smow in Milan: “off-Salone” Part 1

After 3 days at the Milan exhibition centre we’re giving it a miss today and spending the whole day “off-Salone”

Currently enjoying the splendid hospitality in the Zona Tortona press room and will try to ignore the film crew next to us who are working on “The First Design Movie” – coming to specialist film shop near you in September and try to order our thoughts from the first part of our tour.

Photogrphing through windows - it's not as easy as it looks. Very early by Dejane Kabiljo in Milan

We were up and about early, far to early for most designers but that didn’ stop us making a small discovery in the Via Savona – a “book shelf” system from Austrian designer Dejane Kabiljo. And yes the shelves and bookends are made from books. This is the second “book shelf” system we have seen recently, the other being by Not Tom. But what appeals to us about Kabiljo’s system is that it is an infinitely expandable and inter-changaable system. Ideally both designers should allow the use of your own old books to create a truly personal system for your personal library.

The Design Library in Milan

Which leads us nicely to our next stop – a library. Sometimes it’s almost as if we plan this.  Via Savona 11 is home to Italy’s first design library. In  a wonderfully, typically italian backyard the various partners involved have established a wonderful oasis of calm with wide selection of design orientated books and magazines. Although the majority are obviously in Italian there is a good selection of non-italian texts – and a lot of the books are in any case photo based.  And so for any one with an interest in design who is planning coming to Milan at any time of the year, the library offers a wonderful opportunity to discover, re-discover. compare and remain updated. And there is a small cafe for a refreshment before you head back out on your tour.

Mitochondria Chaise Longue by John A. Harris

Shortly after leaving the sanctuary of th library we stumbled somewhat unexpectedly on British designer John A. Harris‘s exhibition. Harris is one of those designers whose work we would love to buy – only, large wood furniture is just not our thing and so with the best of intentions we simply can’t justify buying it. But the quality of the craftsmanship is second to none and now that we have finally seen his new Chaise Longue “Mitochondria” we can confirm that it is huge, very well supported and if you are a fan of full wood furniture well worth a look.

British furniture maker John A. Harris at a Spontono from Moormann.

What did impress us – and thanks to our insatiable irony amused us – was that the master of solid wood furniture should be sitting at Spontono by Jakob Gebert for Nils Holger Moormann.

Spontono is very stable, but a wafer thin mint in comparison to Harris’s chunky, trucker chocolate furniture.

Genius.

The film crew have moved on, and so must we. We will keep you updated.