Milan 09: More about Moroso in Milan - alongside a range of furniture by Swedish designers Front (see our previous story), the Italian brand will launch two new collections by Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola at the furniture fair next month.
Fergana (above and below) is a modular sofa system that can be assembled around a central table.
The wooden frame supports large cushions, covered with fabrics that combine ancient weaving techniques from Uzbekistan with European manufacturing techniques.
The Rift collection (below) includes two sofas, an armchair and tub chair.
It was inspired by tectonic plate movements and rift valleys.
In addition, Urquiola conceived of an event on the theme of Africa, co-ordinated by American designer Stephen Burks, which will take place at Moroso’s Milan showroom during the fair.
She has also collaborated with Italian designer Martino Berghinz to design the Mososo stand at the furniture fair.
Here's the press release from Moroso, in English this time:
--
MOROSO AT THE FURNITURE FAIR 2009: a preview
Moroso brings a range of major new products to the Milan Furniture Show this year. As always, the new designs exhibit diverse sources of inspiration, which Moroso elaborates through its work with the designers.
The basic concepts for this year’s show are lightness and playing with images – things are not always exactly what they seem – and a study of forms, colours and fabrics: super sophisticated, high-tech and new.
The concept of appearances emerges clearly in the work of an all-women group of young Swedish designers, FRONT, whose range of seating, sofas and armchairs is the first work they have done for Moroso.
The collection makes a striking use of photographic images, an interweave of draped fabric and a photo of flying cushions, that are printed on a high-quality velvet used to cover two sofas and an armchair. The range is rounded off with a low table and a carpet with a picture of reflections of light and shadow ideally originating from a slightly open window, unseen, elsewhere. Therefore the creative process does not start from the product’s form but from a picture of that form. The work is centred around the manufacturing process, from design to finished product, in which the choice of photos and their processing are vital elements.
Echoes of nature, an effect of lightness and ethereality are the characteristics of Tokujin Yoshioka’s new products, which he describes thus: “This new product for Moroso brings to mind clouds in the sky or water flowing, of which we all have a mental vision”. He then adds a detail which explains the choice of the very unusual fabric: “I wanted to convey the texture of a material in nature through an industrial product”.
Material research is, again, a key element in Patricia Urquiola’s “Fergana” collection, whose fabrics combine ancient weaving techniques from Uzbekistan with European industrial manufacturing techniques. The collection is made up of an exceptionally comfortable, large-sized modular sofa which can become a monobloc with an incorporated table. Another interesting option is the bookcase which can be included in the monobloc. The frame is made entirely of wood. The sofa is not intended to be placed against a wall but as an island, which is the way Uzbek seating is traditionally arranged. Large cushions on the seat make the sofa particularly comfortable and snug.
Patricia Urquiola’s second design was inspired by rift valleys, hence the collection’s name, RIFT. The range includes two sofas, Aden Sofa and Afar Rift, plus Rift Armchair and Rift Chair. Just like tectonic plates, which diverge, collide and overlap, creating several layers, the Rift sofas and chairs convey, in a highly unusual way, an effect of a sliding movement and asymmetric fusion.
Another important new feature this year is an idea by Patrizia Moroso centred around Africa, with an off-show event in Moroso’s Milan showroom in Via Pontaccio, where different artistic forms are used to explore a new, contemporary idea of the continent’s beauty and force. Co-ordinated by African-American designer Stephen Burks, artists, designers, manufacturers, architects and other African creative artists will produce floor or wall installations of hand-made objects and furnishings. By creating an “expressive happening”, African contemporary art becomes a source of inspiration for interior design. “Don’t expect any ethnic-chic moods or products,” says Patrizia Moroso, “Africa is much more than that!”.
Wordwild colours, fabrics and atmospheres will also inspire the firm’s Show stand, designed by Patricia Urquiola and Martino Berghinz for Moroso.
See all our stories from Milan in our special MIlan 2009