SALONE INTERNAZIONALE DEL MOBILE – MILAN FURNITURE FAIR
12-17 April 2011
Pavilion 6 Stand E 33

From 12 to 17 April the most important furniture fair in the world will celebrate its fiftieth anniversary in Milan: AIRNOVA is taking part in this event and celebrating its success in the high quality sector. This year the AIRNOVA stand has a new location. Cosmit, the organiser of the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan, has decided to reward the company by moving it from the pavilion in the Modern section to one of the pavilions in the Design section.

This is an acknowledgement of the investments the company has made during the current difficult economic times, which have lead AIRNOVA to complete its product range and innovate modelling but also renew its graphic image and stand design.

AIRNOVA is a craft enterprise specialised in the production of leather and metal chairs for the furnishing sector. Its key features are uncompromised quality, attention to detail, a focus on the exclusivity and uniqueness of forms and production performed entirely in Italy, which guarantees durability and excellent finishes. During the Salone AIRNOVA will present the results of a research project focused on the world of tables: a challenge that lead the company to develop several designs that integrate the extensive collection of chairs in the catalogue and prove the dynamism, desire for growth and vitality of AIRNOVA.

The chair and table pairings are representative of a contemporary lifestyle where function, comfort and durability are only the starting point for a concept of quality whose standards are also based on pleasure and wellbeing. With original designs and precise lines enhanced by select premium materials, AIRNOVA distinguishes itself on the global panorama.

HALLEY table, image courtesy AIRNOVA

TEBE chair, image courtesy AIRNOVA

HALLEY table with TEBE chairs
Design Lino Codato
Design Ian Sabro / Studio Tecnico Airnova

An exclusive table, a minimalist sculpture where functionality and emotion combine and the considerable size of the base complements the lightness of the elliptical top. The statuesque appearance of Halley is softened by the Tebe chair, upholstered in white genuine leather with details in black stitching that complete the design and highlight the upholstery. Matt natural wood and leather: materials for contemporary lines, forms designed for timeless spaces where quality and aesthetics are two sides of the same coin.

CARLOMAGNO table, image courtesy AIRNOVA

PATCHWORK Summer chairs, image courtesy AIRNOVA

CARLOMAGNO table with PATCHWORK Summer chairs
Design Lino Codato
Design Studio Tecnico Airnova

A table with a strong personality and presence that complements sophisticated settings: houses with impressive spaces but also executive offices and meeting rooms. The rectangular top and legs are created in extra light glass. An unexpected burst of colour arrives in the hues of the Patchwork Summer chairs: the upholstery is created from small pieces of leather stitched together in harmoniously paired colours that resemble traditional English quilts.

GEM table, image courtesy AIRNOVA

ALEXIA chairs, image courtesy AIRNOVA

GEM table with ALEXIA chairs
Design Gianni Astolfi and Sergio Mian
Design Studio Tecnico Airnova

The multifaceted cut of the legs and top gives this table reflections that change depending on the light and its position. Its glossy white lacquer finish embodies the dynamism of the design creating unique shimmers. The Gem table is paired with Alexia, a chair that may appear simple but whose precise design highlights its exceptional craftsmanship.

CONTEMPORARY CHARM

ONDA chair, image courtesy AIRNOVA

A selection of products with which AIRNOVA interprets diverse lifestyles,  some of which were designed by young, international designers and others designed to allure with contemporary charm.

ONDA chair
Design Studio Tecnico Airnova

Exclusive processing offers the leather a fresh three-dimensionality, creating a light draping that highlights the quality of the material.

CHLOÉ, image courtesy AIRNOVA

CHLOÉ
Design Must Design

An exquisite and exclusive seat with a wooden frame completely upholstered in soft leather. Available in a chair and lounge chair version.

WM Bookcase, image courtesy AIRNOVA

WM Bookcase
Design Paolo Martinig

Individual, identical lacquered wooden elements are rotated by 180° and joined together, thus creating flexible and dynamic compositions. The design is completed by leather containers that, like drawers, can store papers and small items. Simplicity transforms into movement through graphic design and optical illusions.

LULÙ rocking chair, image courtesy AIRNOVA

LULÙ rocking chair
Design Ewa Bochen and Maciej Jelsky, Kosmos Project

An item that, in our fast-paced world, plays on an old time use: the rocking chair, reinterpreted in a contemporary key thanks to modern materials. The chromed steel frame is distinguished by a wide curve that enables movement. The leather seat is suspended, comfortable and welcoming, perfect for relaxation and contemplation.

JEANNERET armchair, image courtesy AIRNOVA

JEANNERET armchair
Design Robby and Francesca Cantarutti

The seat is built from leather stretched over a chromed steel frame. Inscribed in a perfect cube, it is an architectural experiment where its designers play with the principle of symmetry. A successful synthesis of design and technique, it pays homage to the master of rationalism: Le Corbusier.

CHAISE LONGUE, image courtesy AIRNOVA

CHAISE LONGUE
Design Edy & Paolo Ciani

A carbon fibre base and seat in soft white leather. Artisan leatherwork blended with technology. Sinuous lines appear modelled in a wind tunnel, shaping a seat with the perfection of a sculpture.

CRISS CROSS armchair, image courtesy AIRNOVA

CRISS CROSS armchair
Design Giorgio del Piero

The traditional cantilever armchair reinterpreted in a modern key: the steel structure has a rectangular section; the leather seat has unique forms, highlighted and enhanced by stitching. The back is embellished by a weave that, in addition to creating an interesting play of light, highlights AIRNOVA's production skills.

Social Cave
International Furniture Fair of Milan 2011 (Salone Internazionale del Mobile 2011)
Salone Satellite 50 + 50 – Designing the Future
12th/17th of April, Pav. 22-24, Columbia University Piazza n.5

In celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Furniture Fair of Milan, the Salone Satellite chief curator Marva Griffin invited the architecture and design Research Lab Non-Linear Solutions Unit of Columbia University to develop a small pavilion project in response to the question in what direction is design heading.

The digital age has dissolved traditional spatial conceptions, spawning unlimited potential for global communication networks and redefining privacy and closeness to exclude physical intimacy. By merging physical and virtual space, can design encourage a new platform for interaction?

Envisioning the new frontier of socialization, 24 international students of the Non-Linear Solution Unit directed by Caterina Tiazzoldi , in collaboration with the interaction designer Mirko Arcese (BCAA.it), propose the interactive installation Social Cave. While entering in the 100% recycled foam Cave, visitors are invited to interact with the projected 'shadow' of the visitor beyond the barrier wall, initiating a conversation that transcends traditional digital-physical boundaries.

The official presentation of the project Social Cave will happen in the program DESIGN TALKS on Tuesday, the 12th of April at 03.00 pm.

+ For more information, please visit http://www.arch.columbia.edu/labs/nonlinearsolutions/social-cave-milano

Salone Internazionale del Mobile
12th – 17th April 2011
Hall 20, Stand C01-D02

Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects for MAGIS, TIDE is a modular lightweight shelving system which embodies the transition from the heavy mass of traditional wooden furniture to the minimal thickness of plastic surfaces.

The design refers to geometries and mathematics of minimal surfaces – those which are equally bent in all directions, haveing zero average curvature and the smallest area spanning a given contour.

The design uses the geometrical characteristics of each module to generate a high degree of variation and composition.

Salone Internazionale del Mobile
12th April – 17th April 2011
Fiera Milano exhibition centre, Milan
Hall 7, Stand A27/ A31

Sit down, sit up, lounge, hang, repose, move, work, read, consult or relax, alone or together

This year, Ben van Berkel / UNStudio will present 3 new seating designs at the Salone Internazionale Del Mobile 2011 in Milan: the My Lounge Chair for Walter Knoll, the New Amsterdam Chair for Wilde+Spieth and the SitTable for PROOFF. Ben van Berkel will be present in the Hall 7, Stand A27/ A31, on Tuesday April 12th, between 12.00 and 14.00.

The architect-designer: from spatial effects to hybrid forms

Ben van Berkel and UNStudio practice architecture as a discipline that possesses a wide range of scales and dimensions. Thus, the house, the department store, the railway station, the museum, the temporary installation and the theoretical manifesto are all intricate parts of our oeuvre. However, for the last four years or so, the sofa, the chair, and the table have become integral parts of that broad architectural palette too and are now developing into a family of designs in the classical tradition of the architect-designer.

The architectural approach to furniture is different from that of the industrial designer as the architect begins with the space and the environment that the chair will become a part of. All the details of the chair are considered for their spatial effects. This architectural approach to furniture is connected to a very personal ideology of space.

Ben van Berkel

MY Lounge Chair for Walter Knoll, image courtesy UNStudio | Photo by Walter Knoll

MY Lounge Chair for Walter Knoll, sketch courtesy UNStudio

MY Lounge Chair for Walter Knoll, image courtesy UNStudio | Photo by Walter Knoll

MY Lounge Chair – for Walter Knoll

Extending Ben van Berkel's earlier MYchair into a family of related designs, My Lounge Chair will be presented for the first time at the Walter Knoll stand in Milan. My Lounge Chair continues and extends the formal qualities and spatial effects of the earlier MYchair, with the facet shapes of the chaise longue inspired seat echoed in the curves of the supporting frame.

My Lounge Chair is literally an expansion of the MYchair, both physically and conceptually. An actual stretching of the original chair extends the ‘Coming Home’ concept of relaxation and reflection even further.

Ben van Berkel

The first My Lounge Chair is part of the Walter Knoll 'Black' series and can be seen at the Walter Knoll stand, Hall 7, Stand A27/ A31.

Ben van Berkel will be present at the stand on Tuesday April 12th, between 12.00 and 14.00.

+ Credits for MY Lounge Chair, Walter Knoll, 2011

Client: Walter Knoll
UNStudio: Ben van Berkel, Caroline Bos with Martijn Prins, William de Boer and Machteld Kors
Walter Knoll: Markus Benz, Jurgen Rohm

New Amsterdam Chair for Wilde+Spieth, image courtesy UNStudio | Photo by Inga Powilleit

New Amsterdam Chair for Wilde+Spieth, sketch courtesy UNStudio

New Amsterdam Chair for Wilde+Spieth, image courtesy UNStudio | Photo by Inga Powilleit

New Amsterdam Chair – for Wilde+Spieth

Originally conceived in connection to the New Amsterdam Plein and Pavilion in New York, the New Amsterdam Chair has since been further developed into a multi-purpose chair for use in a wide variety of different settings, both indoors and out. It can be placed at the dining table, in offices or in conference rooms, in the garden or on cafe terraces. The design of the stackable New Amsterdam Chair is based on a continuous, single line which expands into an uninterrupted surface, forming a shell-like cast for the human body.

The human touch is expressed in the organisation of the chair. The New Amsterdam Chair plays with the relationship between the stationary object and the more animate human form.

Ben van Berkel

+ Credits for New Amsterdam Chair, Wilde+Spieth, 2011

Client: Wilde & Spieth
UNStudio: Ben van Berkel,Caroline Bos with Hannes Pfau, Kirsten Hollmann and Hans-Peter Nuenning, Filippo Lodi, Martijn Prins, William de Boer
Wilde & Spieth: Thomas Gerber
Advisors: MCI, Bollinger +Grohmann

SitTable for PROOFF, image courtesy UNStudio | Photo by Roel van Tour and Pim Top

SitTable for PROOFF, sketch courtesy UNStudio

SitTable for PROOFF, image courtesy UNStudio | Photo by Roel van Tour and Pim Top

SitTable – for PROOFF (also visit our earlier story here)

The ‘ready for production’ version of Ben van Berkel / UNStudio's SitTable will also be presented for the first time this year in Milan. The SitTable is designed for the various ways in which people communicate. It refers to and extends the traditional role of the table as a social meeting place and offers a rich mix of qualities and a myriad of possibilities – not only in the context of flexible placement, but also in the many tasks that can simultaneously be carried out at the table, both solitary and social, or a combination of the two.

Through the cross combination of usage possibilities, the SitTable offers a diversity of options for placement. It can be used in libraries, in airport lounges, waiting rooms, schools, as a display surface in exhibitions and shops, and of course in the home.

Ben van Berkel

+ Credits for SitTable , PROOFF, 2010

Client: Prooff
UNStudio: Ben van Berkel, Caroline Bos with Juergen Heinzel, William de Boer and Machteld Kors, Martijn Prins, Daniela Hake
Advisors:
Prooff – Leo Schouten, Tim Orriens, Antoinette Veneman
Arco – Willem van Ast, Jorre van Ast en Roelof Jansen
Jurgen Bey

Exhibtion 'The Tortonas'

Both the prototype for the New Amsterdam Chair and the final design for the SitTable will be displayed at the Exhibition 'The Tortonas' – Tortona 37, at Via Tortona 37.
Press Preview & Wine – Monday April 11th at 14.00 – 19.00.
Ben van Berkel will be present at the press preview.

Light Box by WE architecture, is the 3rd prize proposal for an extension of the existing high school of Falkonergården. The building is a Danish international style complex worthy of preservation. As a result of increasing popularity and the addition of an athletic department, Falkonergården is in high lack of improved gym facilities and a larger assembly hall.

Light Box, image courtesy WE architecture

Light Box, image courtesy WE architecture

One of the most characteristic values of the school is a highly popular pergola which runs along the façade of the existing northern building. Because adding a new hall to the school would reduce the size of the courtyard, architect strived to give additional outdoor space with our building. The Light Box building is pushed half-way down into the ground in order for the roof to blend in as an extension of the existing pergola. This provides a spacious elevated terrace with increased exposure to the sun.

Light Box, render courtesy WE architecture

Light Box - Sectional diagram, drawing courtesy WE architecture

In order to adjust to the different height requirements of the different sports fields and to ensure appropriate lighting in the hall, WE architecture created an ivy covered light box which is penetrates through the roof. The ceiling of the Light Box can be regulated in different ways in order to accommodate the various uses of the hall.

Light Box - Site plan, drawing courtesy WE architecture

Light Box - Floor plan, drawing courtesy WE architecture

+ Project credits / data

Project: Light Box
Location: Frediriksberg, Denmark
Architect: WE architecture | http://www.we-a.dk/
Typology: Education

+ All images and drawings courtesy WE architecture

+ Recommended extension of school projects featured on +MOOD

Extension of Eichi Centre Niederglatt Multifunctional Double Sports Halls | L3P Architekten

Aarhus Gymnastics and Motor Skills Hall | C. F. Møller Architects

Milan International Furniture Show
April 12-17, 2011
Pavilion 12, stand C16

Area Declic celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of Milan International Furniture Show with its forty-eight years of uninterrupted participation to the exhibition. Area Declic, in fact, is a brand of ARRMET, historical Friulian Company operating, since the sixties, within the Chair District of Manzano (Udine) and the first one to join the Milan initiative.

FLORA COMPOSITION, image courtesy of Area Declic

Area Declic presents the exhibition with many new features: a series of new products, the result of a process design undertaken through the collaboration with young designers and the awarding of the winners of ONLY FOR WOMEN, International Design Awards now at its third edition.

Then, on Sunday, April 17, 2011 at stand Area Declic at 3 p.m., the winners of the competition will be awarded.

Please note that ONLY FOR WOMEN is a competition dedicated exclusively to professional women operating in the world of Design and, in addition to money, it offers a real opportunity to join the team of designers Area Declic, which annually puts the projects submitted into production.

New AREA DECLIC products

This year we will present FLORA, designed by Donatella Santangelo: a cockpit-shaped chair characterized by tubular steel frame covered with an innovative technical three-dimensional honeycomb fabric, also suitable for outdoor use. It is a project of the second edition of ONLY FOR WOMEN.

Another novelty is the integration of MAXÒ, designed by Robby Cantarutti and Francesca Petricich and historical piece made by rotational technique; now supplemented by a central element that allows the infinite aggregation at an angle. VASÒ, designed by Vincenzo Genco, is a module that acts as a container or coffee table, yet changing the possibility of composition of the program.

MIXX, image courtesy of Area Declic

Finally MIXX, designed by Matthias Demacker, a chair characterized by the seat composed of three elements of different colours. Upholstered foam, it is mounted on a steel structure or swivelling stand. A number of features which lends itself to use: a waiting room, around a table at home, restaurant or office, in a hotel room.

An important realization

The Design, protagonist of the proposals by Area Declic, is a reality in which the company strongly believes and continues with a group of young designers, one of which is Matthias Demacker, who found one of the first speakers in Area Declic. From the fruitful collaboration was born the FORMULA that, interpreted in different materials, has found success culminated with the decor of the Cultural Center Gabriela Mistral in Santiago, Chile.

MIXX, image courtesy of Area Declic

MIXX, image courtesy of Area Declic

MIXX
Design Matthias Demacker

Seat composed of three elements of different colours. Upholstered foam, it is mounted on a steel structure or swivelling stand. A number of features which lends itself to use.
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MAXO, image courtesy of Area Declic

MAXO’
Modular seatings design Cantarutti e Petricich

Made by rotational technique; now supplemented by a central element that allows the infinite aggregation at an angle. Suitable for in door and out door.
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MAXO VASO COMPOSITION, image courtesy of Area Declic

VASO’
Multifuctional module design Vincenzo Genco

The Maxò family is completed by multifuctional module: it is bookshelve, vase, coffee table, magazine rack, pouf at the same time.
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KNIT KNOT armchair, image courtesy of Area Declic

KNIT KNOT, image courtesy of Area Declic

KNIT KNOT
Chair with armrest design Alessandra Pasetti

A new knit knotted covering made of waterprouf rope is fixed to the metal structure. Suitable for in door and out door.
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FORMULA SLED LOUNGE + POUF, image courtesy of Area Declic

FORMULA
Design Matthias Demacker

The geometric design, a feature of the line, adapts to different materials and accessories requested by contract sector. It is a FORMULA that permits a coherent image, comfortable and contemporary.

Formula60 pouf
padded on one side, laminated layered on the other, it serves both as a foot-rest and small table.

Formula80 adj poly -tech
structure and saet are interchangeble.

Formula40 poly-tech bench
Modular system for waiting rooms.

Formula40 x-foot fabric
The structure and the seats are avalaible in every of the finishings we propose.

Formula40 sled poly-plus
Conference chair with hook and folding table. Avaiable in poly-plus or upholstered.

Formula40 4G poly-tech
Stackable chair sutable for indoor outdoor.

Formula40 sled fabric
Upholstered chair avaiable on sled, x-foot, four legs metal stucture.

IN/OUT
Chair design Luca Di Matto and Paolo Quaglia

Metal structure interweaved with cord. Avaiable also as a louge chair, is suitable for in door and out door