30 April 2012

Spazio Rossana Orlandi

A visit to the Spazio Rossana Orlandi is a welcome and refreshing reprieve from the Milan madness. Alice Blackwood stops by on her last day in the furniture fair city.

The Spazio Rossana Orlandi opened in 2002 in a former tie factory – although to look at it today, ties are the very last thing that come to mind.

The Spazio is a rabbit warren of rooms and multi-levels that are unlocked by the viewer, almost by accident. Stumbling upstairs, rounding corners, accidentally wandering down into the bowels of the building – these are all acceptable forms of discovery at the Spazio.

2 years ago it was talked about as a secret, wonderful, magical destination – today it still is, but the word has obviously caught on, because the Spazio was teeming with visitors on the Friday of the fair.

Every room is a highlight in itself, so here we capture just a handful of some of the beautiful things found…

Damien Langlois-Meurinne for Sé showed 'The Only One' tables with lacquered base and polished fraké wood top.

'The Only One' tables from Sé

Also on show was the ‘Arper’ lounge chair and footrest with texturally rich upholstery by Jaime Hayon.

Arper’ lounge chair

The dappled courtyard – jam-packed with crowds of people happily chatting and sharing coffee – was hung with Bocci’s 38 series chandelier planters – glass-blown lights that appeared like mini terrariums. These lights have proven to be a popular product from the fair this year (judging by the online coverage and blogger re-posts they’ve received in the lead-up and post-Milan).

Bocci’s 38 series chandelier planters

Very fetching was the range of paper accessories from SIWA…

From SIWA

And right next door was a treasure-trove of a room filled with titanium cups from SUSgallery.

From SUSgallery

The glinting metallic hues of these vessels was riveting, each cup finished in a very tactile and distinctive surface texture produced through titanium crystallisation. These varied from ‘mirror’ (a dazzling variety of reflections), ‘matte’ (reminiscent of a pale shade of Japanese ink), ‘sepia’ (containing the lasting impression of a rich brown hue), ‘crystal’ (where light is condensed in crystallisation – a source of brightness in itself), and ‘coloured series’ (which sparkles with an innate shade and hue – like the surface of a bubble).

From SUSgallery

Like large, over-blown bubbles, Nika Zupanc’s aptly named ‘Bubble’ lamps played with the height of his show-space, and hung like ripe fruit above a set of table and chairs. (You may also recognise Nika’s work from Moooi – his 5 O’Clock chair was shown by Moooi in Milan last year).

Nika Zupanc’s ‘Bubble’ lamps

Perhaps the most memorable of all was the Diversity collection by Nacho Carbonell, tucked away in a cellar-like space, at the bottom of a set of stairs.

The shadowy, dank space served to highlight the haunting forms of these cave-like desk spaces with connecting chairs.

Each was finished in a distinctly textural material –broken glass, nails, gravel and more.

It was the most uninviting of spaces, and yet the most riveting…