Portland design and style reporter Damon Johnstun will cover the 60th edition of Salone del Mobile, the prestigious furnishing and design display, June 7-12 at Fiera Milano Rho in Milan, Italy. The traits and items that debuted during Milan Layout 7 days past calendar year are showing up in showrooms. Right here is a designer highlight:
On the advice of a pal all through Milan Layout Week 2019, I attended an party by the Swiss company Geberit, which would make wall-hung toilet fixtures. I was struck by the inventive screen. Tubes created an enclosure that could conveniently have been a forgettable installation. Competing with the incredibly finest structure in the world, this humble use of products not only elevated the practical experience but was memorable a long time just after viewing it.
The creators of the exhibition are the founders of the architecture, interior and item layout organization Storage Milano. Because 2002, the business has acquired an remarkable track record by building boutiques for main luxurious fashion makes these types of as Bulgari, Dolce & Gabbana, Tod’s and Alberta Ferretti as effectively as corporate and residential areas.
Storage Milano founders Barbara Ghidoni, Marco Donati and Michele Pasini use their understanding and refinement to combine purely natural colours and supplies in unexpected methods. They get inspiration from designers Gio Ponti, Jean Prouve and others, and current modernize, newsworthy spaces.

Storage Milano made the Antonioli hangar in Ibiza.Storage Milano
Sometimes they depart the surrounding environment almost raw, even though creating jewel box-like structures inside the area as noticed in the Bally showroom in Milan and Antonioli hangar in Ibiza. Other times, each and every inch of a undertaking is lavished with wonderful resources these types of as at the Spazio Pritelli boutique in Vicenza exactly where hundreds of sq. ft of diamond-matched slabs of marble create a kaleidoscopic wonderland.
The subtle use of curves with angles is reminiscent of nautical themes at the entrance to Dsquared2 in Milan and the Giuseppe Zanotti store in Hong Kong. Ghidoni, Donati and Pasini show mastery of practically brutal minimalism in stores for Neil Barrett, Aquasalata and Golran.
Throughout Milan Style and design 7 days 2021, I stopped by the Storage Milano business around Piazza Venezia, where I entered from a silent street and was buzzed into the building. I was fulfilled in the courtyard by Donati, one of the partners.
Donati explained Storage Milano’s strategy to reinterpret the DNA of a brand. If the shoppers are inquiring for something moody based mostly on the 1940s–1950s, they do it. “We do it in our way, but we respect the consumer,” explained he. 1 undertaking was motivated by the Novecento Italiano art motion of the 1920s.

Storage Milano created the Dolce & Gabbana boutique.Storage Milano
On a new undertaking, Donati sees his role in the theoretical and architectural arena as Ghidoni excels at specifics and decoration — she took the lead on the Dolce & Gabbana boutique — though Pasini bridges concerning equally realms.
Donati considers form, variety and architecture to decide on resources for every single venture. “If I see some thing that is not a satisfying shape, no matter what the content, I will not like it,” he mentioned.
Even though the company is recognised for considerable use of brass, Donati personally leans toward purely natural wooden and stone. He at present favors colors in a purely natural or neutral palette such as gentle brown as nicely as blacks and grays. He employs bright hues only as accents.
He estimates that 50 percent of the firm’s function is for retail, 30 % is for offices and eating places, and 20 per cent is residential.

Storage Milano made the Bulgari boutique.Storage Milano
They are presently working on the structure of a number of private houses, motels, a restaurant in Mykonos and a person in Milan, a flagship trend shop and power-productive workplaces for Bally in Switzerland. They are also in close proximity to completion of the design and style for Italian eyewear conglomerate Luxottica’s headquarters in Milan’s Tortona district.
Acting as “architects loaned to interior layout tasks,” they will also renovate far more than 20,000 sq. feet for online marketplace Archiproducts’ headquarters in Bari, Italy.
In addition to architecture and inside structure, they have several Industrial structure projects for tiles, lamps, armchairs, faucets and wallpaper.
“One of the key insider secrets of our results is we listen to the shopper. If we feel a thing is completely wrong, we get started a discussion and the discussion constantly makes the job better,” Donati stated. Fantastic design and style “is a harmony in between functionality and type.”
— Damon Johnstun
More Damon Johnstun design and style tales:
• Prime brand furnishing trends: Lavish textures, chunky styles, ‘70s ruching soften challenging edges
• Archiproducts is an on the net style wonderland
• Your dwelling business office deserves a standout contemporary chair intended by Eames, Saarinen, Citterio
• Formafantasma, Rethinking the Foreseeable future
• Designer Antonio Citterio’s guide to modern Italian magnificence
• Minimalist grasp Piero Lissoni is astonishingly funny: Milan Layout Week
• Step into Dimore Studio’s evocative globe: Milan Layout 7 days (photos)
• Quietly classy office chairs arrive household: An interview with Jeannette Altherr
• Hive Modern-day hosts Italian luxurious home furnishings boss Patrizia Moroso
• Christian Lacroix’s Sacha Walckhoff creates carpets for Moooi
• Paris-dependent designer’s exquisite get the job done documented in new guide ‘Joseph Dirand Interior’
• ‘Milan is the funds of design’ states Nina Yashar of Nilufar galleries
• Home furniture impresario Giulio Cappellini in Milan (shots)
• Papilio chair encouraged by swallowtail butterfly: Naoto Fukasawa in Milan
• Fashionable home furnishings influenced by the Mini Cooper: GamFratesi in Milan
• Gallery owner Rossana Orlandi: Starmaker of furnishings designers
• Designer Bethan Laura Wood’s lights motivated by lollipops
• Architect, household furniture designer Vincent Van Duysen: ‘Timeless modernism’
• Lighting designer Michael Anastassiades: Simplicity from complexity
• A $100,000 pool desk: ‘The value for the pursuit of perfection’
• Ferruccio Laviani: Style-obsessed people today know his title, others will soon
• Bisazza interprets iconic Pucci prints in mosaic: Reflecting on Milan layout shows
• A glimpse into Giancarlo Giammetti’s lavish ebook ‘Private’
• Barcelona’s early modernist masterpiece: Mies van der Rohe’s Pavilion
• Baccarat partygoers in Milan taken care of to legendary crystal luxurious
• Self-taught multicultural designer Philippe Nacson invests in a new long run: Style Metropolis
• Design and style 7 days Portland kickoff get together: Nonstop visible wows
• Magritte-impressed boudoir and a nude pink space with a velvet loveseat: Snapshots of a furnishings reasonable