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Milan 2014: Zona Tortona

Via Tortona was just a sleepy, warehouse-filled neighborhood southwest of Milan’s center, when Italian Vogue art director Flavio Lucchini and photographer Fabrizio Ferri opened photography studios there in 1983. At the time, people thought they were crazy, but the design and fashion worlds followed where they led, and Zona Tortona is now a mainstay of Milan Design Week.

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The Screwtable designed by Andreas Benesser for Krimberg is available in either galvanized or powder-coated metal and simply screws into the ground creating a simple and flexible outdoor table.

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Italian design brand ex.t were showing two products designed by Swedish Note Design Studio – the first was a series of hooks that ex.t says “in material, form and color give a warm atmosphere with a Scandinavian touch.”

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The second was the new table edition of the Fuse Pendant Lamp, first presented at IMM Cologne last year. It’s made of ceramic and the material plays an essential role in the lamp’s tactile and homely qualities.

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Michael Remerich’s Collage won an ex.t competition launched in September 2013, to find a new piece of furniture to be launched in Milan. The product had to be original, well matched with other ex.t products, and easy to produce, ship and pack.

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I loved the delicate lines of this stool by BPR Project.

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Profile by Un-Do Design is simply constructed from four slabs of wood held together with red rope. Un-Do Design is Yasutaka Kimura and Rui Matsuo and all their products are handmade in Japan.

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Finally, Paola Navone was in town launching a new “Afro-Italian” collection to celebrate Linteloo‘s 20th anniversary.

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Katie Treggiden is a purpose-driven journalist, author and, podcaster championing a circular approach to design – because Planet Earth needs better stories. She is also the founder and director of Making Design Circular, a program and membership community for designer-makers who want to join the circular economy. With 20 years' experience in the creative industries, she regularly contributes to publications such as The Guardian, Crafts Magazine and Monocle24 – as well as being Editor at Large for Design Milk. She is currently exploring the question ‘can craft save the world?’ through an emerging body of work that includes her fifth book, Wasted: When Trash Becomes Treasure (Ludion, 2020), and a podcast, Circular with Katie Treggiden.