During Milano Design Week 2024 the Isola district returns with the 8th edition of its Design Festival, now with the theme This Future is Currently Unavailable. This year over 320 studios, international designers, creative talents and producers will enliven over 60 locations and 3 hubs with exhibitions, installations, events, workshops, performances and talks.
The 3 nerve centers of the Isola Design Festival will be Lampo Milano, WAO PL7 and Stecca 3.0: with the first location the festival expands its neighborhood boundaries to arrive as far as Scalo Farini. Lampo Milano, a project of urban regeneration on an area of 40,000 sqm in a historic rail yard, will host two main exhibitions:
- Isola Design Gallery celebrates collectible design and features an installation with panels and materials in polycarbonate by Polypiù. Inside the show, there is also a section called ENHANCE – Design for Social Impact, to focus on design initiatives whose goal is to have a positive impact on our society.
- Is One Life Enough? will present a selection of collectible pieces and products for the market made with sustainable materials and circular methods. Part of the show will be devoted to Colab, the first materials library created in the United Arab Emirates.
There will also be over 30 designers based in the Netherlands at the Dutch Corner, supported by the Consulate General of the Netherlands in Milan and curated by Wisse Trooster.
At the location it will be possible to visit the Isola Design Store and a special space for talks and panel discussions: created in collaboration with L’Essenziale Studio and HeyCrates, the store welcomes visitors who can purchase design pieces, magazines and many other items from the community of designer/exhibitors of Isola. Studio Iammi, on the other hand, renews its collaboration with the district by designing not only a backdrop for talks and panel discussions, but also an installation titled LIKE A ROCK. Inside the new WAO PL7 (Via Luigi Porro Lambertenghi 7), a coworking space, Isola will create a hub with various areas for exhibitions and installations. The underground parking area of the location will be converted as a workspace, to welcome Disclosure: Design Studios Unveiled, in which various design firms will recreate their ateliers on a temporary basis to reveal their creative processes.
In front of WAO PL7, inside Galleria Bonelli (Via Luigi Porro Lambertenghi 6), Isola brings two exhibitions presented during the events in the Middle East in 2023:
- Anatolia, the exhibition focusing on the major crossroads of ancient civilizations, co-curated with Grob; the participants are designers and studios from the Middle East, North Africa, Turkey and Asia.
- Routes to Roots, on the other hand, is a voyage through design from the Middle East and North Africa, and from places where design can bridge the gap between tradition and innovation.
The third hub of Isola, Stecca 3.0, will host exhibitions, talks and workshops within the overall theme Crafting Dialogues. Here visitors will find:
- New Store, presented by Nieuwe Instituut of Rotterdam, a selection of objects to rethink consumerism, challenging the traditional concept of the product and exploring alternative forms of trade, for regeneration instead of extraction.
- The Bravery Bar, a gathering place to stimulate dialogue between communities. A true cultural and educational event based on a joint project involving 21 design schools and presented by IAAD together with Accademia Italiana and SAE Institute.
- On the upper level, with curating by Matteo Ragni and Giulio Iacchetti, the exhibition Between Us explores the theme of dialogue through design exercises, scale models and objects that shed light on values like justice and peace.
Besides this selection, in the 3 hubs and around the entire district Isola will present installations, exhibitions and events in collaboration with institutions, schools, collectives and design studios. Isola Design District will activate a network of sites, bringing together various realities in the field of not just design but also innovation, sustainability and crafts.
