Every April Milan comes alive with a cavalcade of colour, energy and movement as designers, manufacturers and fashion houses collaborate to showcase their latest trends and conceptual pieces at the world’s largest, most celebrated furniture and design fair, the Milan Furniture Fair.
Corporate Culture and Cult’s Managing Director, Richard Munao, gives us the lowdown on the top design trends for 2012 and how to inject a little timeless design into our everyday interiors.
Every year style gurus scour the Milan Furniture Fair (MFF) for the latest trends in interiors for the coming season. However good design should never be trend driven.
There’s no substitute for the ability of a single designer piece in the right setting to effortlessly transform your space. And while you might be hesitant about the higher price tag, carefully choosing the perfect designer piece will actually save you money.
Because great design is timeless, your interiors can look as fresh in the future as it does today – and that means you won’t have to spend money refreshing you interior look as cheaper, trend driven pieces fall out of fashion. Indeed, your initial investment may actually appreciate in value over the years as designs become more rare.
So what key pieces are destined to become design classics at this year’s MFF?
At work, it’s clear that workspaces are becoming less formal as traditional meeting spaces are replaced with comfortable, casual areas where we can network and recharge as well as get the job done.
This was reflected in Milan this year by stand out concepts by Ineke Hans and Cecile Manz. Hans’ Smallroom for Offecct offers a new take on the traditional meeting room with the creation of reconfigurable seating/working/lounging possibilities for up to three people.
More like a sitting room than a formal workroom, each unit features a high back and side panels for a feeling of privacy without isolating users from others. A playfully clever low arm panel can be rearranged to provide a simple arm rest, a platform for a laptop or writing, and a magazine/paper holder. It could even be used as a interior plant holder.
Similarly, minuscule by award winning Danish designer Cecile Manz for Fritz Hansen beautifully demonstrates how informal, understated Scandinavian style can be as equally at home in a work breakout room as a domestic setting.
miniscule combines the traditions of craftsmanship and industrial production. The seat’s curvaceous shell is upholstered and hand stitched in a lightweight yet durable textile and features fine leather detail that follows the contours of the shell. Its base frame is formed from plastic and softened like the curves of a stone washed upon the beach.
The inner upholstery offers a choice of strong colours from rust orange and ocher to a dark ultramarine blue. When combined with a matching lounge table miniscule invites an intimate invite a tete a tete or place to relax and recharge – a formal chair for an informal setting.
But my favourite piece from the Fair would have to be the CH33 originally designed in 1957 by Hans J Wegner for Carl Hansen. While every year in Milan we see thousands of new chair designs released, all with their own place in the market, I’m always left wondering, “How many chairs do we actually need?
I love the idea of going back into the archives and producing a piece that transcends time. The CH33 is as relevant today as it was over 50 years ago.
Designed and crafted to stand the test of time – that is, thinking and living sustainably for the present and the future – it’s an exceptionally comfortable and versatile and beautifully designed chair that, despite its light appearance, is extremely stable.
If I had to give one recommendation on a classic designer piece to purchase that will never go out of fashion, will always be on trend, and will seamlessly fit most interior environments, the CH33 chair would be it.
