexus is all inspired by the approach towards man and future-orientation. ON/ is the immersive installation by the award-winning architect and designer Germane Barnes illuminated by the suspended lights created by lighting studio Aqua Creations. A three-dimensional scale sculptural rendering of the RZ, Lexus’ first battery-electric model, creates an elegant physical embodiment of electricity that features a visually dynamic and interactive experience for the visitors. Besides, there's another installation part of the same project which introduces six Lexus Design Award 2022 finalists with their original solutions for a better tomorrow, holding to the brand’s three imperatives: anticipate, innovate and engage.

11. Foresta by Maria Cristina Carlini

As you enter the Superdesign show, you are welcomed by the "Forest" Installation by Maria Cristina Carlini. Sections of bare, static tree trunks, up to 3 metres in height, are an invitation to reflect on climate change and the precarious balance of nature. Carlini has long promoted the themes of nature and sustainability, and her installation of reclaimed wood and iron expresses a strong attachment to the environment and the planet.

12. Future by Massimiliano Mandarini

“Future” is an installation by Massimiliano Mandarini, biophilic designer, architect and expert in Sustainability and Environmental Design. It is an ethical, social and environmental-impact project, an itinerant installation where we can learn new models for the future within a hybrid and nomadic context. A space that also serves as a refuge where we can rediscover our psychological and physical well-being, our productivity, creativity and happiness through environmental and biophilic solutions, in harmony with past and future, artifice and nature, indoor and outdoor.

13. Alka by Saces 

Alka is a multisensory pavilion entirely composed of fabric generated by the transformation of seaweed harvested on the Maltese coast and inspired by the structure of marine posidonia, this is the manifesto of Saces, a company composed of architecture and civil engineering students from the University of Malta. The installation explores recycling of seaweeds and their re-use potentials.

14. Resonance Vortex to diversity by Toyo Aluminium

Resonance Vortex to Diversity is an installation by a Japanese design studio called Toyo Aluminium. Inspired by a vortex, coated with CHROMASHINE® pigment. When two qualitatively different states come into contact in nature a vortex is formed. In other words, it may visualise the process where different things meet and fuse together to create new values. By multiplying, a vortex with a pigment that shows various colours depending on the viewing angle, a rich and diversified world is drawn.

15. Sensitive Technology-Driven Future by The Mot Company

The Mot Company, a Tokyo industry leader in the production of carbon fiber reinforced plastic, through a pressure molding system has introduced a new patent that can replace the autoclave production guaranteeing energy savings, waste reduction, time and costs. The result of this process are the "dolls" of the future, inspired by the Dolls, pop sculptures by Flavio Lucchini. They are called Fuzin (the doll of the wind) and Rizin (the doll of light) and are bulwarks of a future that could be guided by sensitive technology. From the interaction between art, industry and social responsibility, new perspectives and solutions are born to manage and solve the critical issues that pandemics, wars and social and environmental upheavals continue to pose.

There are many more fascinating projects from the show, you can find them on our Instagram feed. 

Stay tuned as we bring you more from Milan Design Week 2022.

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