10 books to read this summer
From botany to post-punk, from the craft revolution to an all-picture fanzine-like book to Ursula Le Guin, Compasso d’Oro winner Emanuele Quinz has picked out for Domus the ten key readings of the moment.
Farewell to Issey Miyake, creator of “clothes for freedom”
From the Domus archive, the refflections that the great Japanese designer shared with us in the years of the explosion of his ‘Pleats Please’ collections.
The Spider Duetto (first digitally) reinterpreted by Garage Italia is now real (and hybrid)
From a rendering made during lockdown comes a restored car created in collaboration with exceptional partners, including Poltrona Frau.
Gijs Bakker and his GB Chair for Karakter
Interview with the Dutch master, now in his eighties, pioneer of contemporary jewelry, visionary author of timeless masterpieces. Such as his armchair, which is a manifesto of both comfort and production efficiency.
A history of Acrilica: Joe Colombo turned a technical marvel into an aesthetic thrill
Designed together with his brother Gianni, it takes its name from methacrylate. What we commonly call plexiglass was used for this lamp in a way never been seen before.
When haute couture masquerades
At the latest Balenciaga fashion show, the first 38 looks wore an inky full-face helmet. But the “masquerade runaway” counts other important references in the history of fashion.
Unknown Unknowns: guide to the 23rd Triennale Milano
From the main exhibition to the international pavilions, via the Portal of Mysteries and the Il Corridoio Rosso, here is what to see at the international exhibition, which will be open until December, but is worth a visit now.
Illy’s love for art, design and… Matteo Thun
The poster created by Thun for the Barcolana is just the latest chapter in the story linking illycaffè and creativity that started a long time ago and whose path even crossed with the Bauhaus.
When Italian design was science fiction
What are Joe Colombo and Vico Magistretti doing in Space: 1999? In the Sixties and Seventies sci-fi sets, from the most expensive TV series to the cheapest of B-movies, were furnished with the icons of Italian design, which at the time looked as something coming straight from the future.
Using graphic design to narrate the territory: Langhe in a formidable tourist novel
Half guidebook and half novel, Impossible Langhe is a travel notebook populated by stories of men and women, in which the Turin-based graphic design studio Undesign combines local culture with the contemporary.
The evolution of outdoor furniture
From the 1930s to the 1970s, a journey through the projects of designers for outdoor living: light, colorful and transportable furniture that become toys.
Renault 5 Diamant, a concept car winking at luxury furniture
The ’72 French utilitarian “supercar” is reborn as an unprecedented electric car with a restyling signed by Pierre Gonalons and great attention to the interiors.
How design can turn us into better eaters
Imagine a food-centered kitchen designed to eat more healthily and sustainably: it’s called GRO* and it’s a concept by Electrolux. We had the chance to talk about it with Simon Bradford, the company’s Chief Design Officer.