Students at Swiss design school HEAD Genève have created an installation of speculative furniture design depicting a dystopian campsite at Alcova during Milan design week.
Designed by students at the Master of Arts in Interior Architecture (MAIA) at HEAD Genève, the installation was placed in an outbuilding at Villa Bagatti Valsecchi, a 16th-century villa that was one of design showcase Alcova's outposts during this year's Milan design week.
Students from HEAD Genève created an installation of post-apocalyptic furniture at Alcova Milan 2024
Called 2084, Diorama of the Future, the installation comprised a series of furniture making up a nomad camp, with pieces using resistant materials and found objects, with an aesthetic informed ? somewhat ironically ? by Romantic dioramas. Tucked into a dark, plaster-and-wood-lined space in the villa's annexe, the installation was housed in a steel frame that suggested a glass box ? a "vivarium", in the words of the exhibitors.
Much of it was clad in metal
"While 19th-century dioramas presented romanticized visions of exotic natures behind glass screens that detached visitors from their complexities, Diorama of the Future inserts visitors right in front of damaged environments, calling for new ecosystemic actions," said the team.
"Within this large device, students will take on the role of inhabitants of this changing vivarium, whose evolution will problematize the relationship between representation, agency, a...