iGuzzini – Milano Design Week 2023
At MDW 2023, iGuzzini will be presenting Living Vibes: the new light collection designed for living and hospitality settings that gives its name to the installation by Stefano Boeri Interiors. The unique location showcases the products intended to revolutionise the way residential and community spaces are illuminated.
The Recanati-based company brings its heritage of design, culture, research and technical innovation to modern living spaces, adding value and quality by emphasising the connection between the well-being of people and the environment, beauty and technology.
In addition to this impressive and significant project, iGuzzini is involved in other important FuoriSalone events through collaborations with international architects and brands.
“We have once again chosen the international setting of Milano Design Week to present our latest achievement in the company’s path to meet the needs of an ever-changing and diverse society. Since the early 1960s, iGuzzini has recognised the importance of the art of design, and the Living Vibes collection that we are about to preview has a unique value: it blends the formal sophistication of living spaces with superior lighting culture. To illustrate this project at MDW, we relied on the sensitivity of Stefano Boeri Interiors, which was able to beautifully convey our message in an installation that also reflects our commitment to the environment and demonstrates how light – in addition to the spectacular lighting designs by Artec Studio – can be a symbol of connectivity, enhancing people’s quality of life.”
Cristiano Venturini , iGuzzini CEO
Living Vibes | Spazio Blindarte – Via Palermo 11
The project by Stefano Boeri Interiors, together with the lighting design by Artec Studio, enhances one of Milano Design Week’s most distinctive locations: a fascinating 17th-century building that was once a museum, an artistic and cultural centre and is now the Milan headquarters of the Blindarte auction house.
“The installation is a skin, a metal membrane, that interacts with the light projected on the walls, creating different landscapes and an immersive environment with ever-changing lighting effects. The installation project is in line with iGuzzini’s decision to go back to showcasing how light can serve as both an architectural-decorative element and a technical one”
Stefano Boeri, Founder of Stefano Boeri Interiors
“The installation will tell the story of the great design icons who have played a vital role in shaping the company’s history and future”
Giorgio Donà, Founding Partner and Director of Stefano Boeri Interiors.
To highlight the beauty of the spaces, Stefano Boeri Interiors used a metal mesh made of recycled and recyclable materials. The mesh is continuous and enveloping and passes through and covers, like a second skin, the internal volumes of the architecture. Light becomes the focal point, highlighting an evocative path among the products on display and guiding visitors through a sequence of rooms that provide a multimedia sensory experience of light, sound and colour, conceived by Artec Studio.
The concept interprets the key objectives of iGuzzini – design, light culture, sustainability and connectivity – with a specific emphasis on the brand’s latest collection of lighting systems that combine technology and performance to illuminate spaces.
As a result, the location is transformed into an experimental space that conveys the expressive and artistic power of light. The iGuzzini fixtures will guide visitors step by step through the Living Vibes installation to discover the unique features and potential of all the new collections. Intelligent Light solutions and the Jiminy app will enable visitors to receive multimedia content directly on their smartphones while exploring the exhibition.
The tour starts in the entrance hall with an original display that pays homage to the iconic Le Perroquet lamp, designed by Piano Design for the Pompidou Centre in Paris, which greets visitors like a cheerful and colourful flock of parrots.
Upon entering the building, the spectacular project invades the entire space, developing into four interconnected rooms. The Italian Echoes installation welcomes visitors to the first room, which displays reissues from iGuzzini’s historical archive: Polsino by Gio Ponti, Zurigo by Luigi Massoni, Sorella by Harvey, Nitia by Rodolfo Bonetto and Clan by Harvey in its three versions (pendant, floor and table), an object that combines traditional form and typology with modern industrial processes. The audio-visual content presented in the room narrates and highlights the brand’s roots through its collaborations with prominent Italian designers.
iGuzzini has dedicated thirty years of research to the theme of light for architecture, and in 2023 the brand is focusing on light for living and hospitality settings. This led to the creation of Living Vibes, a collection that incorporates cultural heritage, research and engineering experimentation to modernize living spaces.
The Living Vibes project created for the FuoriSalone exhibition in Via Palermo, therefore, also serves as a journey for visitors to discover the new and expanded iGuzzini project. The journey starts in the main hall featuring Libera, the modular and adaptable lighting system designed by Artec Studio that represents a major breakthrough in linear lighting. Artec Studio’s founder, Maurici Gines, also designed the setting that features a combination of lights, shadows and sounds that intertwine and interact with the metal mesh on the wall to generate an immersive environment that leads visitors on an all-encompassing sensory journey to discover Libera.
The lighting of the 200 square metres of Living Vibes in Via Palermo, as well as all the iGuzzini collections, focuses on the theme of sustainability: the fully dimmable installation has been designed to consume only 2.5 Kw/h of energy.
“The lighting design I created for Living Vibes aims to evoke a sense of freedom. It is inspired by intangible elements that do not have a physical shape, such as air, light, shadow, movement, colour and sound. Combining these elements creates an atmosphere that gives the sensation of being in ‘free air,’ like flying through the clouds, Studio. By using self-generative programming, the light emitted by iGuzzini ‘s latest generation RGBW LEDs, which each consume less than 1Kw/h and are pixel-controlled, creates a new experiential skin. The LEDs produce warm, neutral and cold colour sequences that bounce off the walls and pass through the metal skin, generating a phenomenological effect. This is accompanied by atmospheric music: a gift for the senses.”
Maurici Gines , founder of Artec Studio.
The installation continues on the upper floor with a room clad in wood and wire mesh showcasing the Allure outdoor up-down wall light and the Whisper rechargeable battery-operated table lamp.
The audio-visual display on a large screen by Italian director Davide Rapp is amazing, featuring a striking blend of sound and light.
The tour ends on the ground floor, where the BeTwo pendant lights by Alfonso Femia/AF Design form a constellation that transports visitors into another dimension surrounded by interactive and dynamic lighting effects.
Design Re-Evolution Exhibition | Interni, Università La Statale – Via Festa del Perdono 7
Stefano Boeri Interiors also collaborated with iGuzzini on “The Swing,” an Amazon site-specific installation located in the Cortile della Farmacia. iGuzzini, technical sponsor of the project, will be present with Polsino by Gio Ponti and the new Whisper rechargeable battery-operated lamp, which can be purchased directly from the Amazon website using a QR code.
In the same setting of “La Statale” University, iGuzzini’s Underscore inOut and Palco Low Voltage light fixtures will provide illumination during the evening hours for “L’oasi. Microarchitettura,” an installation by Massimo Iosa Ghini in the Cortile d’Onore: a permeable screen of wood and greenery that offers visitors a moment of peace.
iGuzzini also provides lighting for the “Free.dom” installation by Simone Micheli in the Cortile dei Bagni, which explores the concept of freedom of choice within the potential future evolutions of human beings, making available Palco LV projectors to illuminate the display cases.
Other partnerships
BuroMilan has chosen iGuzzini's innovative solutions to illuminate the “Behind the Impossible” exhibition marking the tenth anniversary of the founding of the engineering company, which will be commemorated at the Fonderia Napoleonica Eugenia in Via Genova Thaon Di Revel 21. During the week, iGuzzini will also be exhibiting Polsino by Gio Ponti and Nitia by Rodolfo Bonetto in the boutiques of Giuseppe Zanotti, a high-fashion footwear brand, chosen for the windows of numbers 8 and 22 looking out towards Via Montenapoleone.
To know more about iGuzzini’s presence at Milan Design Week 2023 and to book your visit, click here (hyperlink – https://www.iguzzini.com/iguzzini-at-milan-design-week-2023-living-vibes/)