Milano Design Week 2018 – ENGLISH – events guide – exhibitions – short agenda

This is the ultimate guide in English to Design Week, especially if it’s your first time in Milan. Milan Design Week is the most important worldwide event for enthusiasts and professionals working in product design and interior design. Every year something magical happens in Milan. The streets of some neighborhoods are filled with people from all over the world, converged here to admire strange objects, furniture of the future, ideas of artists and architects become reality. This creates a magic circle, where ideas produce other ideas, and people are positively influenced. This important event is called Design Week, including the Salone del Mobile, a historic furniture fair, and the Fuorisalone, its counterpart born spontaneously from independent design studios and spread throughout the city.

This year the Design Week will begin April 17, 2018 and will end April 22, 2018.

Every year the Design Week sees more than 2,000 exhibitors, with hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over the world who are concentrated in Italy and Milan to take part in events, exhibitions and presentations. When the Salone del Mobile was launched in 1961, its focus was on Italian design of the furniture industry. With the passing of time designers from different countries of the world have entered the fair and the Fuorisalone. Today the Milan Design Week is an internationally renowned event. Reading this guide in English will help you find the most important events that will take place in Milan.
The Fuorisalone today covers the entire city of Milan, but is mainly concentrated in 3 districts or neighborhoods:

• Brera Design District
• Tortona Design District
• Lambrate Design District

The Tortona Design District is one of most important. In this neighborhood every spring the streets of Via Tortona and Via Savona become showcases for displaying objects of product design and fashion design. The streets are crowded with visitors. Important exhibitions take place at BASE, located in the Ansaldo industrial complex, and at SuperStudio. Last year (2017) the main theme of Tortona Design Week was the nomadic living, with traveling structures, smart objects, transportable houses.

DamA as active participant of the Design Week

DamA (Digital Arts & Manufacturing Academy), as an important training center on Manufacturing and Industry 4.0 in Milan and in Italy, participates every year in the Milan Design Week. In different locations it has brought important events and exhibitions on innovation and technology, with a significant media impact. DamA’s exhibitions covered different areas: furniture design, interior design, automotive, fashion design. DamA has actively participated every year in the setting of Tortona Design Week, in many locations, from Via Tortona to Navigli (Corso S. Gottardo). Over the years DamA (Digital Arts & Manufactuing Academy) has presented several experimental projects and innovative concepts derived from our experience in training on Industry 4.0 and the meeting with important internationally renowned designers.

2018 edition: is it possible wear music?

Your ears are unique. And your earphones should be too. At design week 2018 DamA will explore the world of audiophiles combining it with fashion design. Is it possible “wear” music?  DamA will propose totally 3d printed customizable audio systems, called IAR. A way to struck to chord the same way art lovers, fashionistas and audiophiles. Innovative earphones that have been designed to give users untangled freedom and sleek comfort. DamA combines the latest microtechnology with holistic design solutions to give users the power to control and manage their daily digital lifestyle.‬ The perfect fit of earphones is incredibly important. 3d printed product fluid form and material define the ergonomics of both comfort and secure fit. The perfect fit is guaranteed by the 3D scan of the human auricle. Thanks to the 3D scan you have a 3D printed product perfectly matching your ear. Everyone has different tastes, and DamA wants you to embrace and express them.

How to reach us

DamA is located at 19 Corso San Gottardo, Milan. DamA is near Porta Genova Station and Via Savona. It is easy to reach us on foot from the Navigli and Porta Ticinese.

Past editions

In its first edition of the Fuorisalone (2015) DamA in collaboration with his partner 3DiTALY has presented Eggform. Eggform born to satisfy three targets: the first is to create objects with 3D printers larger than the standards; the second is to equip these plastic items with a warm inner core; the third is to allow anyone to organize the design of their own home without being limited by industrial standards.

EGGFORM comes from a specific need: to produce large items at low cost and with a high customization rate, competing with classic architectural and interior design products such as tables, chairs, lamps. The exhibition took place at Opificio 31 of Emporio space, in Via Tortona 31, Milan.  For more info visit Eggform website.

During the Tortona Design Week 2016, at BASE Milano, DamA introduced an experimental course focusing on self-construction, conceived and directed by Paolo Cascone / COdesignLAb. This course, the first in Italy of its kind, reponds to the increasing demand of an educational programme able to bridge advanced design, digital fabrication and self-construction for an ecological architecture. The exhibition was coordinated by course director Paolo Cascone (Architectural Association of London – founder of CodesignLab in Paris and Urban Fablab in Italy). Paolo’s works, built between Europe and Africa, are published on international magazines including Domus, Mark, Abitare, Architecture d’Auhurd-hui, l’Arca, A+U etc. DamA event was supported by several partners, including ABB Robot, ARUP, Formlabs, SIAM.

During Tortona Design Week 2017 DamA in Corso San Gottardo 19 (Navigli Area) hosted the “sculpniture” by Arturo Tedeschi called “Fessura“. Fessura is a wall-system which merges sculpture and furniture. Designed by computational designer Arturo Tedeschi (A>T), and fabricated from LegnoCAD , Fessura creates a tridimensional and dynamic effect using high-end details and materials. Despite the seamless appearance, each component has been strategically designed for a modular and easy assembling. Fessura consists of nine modules made by LG Hi Macs solid surface and can be installed on existing walls or in continuity with drywall sheets. For more info visit www.sistemafessura.com 

On this occasion DamA also presented Supernova Vehicles. This project aims to build, with the use of technological solutions, a modular chassis platform consisting of three 2-wheel vehicles’ frames, which promotes riding 2w that are durable, sustainable, customizable, clean and unique. The models are be released in #open source.

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