Six couples of designers investigate the concept of duplicity

Investigating the potential of materials and surfaces starting with the concept of 'double'. This is the challenge that FENIX® – together with the Broadview Holding brands: Arpa®, Formica® and Homapal® – is presenting at the Milan Design Week 2024 (until 21 April). The Design Duo Double Feature project, curated by Federica Sala, involved six pairs of designers who were invited to design furnishing elements with a double use, created by combining FENIX® materials with the group's other surfaces. The products are presented in an (obviously) dual-use set-up – indoor and outdoor – created by the duo of architects Studioboom. The designers selected by curator Federica Sala are con CARA \ DAVIDE, DWA Design Studio, Martinelli Venezia, Næssi Studio, mist-o and Zanellato/Bortotto. With their designs they explore new multifaceted functions playing on transformability, mobility, sustainability and versatility.

“It has always fascinated me how, in architecture and design to a greater extent than in other disciplines, several creative couples are active," says curator Federica Sala. "A creative couple, whether only in their professional life or also in their private life matters little, must necessarily exercise the difficult art of dialogue and mediation in order to be able to synthesise the input of two different heads in a design solution. To show the extreme versatility of FENIX®, alone or combined with other materials, we thought of multiplying the heads involved in the project so as to stimulate lateral thinking and, consequently, dual projects: in form, function, transformation...” The display connects indoor and outdoor space by designing a single white three-dimensional geometry in FENIX®. Developed in height and extension, this important volume enters and exits the showroom windows, guiding the visitor along the exhibition route. The architectural and volumetric attraction of the display frames the creations signed by the six pairs of designers, highlighting – thanks also to the use of white – the designers' choice of colours, their powerful colour combinations and the different tactile properties of the materials.
For FENIX®, Design Duo Double Feature becomes an opportunity to explore, together with Italian and international designers, the product design sector by proposing unexpected uses of materials and novel solutions.