A locksmith on Bethnal Green Road, London

http://www.waternetwork.co.za/projects/play-pump.html

This as a project that gives play equipment a second function. As the children play they are pumping drinking water to a storage tank, how ingenious.

Week before the Fair

I did my usual checks to make sure that my hotel and flights were all booked and OK, and realised that I had booked both for a day too early, after a £60 change of flight charge I was back on track to fly out on Wednesday the 18th April.

With a 4.30am alarm call, the drive to Gatwick at that ungodly hour was uneventful and the airport was unusually efficient with very little queuing. I was lucky to the get one of the 3 front row seats with the extra leg room (I’m 6″5`), and for those who know me well, it will come as no surprise that I was asleep before some people had even boarded!!!

As we taxied on the runway, I was rudely awakened by a commotion at the back of the plane, someone had stood up or something, took very little notice and went happily back to sleep.

After a nice nap that lasted almost all the way to Milan, I awoke slightly better rested. On the bus from the plane to the terminal the Captain joined us, and he was duly interrogated about the person that had caused the commotion, and why he had to be restrained and handcuffed to the seat, with police waiting for him on the runway.  He gave very little away, except that this was the 6th time they had trying to deport him back to Italy, and the disturbance was his way of trying to be removed from the flight again.

Day 1

The Fair

For those who have never been or heard of Fuori Saloni (Milan Furniture Fair), it’s in the new Milan Fair Rho Pero and it`s one of the largest shows world-wide with 8 large pavilions for indoor exhibitions and 60,000m for outdoor exhibitions space. The Milan Fair is one of the most important in the international trade fair sectors, full of the best (and some of the worst) design products you will find anywhere. Here are my picks of the good, the bad and the downright ugly…

The Good

Desalto

Alternative

TAO design

Jab

Arper

45 Kilo

Dots design studio

deCafe

Lights made with used coffee beans

IED MAD+BCN

Herb garden made with an old bed frame and plastic bottles

Snaidero

MK

The Bad

…and The Ugly

Day 2

With the fair done, it`s now the time for the satellite shows dotted around Milan city. With 367 organised exhibitions from front rooms, to large warehouses not to mention all the other unofficial Street sides shows. The hippest area traditionally being Tortona.

Following another day walking for 12 hours: here’s the best of what I found.

Valcucine & DeMode

Full circle designed kitchen, made with mostly recycled materials. Once it has finished it’s life as a kitchen, Valcucine will collect it and recycle it, free of charge

Austrian Design

Agape

  L’Invisibile

The best thing at Milan, an almost invisible electrical door… it’s amazing when you see detail working so well…

Molteni & C

  Resident

Blackbody

Day 3

Woke up to painful calf muscles, following 2 solid days of pounding the fair and streets of Milan. Another good breakfast and back to Tortona to see the rest of what I missed the night before. It’s unfortunate that the area has lost its edge. The big companies have moved in and are trying to piggy back on the coolness of the previous years. But this is the best of what I found there.

Chimere

spoil your pets

Saazs

Glass which are a heaters or that change from clear to sandblasted. Neat.

With a new area having started in the north of Milan, I worked my way up to Via Ventura; this new frontier was full of the best that Milan can offer, and the coolest young designers around.

Wendy Maarten

Designer to look out for in the future – Gregg Parsell

http://www.greggparsell.co.uk

This vehicle was built by François Knorreck. Although his real job is technician in an hospital at Saint-Etienne in France, he spends all his free time to build, manufacture, modify and tune motorbikes. He spent 10000 hours of hard work, more than 10 years from time to time in the garage and about 15000 Euros to create this vehicle. Wonderful “hobby”!

Das Park Hotel located in Linz, Austria is an idea by Andreas Strauss who came up with redesigning and actually using sewer pipes as hotel rooms. Each room is equipped with lights, double bed, hut sleeping bags and electronic code lock to ensure safety of your luggage. The hotel complex has toilets, showers, a mini bar and cafeteria and the rest of the services such as electricity are purchased with ‘pay as you go’ system.

Now to be honest, I had thought that this stone fad had passed us by and it was sailing downstream with arched floor lamps on a seagrass carpet. I remember when Minotti Cucine released their Porhyr Viola flame textured stone kitchen; it made my eyes water. But after I had got over the price issue, I actually liked it. A lot.

Still do. I guess it is the price point that makes me think that this is more like Art; possibly purchased as a status symbol and to be looked at and not touched. Well, not by the owners anyway. Maybe the association comes from the mid-90′s property-bubble-high and that this type of exuberance is now somewhat limited. Well, Minotti regardless continue the theme to this day, with their latest offerings that are still jaw-dropping show-stoppers.

Is the trend limited to one kitchen company? Of course not; enter stage left TM Italia with their aptly named Petra, recently launched at Grand Designs Live.

Now not only is this technically a great kitchen product, but it also has a vastly more attractive price point. And they offer a completely bespoke service making them high on my supply chain, as they can actually build what I design. Also, their design catalogue actually features fitted projects from clients’ homes, unlike certain Italian suppliers. The normal Modus Operandi is to show products that aren’t in production, wouldn’t work as shown or have been discontinued. What a refreshing change to see products at work. Very happy to say that we are agents for these guys, who after just 10 years in action are the serious new players on the block.

Stone is more traditionally associated with bathrooms and the Italians are at it again. It continues to feature in Zaninelli’s product portfolio, here with a splash of wood:

And the stone bath appears to have had more longevity than anticipated; again here by Zaninelli:

But the 360 range by Altamarea I think noses ahead with these sleek bathroom pieces that merge into living spaces. Like the Minotti & TM Italia kitchens, they challenge our usual perception of the space around us, or our definition of room function:

Or in Carrara Marble below. The idea that bathrooms remain behind closed doors is becoming a bit dated as the boundaries of open planning continue to be pushed.

These are great pieces that would sit well into many schemes, but has stone stood still? Is there no real edginess in the stone products out there? Well, I think Lithea are about as directional as you can get at the minute with this basin Ciuri with their Petra wall cladding. These guys are ahead of the game in my book, and well worth keeping an eye on:

Not only are the basins outlandish, like this version called Dune, but their 3D stone wall cladding of the same name really pushes the boundaries:

So, the question is; has stone grown up? I think so. Long gone are the associations with Neoclassicism and obscenely grandiose variations on the theme (I shall refrain from naming names here; unusual, but I shall). Ushered in are the new stone pieces of Futurism and Minimalism, which I suspect are here to stay. I’m more than happy to get stoned; how about you?

Introducing Phobos from Best Cooker Hoods:

Finally they are here in the UK and are being distributed by Britannia. Also available is Enigma:

Honestly, this has too be about as sexy as an island extractor can get! Also worth a look are the new wall mounted additions Surf and Equinox:

But the plaster versions are on a different level. Hurry; get them specified!