Material poetry

After a great debut at the Fabbrica del Vapore in 2014, Hands on Design does it again with a fine exhibition in a historic mansion at Via Rossini 3. #MDW2016

The collection of the brand created by the two designers/entrepreneurs Kaori Shiina and Riccardo Nardi has added new pieces for Milan Design Week 2016.

It is displayed in a new shop opened in the Porta Venezia area a couple of months ago, in a historic mansion at Via Rossini 3 designed by Paolo Ortelli in part for students and artists gravitating around the Brera Academy, it has become a hive of restoration/artists’ workshops and fashion and design ateliers.

The mission of Hands on Design, Artisans + Designers – as summed up in the name – is to link the complex and motley world of artisan production and fine craft workshops to a select group of designers keen to work with traditional techniques, humanity and skills. The exchange of knowhow works two ways, of course, because the artisans need to broaden their – not just formal – horizons and outlook on design to absorb the technical and cultural stimuli that will secure them alternative market outlets.

The collection embraces an eclectic mix of materials, from wood to felt, glass and wrought iron. The pieces that best illustrate the type and variety of this year’s collection include the Cadcam tableware in strongly geometric designs by Minale Maeda and made of Yoshidayaki porcelain; and the Upon lamp by Ilaria Marelli, composed of two wooden pieces that can be moved to alter the lighting effect and produced using the old Kumico technique of slotting pieces of hardwood together.

Fiori di Filo by Laudani Romanelli is a flower holder in copper wire woven with a technique much admired in Japan for more than 1000 years (and traditionally used to construct kitchen utensils) and the Ovarin stool in fragrant Swiss pine, designed by Giulio Iacchetti and produced/assembled by Haute Material with a natural felt seat hand-crafted by Tumar in the Kyrgyz Republic using traditional nomadic skills.