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Milan Design Week 2017: Everything Is Connected

The showcase of Norwegian craft and design is always a highlight of the Ventura Lambrate design district during Salone del Mobile. The team behind 2016’s exhibition, Structure, comprised Klubben, DOGA, Norwegian Crafts and Jotun, and they have come together again to create Everything Is Connected, curated by designer and interior architect Katrin Greiling, and designed by Norwegian-Italian studio Kråkvik & D’Orazio. (Nomad, above, is by Gilles & Cecilie.)

The Dwell bench, by Bergen-based Vera & Kyte, is inspired by the symmetry, simplicity and order of Shaker design, expressed through a contemporary lacquered wood construction.

Sara Wright Polmar created these shelf-drawer hybrids in which to display and store small objects by playing with the scale of a classic matchbox. Each Matchbox comprises a stained ash box with a folded steel sleeve.

Norwegian Notes is a collection of perfumed objects created by Oslo-based Kaja Dahl for use in residential and retail environments. Each one uses scent-infused cast wax to bring the aroma of the great Norwegian outdoors – rose root, pinewood and juniper berry – inside.

Oslo-based Noidoi is a partnership between Katherine Lønstad and Cosmin Cioroiu, who met while studying in Copenhagen, Denmark. The pair created Bror for Everything is Connected – a series of three hand-blown glass containers based on the iconic 18th-century potpourri bowls made by the Gjøvik Glass Factory.

Named after industrial designer Jonas Stokke’s favorite Norwegian island, found in the Oslo fjord, Tjøme is a formal dining chair inspired by the more casual typography of garden furniture and is constructed by local boat builders.

This incredible faceted vessel is made of blown, ground, sandblasted and polished glass by glassblower and artist Kari Mølstad. Her work is inspired by the Norwegian landscape that surrounds Lillehammer where she is based – this piece, which looks like it could have been carved from wood, references local woodland landscapes in particular.

Combining wheel-thrown clay with hand-turned wood in a series of vessels, the Make collection is named after a Norwegian word which describes the way in which two similar things fit together. It was created as a result of a collaboration between Per Tore Barmen and Siri Brekke who also exhibited at Structure last year.

Interdisciplinary artist Anette Krogstad explores the boundaries between art and craft with this series of wall-mounted ceramic plates and bowls. Entitled Another Season, the collection features glazes that reflect the variation within the Norwegian natural environment and weather systems.

Sketch for a Tapestry by Kiyoshi Yamamoto is exactly what the title suggests – an experiment in materials, form and texture composed in preparation for a textile work that has become a sculptural piece in its own right.

Moa Håkansson’s abstract ceramic objects explore the symbiotic relationship between our personalities and the objects we choose to surround ourselves with. Trängd is a series of anthropomorphic and playful ceramics exploring whether an emotional role remains once the function has been removed.

Finally, Silje Nesdal created the Allen Wood collection as an extension to the wooden platters she showed at 2016’s Structure exhibition. Working with a local wood turner, she created the series comprising five bowls that reference the full range of her influences from Finland to Japan.

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.