"Could joined-up thinking finally be breaking out in Milan""
Opinion: three years ago Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs wrote an impassioned article complaining about the frustrations of visiting Milan during its annual design week. This year he found more to smile about. Here's his take on the 2016 fair.
Milan sorts itself out
As a design capital, Milan has long been frustratingly reluctant to redesign itself. While rival metropoli have invested in making themselves more liveable, Milan stuck obstinately with the gritty, traffic-choked model of the industrial dinosaurs. This, together with an apparent lack of concern for the hordes of visitors to the city, made it a nightmare to visit (read my infamous 2013 rant about the frustrations of negotiating the city during design week).
However last year's Milan Expo 2015 triggered a wide range of overdue improvements, including a general sprucing up and a number of traffic calming and pedestrianisation schemes. The city's BikeMi cycle-sharing scheme has been expanded and the congestion-charging initiative introduced in 2012 has helped make the city centre less of a war zone. Like much of Italy, Milan has also been curiously resistant to interesting new architecture, but with OMA's Fondazione Prada it finally has a world-class contemporary public building.
As creative director, Urquiola has refreshed Cassina's back catalogue of classics such as the Utrecht chair by Gerrit Rietvelt
It's perhaps no coincidence that they all have strong personalities in charge of their creative direction...
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Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2010 by Jean Nouvel |
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