The curtain has just fallen on Fuorisalone 2024, an event-filled edition packed with special exhibitions and temporary spaces across the city. For one week, the creative energy of designers and brands from all over the world brought Milan to life, occupying palaces, squares, and industrial locations, and enlivening showrooms with product launches as captivating as those at Rho Fiera.
The Most Impressive Light Installations at Fuorisalone Milan 2024
At Fuorisalone 2024, Atmosfera Mag focused on lighting—on emotional installations where light plays a central role or interacts with natural lighting, on emotional rooms where the intangible becomes tangible, and on the most dramatic launches by leading brands. Here is our luminous selection from Design Week 2024.
Google, Making sense of Color
The American giant showcased an immersive installation at Fuorisalone 2024 that played on synesthesia. Titled Making Sense of Color, the exhibit co-created by Ivy Ross, VP of Hardware Design and Chromasonic studio, explores a multisensory experience where each colour hue corresponds to specific smells, sounds, and tactile sensations. The centrepiece of the installation was a spacious room filled with semi-transparent boxes illuminated by neon lights. As visitors moved through the space, their movements activated a sophisticated algorithm, triggering a dynamic interplay of sound and light. This interactive feature produced a captivating array of alienating sensations and constantly evolving colorscapes.
iGuzzini, Light that Moves Time
Designed by Alfonso Femia / AF Design, the temporary installation took over the courtyard of iGuzzini’s Milanese space in Brera, a magnificent 19th-century building by Piermarini. The Primitive Hut was a cone-shaped archaic form, a basic shelter with a central oculus allowing sunlight to enter. Inside, the ancient architectural mood contrasted with new products: the world’s thinnest Filorail track and the Newfo spotlight, a formal tribute to the brand’s first architectural projector created in 1977.
Flos at Palazzo Visconti
A 1988 photograph by Maria Mulas captures a group of people – architects, designers, art critics, journalists – at Palazzo Visconti in Milan; they were there for the unveiling of new Flos‘s collections, including the first lamp designed by the eclectic international designer Philippe Starck for the brand. For Fuorisalone 2024, the brand chose to recreate that magical atmosphere for the debut of its new lamp families and to celebrate significant pieces, most notably the IC family by Michael Anastassiades, which marks its 10th anniversary.
Habits, Cosmo
Designed by Selma Antonellini of Habits Design, the Cosmo lamp intelligently learns and recreates diverse lighting scenarios. Aligned with the studio’s ongoing exploration of the digital world’s influence on daily life, this pendant lamp adeptly detects and analyzes the characteristics of any light source placed beneath it, such as intensity, colour, and movement. It then mirrors these qualities within its surroundings, crafting dynamic lighting scenarios.
Whether emulating the gentle glow of a candle or mimicking the distinctive brightness of a video displaying a stunning sunset, Cosmo adapts seamlessly. Inspired by the enigmatic nature of black holes, the lamp’s design captures and transforms light in new and unexpected ways, enriching its environment.
Wonderglass, Contrasto
Two contrasting pieces, each captivating in its unique language, form, and meaning. On display at the frescoed hall on the ground floor of the Istituto dei Ciechi in Milan were Nendo’s Dusk table lamps, which emulate the sun’s journey from dawn to dusk, and Formafantasma’s Graft suspensions made of blown and cast glass, curated by WonderGlass.
Ingo Maurer, Flowair
Ingo Maurer‘s Flowair featured large inflatable flowers swaying in the wind like those in fields, which came alive in the evening with multicoloured light plays. This installation was a highlight in the courtyard of Base Milano.
Nemo e Davide Groppi: nuovi showroom
During Design Week, notable openings included Davide Groppi‘s new showroom on Via Manzoni. Spanning over 200 square meters across two floors and designed in collaboration with 967arch, this space serves as the new Milanese home for the Piacenza-based brand. The minimalist spaces, designed by subtraction, highlight the products beautifully, particularly the grand Moon suspension light visible from the street windows at dusk.
A different vibe characterizes the Nemo showroom on Corso Monforte. The concept by Giuliano Andrea Dell’Uva is particularly striking at the entrance, where hand-applied green enamels on terracotta by skilled Vietri artisans define the architectural perspectives and double as display stands.
Elica, Extraordinary
The interaction of hot and cold air currents, along with visual and sound effects, filled the courtyard of Palazzo Isimbardi, also playing with natural light. This installation by We+ for Elica and Fondazione Ermanno Casoli was the most photographed spot at Design Week 2024.
Light Years. Arredoluce 100 lamps
Running until May 12, 2024, the exhibition curated by Anty Pansera at FRAGILE, a gallery of historic and contemporary design, celebrates the lighting design company Arredoluce. The display narrates the story of Angelo Lelii, founder of Arredoluce, through various types of lamps—floor, table, ceiling, and wall lamps—showcasing three decades of the lesser-known yet pioneering Italian design enterprise.
Ilti Luce with Massimiliano Locatelli
Inside the construction site of the historic building at Via Senato 13, Massimiliano Locatelli selected ILTI Luce‘s D-Construction Lamps to light up his latest Editions. The space offers an intriguing mix of technical and designer lighting, providing a rare glimpse into an evolving space.
