Ikea Obegränsad Turntable and 9 More Standouts From Milan Design Week

After two pandemic disruptions Year, Furniture FairOne of the most respected design fairs in the world returns to IRL this week in Milan, Italy. WIRED travels to stands, booths and exhibitions to find the most interesting new products, designs and designers. Salone del Mobile is an absolute melting pot of creative talent – think CES, but for the world of interior design – as household names global brands and aspiring design graduates present their ideas side by side in the Italian sun, via pop-up The window changed the city. Tough show! But the show is known for forming opinions and driving design trends. That’s what caught our attention.

ikea infinite turntable

Proving that the vinyl revolution has reached far beyond the audiophile listening room, this turntable – whose name means “infinity” in Swedish – was designed in conjunction with the electronic music giant Swedish House Mafia. Details are still scarce, but the chunky design will feature Bluetooth connectivity as well as analog connectors. Thankfully, it comes with cartridges from trusted brand Audio Technica, which should boost performance beyond bog standards and ensure your records don’t break, as often happens with cheap needles. The turntable will be available in the fall, along with a range of other music-oriented creations, including a table designed for placing music production kits. $TBD from IKEA.

CEA Designs Abaco Modular Bathroom

Please stop making jokes about prison toilets, because this is a very innovative modular bathroom system from Italian company CEA Designs. By combining drain, flush and bidet functions with optional units with shower heads, screens, washbasins and faucets, the idea is that, by bringing all the pieces together in one space (neatly hidden within the unit), It becomes easier to install as a bathroom space. Made entirely from infinitely recyclable and hygienic stainless steel, this wear-resistant design features stylish integrated lighting on the floor, as well as rear-mounted LEDs that illuminate the walls it sits on. Price upon request CEA design.

Simon Schmitz Lighting DIA Lamp

Based in Hamburg, Germany, Simon Schmitz creates modern sculptural lighting that is both functional and performative. This balance is best reflected in the monolithic DIA floor lamp. This striking 1.8m tall anodised aluminium, steel and glass tower features two powerful 3000K LEDs that can be tailored to the ambience you want to create, acting as a downlight, floodlight or both There is. Inside the glass tube, two red steel cables conduct electricity between the two LEDs, while also providing structural support for the entire design. When the lights are on, the top-mounted cooling elements appear to float in mid-air. $TBD from Simon Schmitz.

3D printed krill made of lemons design homewares

Last year, we came across Italian design studio Krill, which launched Ohmie, fully compostable lamps, each made from the peel of three juicy Sicilian oranges. The discarded peel is added to a biopolymer matrix derived from plant starch, which can then be used for 3D printing. Not content with using just one citrus fruit, however, the company has now adapted its material to use Mediterranean lemons. The first three items made of bright yellow biopolymer are magazine racks, wall clocks, and of course, a fruit bowl. Not forgetting its orange origins, Krill has also added two other items to its Ribera collection: methoda totem modular desk organizer, and hide, a vase with a concave opening that makes the inserted flower stem seem to disappear.Not only do these products look and smell appealing (yes, each product has the natural aroma of the fruit from which it was made), each product offsets about a kilo of carbon dioxide₂. $68 (€65) and up Krill Design.

Pierre Murot U1 Wall Lamp

Pierre Murot is an industrial designer, graduated from ENSCI-Les Ateliers and École Boulle in Paris. His work explores new ways of working with oft-forgotten natural materials, repurposing them in unique and contemporary ways. At the salon, he presented a project that looked for innovative ways to use clay, adapting the hand-extrusion process to create modern functional objects.His initial research project took place on-site in a traditional clay brick factory in the Dordogne region of France, and he has produced a series of works, including these deceptively simple, richly textured LED wall lamps, and a series of modular storage units, Reminds us of my student days, using scaffolding planks and breeze blocks to build shelves, though a lot of more courses. $TBD from Pierre Muro

Cyril Zakrzewski Noise Sideboard

Many of the products on show at Salone 2022 tried to use recycled plastic to make something beautiful. Some efforts have been more successful than others, such as this piece by Polish designer Cyryl Zakrzewski, who believes that “plastic should now be considered a luxury material”. Looking more like a topology map than a piece of living room furniture, Zakrzewski’s 6-foot-long Noise sideboard is made entirely from recycled plastic and CNC-milled to create its signature corrugated panels.Part of the designer’s Continuum collection, synthetic materials – in plastica Polish collective has created its own factory syringes and machines for efficient small-scale plastic recycling – designed to look like natural stone until you get close and the true nature of sideboard construction becomes apparent. $TBD from Cyril Zakrzewski

Prostoria Rostrum and Sabot sofa

Modularity is the big news at the show, with countless brands launching products that can be tweaked, adapted, expanded and upgraded to suit your needs and space. Apart from the Abaco bathroom (see above), we were impressed with the work of the Slovenian furniture brand Prostoria.Working with Benjamin Hubert Floor Design agency, the company has created two modular sofas – Rostrum and Sabot – both of which can be configured for home and workplace, especially the middle grey area that the WFH revolution has brought us. In addition to being able to scale sofas to fit your space, they can be outfitted with accessories such as power elements, height-adjustable side tables, poufs, planters, and even screen dividers to create a booth. $TBD from Prostoria

La Pavoni Cellini Evolution coffee machine

While we all love the time-saving simplicity of a modern bean-to-cup coffee maker’s touchscreen, it’s hard not to be captivated by the unmistakably analog appeal of this all-Italian La Pavoni coffee maker. The Cellini Evoluzione weighs 66 pounds and features two boilers, combining professional-quality components in one home machine, with a splendid dial (redesigned and upgraded on this new version) and acres of high-grade stainless steel. We first saw the new machine backstage at the Smeg booth (which acquired La Pavoni in 2019), and can confirm that this new version is priced to rival the likes of Rocket Espresso and La Marzocco. From $2,464 (£2,000) SMEG

Baku circle, rectangle, square

With a light touch, Baku Sakashita’s pieces focus on the importance of handcrafted form, where naturalistic shapes and materials blend effortlessly with modern functionality. His latest lighting project, three wirelessly charging portable lights, is sleek, sculptural and tactile, with bulbs, wireless charging coils and electronics buried deep inside. They are subtle, practical and creative – three touchstones that are often missed when combining art and technology. $TBD from standard studio

Menger dining table

Georg Mengel is a table and chair designer in Copenhagen, but before that, his master’s degree in engineering put him in the cement industry. Not surprisingly, he sees concrete as a versatile material that is underutilized outside of architecture. So he set out to create concrete furniture inspired by modernist classics as well as Danish and Japanese design traditions. The problem is that the resulting fragments are too heavy.

Menger used his engineering skills to experiment with cement reinforced with carbon fiber and alkali-resistant glass fiber to create stronger, thinner floors with less concrete. As a result, his 7.8-foot dining table weighs 220 pounds, compared to 550 pounds if made from traditional materials. “Materials used were kept to a minimum and the footprint-to-impact ratio was minimal,” Menger said. “It also allows the parts to be shipped as flat packs, taking up minimal space during transport.” Price upon request M3ng3l.