REVIEW – MILAN DESIGN WEEK 2023: ALCOVA
The talents are out!

Founded by Valentina Ciuffi (Studio Vedèt) and Joseph Grima (Space Caviar) in 2018, the Alcova design platform has now established itself as a permanent fixture at Milan's Fuorisalone. Here you can not only discover young design talents and exciting projects that, with a few exceptions, are not very commercial but all the more experimental. The special charm of the event is above all the constantly changing locations, which are often abandoned and part of the city's architectural history. This year, the organisers scored a real coup with the former slaughterhouse "Ex Macello" at Porta Vittoria. On the huge, wildly green open-air site and in the dilapidated (industrial) buildings, visitors wandered between archaic ceramic objects, shining glass sweets, surprising basket creations, tiny bowls made of volcanic earth and a fountain from which Negroni actually gushed on the opening day. This year there were projects by over 90 designers on show - here are our highlights!

Hee Choi and Myung Nyun Kim from Ae Office are actually from Seoul, but they have been living in Berlin since last summer and have moved into a studio in Schöneberg. The two South Koreans work mainly as industrial designers, but craft is a matter close to their hearts. With their works, they tell stories that are always located in local contexts. For example, Hee Choi and Myung Nyun Kim spent two years on the South Korean volcanic island of Jeju to immerse themselves in the local pottery craft and to work with local craftsmen. The 40-piece collection of ceramic bowls that emerged from this cooperation, inspired by typical water containers of the region, they showed in Alcova - side by side with objects made of blackened cork. The "Dol" collection is intended as a stool or side table and is reminiscent of the basalt stone walls that can be found everywhere on Jeju Island, according to the designers.

Studio Thier & van Daalen showed that a run-down industrial building can indeed have poetic qualities with their presentation in Alcova's spacious Project Space. Iris van Daalen and Ruben Thier studied at the Design Acedemy Eindhoven and have been working in lighting design for some time. In doing so, they oscillate seemingly effortlessly between industrial design and handcrafted production in small series. While their Vapour luminaire was on display at the stand of Dutch manufacturer Hollands Licht at the Euroluce lighting fair in Milan, the designer couple presented two collections at Porta Vittoria that are manufactured in the Netherlands and sold in small shops and in their own web shop: The free-blown wall lamp "Bulla", reminiscent of a not-quite-perfectly shaped balloon, and the pendant lamp "Grid". The light is effectively refracted with a ribbed pattern on the underside. All lamps shimmer in strong colours and in nuances of pastel.

Even an alternative exhibition venue like Alcova is increasingly opening up to established companies and designers, as the installation "The Art of Formation" in the Il Cova building showed. Samantha Gallacher from the carpet label Art + Loom and Bea Pernia had joined forces for this. Both work in Miami as interior designers and are building up other business areas in parallel. While Gallacher has been hand-making fitted carpets in Nepal for eight years, Pernia launched her first furniture collection three years ago. Both exhibited in Milan for the first time, venturing into Europe. "Alcova is a venue that is edgy and creative," says Gallacher, who sells her hand-knotted rugs in her own shop in the Miami Design District. Bea Pernia's small furniture collection includes side tables, a sideboard and a chair, all combining wood and marble.

After working in the fashion industry for a few years, Elisa Uberti turned to handicrafts, more specifically ceramics. The Frenchwoman with her own studio in Roubaix showed that this was a pretty good idea in the villa-like entrance building of Alcova. In a small room in La Villetta, a number of spherical, very playful creatures made of clay, wickerwork and partly with fringes had come together - among them lamps and decorative objects that appear very sculptural and harmonise beautifully with each other in their haptic surfaces. In the process, the designer drew inspiration for her designs from a trip to Tansania. "I work very instinctively," says Elisa Uberti. "This results in emotional, sensitive and timeless objects."

A surprising appearance was made by Atelier Luma in Alcova - an offshoot of the Museum Luma Arles, whose focus is on researching and experimenting with biodesign. The exhibition "Bioregional Design Practices" revolved around the idea of bioregions with their own very specific ecosystems and environmental conditions. Atelier Luma showed five installations in Milan that were made from locally available materials such as salt, rice straw and wool in the respective regions. In the process, their own field of experimentation was extended from the immediate surroundings of Arles in southern France to the United Arab Emirates. Here, Atelier Luma collaborated with the Irthi Contemporary Crafts Council - an organisation that aims to preserve and promote local crafts. The result of this creative alliance was on display in the centre of the hall: fine carpets and seat cushions woven from palm fronds. With its (biodesign) research, Atelier Luma pursues the idea that production systems should be broken down in such a way that they adapt to local resources and needs and thus also have an impact on the social fabric of a society.